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Burma i/ˈbɜrmə/, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar i/ˌmjɑːnˈmɑr/ (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, Pyidaunzu Thanmăda Myăma Nainngandaw, pronounced [pjìdà̀uɴzṵ θà̀ɴməda̯ mjəmà nàiɴŋàɴdɔ̀]), is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh and India. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km2 (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 58.8 million people.[6]Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon.[7] In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in 1057, the language and culture of these peoples slowly became dominant in the country. Sometime during this period, Buddhism became the predominant religion of the country. Following the Mongol invasion of Burma in 1287, the kingdom of Pagan fell and a period of control by several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which, for a brief period of time, was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia.[8] The 18th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that includes modern Burma as well as Manipur in India. In the 19th century, following three Anglo-Burmese Wars, Burma was colonized by Britain.British rule brought several enduring social, economic, cultural and administrative changes that completely transformed the once-feudal society. Since independence in 1948, the country has been in one of the longest running civil wars among the country's myriad ethnic groups that remains unresolved. From 1962 to 2011, the country was under military rule and in the process has become one of the least developed nations in the world. The military junta was dissolved in 2011 following a general election in 2010 and a civilian government installed.Burma is a resource rich country. However, since the reformations of 1962, the Burmese economy has become one of the least developed in the world. Burma’s GDP stands at $42.953 billion and grows at an average rate of 2.9% annually – the lowest rate of economic growth in the Greater Mekong Subregion.[9] Among others, the EU, United States and Canada have imposed economic sanctions on Burma.[10] Burma's health care system is one of the worst in the world: The World Health Organization ranked Burma at 190th, the worst performing of all countries.The United Nations and several other organizations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country, including child labour, human trafficking and a lack of freedom of speech.Both Burma as well as Myanmar are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group. Myanmar is considered to be the literary form of the name of the ethnic group, while Burma is derived from Bamar, the colloquial form of the name of the group. Depending on the register used the pronunciation would be "Bama" (pronounced [bəmà]), or "Myamah" (pronounced [mjəmà]). The name "Burma" has been in use in English since the time of British colonial rule.In 1989, the military government officially changed the English translations of many colonial-era names, including the name of the country to "Myanmar". The renaming remains a contested issue.[11] Many opposition groups and countries continue to use Burma because they do not recognize the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country.[12] Various non-Burman ethnic groups choose not to recognise the name because of the association of the term Myanmar with the majority ethnic group, the Bamar, rather than for the country.[13][14][15]Burma continues to be recognized as the official name of the country by several nations, including Australia, Canada, France,[16] the United Kingdom and the United States[17] The United Nations uses Myanmar[18] as do the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the governments of Germany, India, Japan,[19] and Russia.Little is known with certainty about the early history Burma. Cave paintings and a Holocene assemblage in a hunter-gatherer cave site in Padah Lin in Shan State show evidence of an early neolithic culture (circa 10,000 BC).[21][22] Rice cultivation and chicken domestication were being practiced around 2,500 BC, and the production of iron tools dates to around 1500 BC.[23] Of the modern Burmese, the Mon people are thought to have migrated into the lower Irrawaddy valley in around 1500 BC and, by the mid-10th century BC, they were dominant in southern Burma.[24] The Tibeto-Burman speaking Pyu arrived later in the 1st century BC, and established several city states – of which Sri Ksetra (modern Pyay) was the most powerful – in central Irrawaddy valley. The Pyu kingdoms entered a period of rapid decline in early 9th century AD when the powerful kingdom of Nanzhao (in present-day Yunnan) invaded the Irrawaddy valley several times.[edit]Imperial era (1044–1885)Main articles: Pagan Kingdom, Taungoo Dynasty, and Konbaung DynastyPagodas and temples in present-day Bagan, the capital of the Bagan KingdomThe power gap left by the decline of the Pyu kingdoms was filled by the Bamar, a Tibeto-Burman speaking group that migrated to the Irrawaddy Valley from the Kingdom of Nanzhao in the present-day Yunnan. These migrants established the Pagan Kingdom centered in Bagan in 849, which, by the reign of Anawrahta (1044–1077) ruled much of the territory that forms present-day Burma. It was in this period that many elements of modern Burmese culture were cemented. After Anawrahta's capture of the Mon capital of Thaton In 1057, the Bamar adopted Theravada Buddhism from the Mons. The Burmese script was created, based on the Mon script, during the reign of King Kyanzittha (1084–1112). Prosperous from trade, Bagan kings built many magnificent temples and pagodas throughout the country, many of which can still be seen today. The Pagan kingdom ended following the Mongol invasion of Burma by the forces of Kublai Khan in 1277 and the sacking of Bagan in 1286.Between 1287 and 1531, Burma was ruled by several small warring kingdoms. Tai-Shan migrants from Yunnan who arrived with the Mongols ruled the Shan and Kachin hills in Northern Burma. The three brothers, Athinhkaya, Yazathingyan and Thihathu founded Myinsaing Kingdom which devolved into Sagaing Kingdom and Pinya Kingdom. They were united by Ava in 1364. In the western Burma, the Arakan city of Mrauk U was the center of a Rakhine kingdom between 1434 and 1784. Hanthawaddy Kingdom established by King Wareru at Bago controlled most of Lower Burma from 1287 to 1540 while the upper Irrawaddy plains were ruled by Burmanized Shan kings from the city of Ava (near Mandalay) from 1364 until 1487.This period was characterized by constant warfare between Ava and the various other kingdoms. During the reign of Minkhaung I, Ava briefly controlled Rakhine and fought wars of unification with Razadarit led Bago. Under Minyekyawswa, Ava came close to defeating Bago a few times, but could never quite reassemble the lost empire. By the late-15th century, constant war left Ava greatly weakened and its peripheral areas became either independent or autonomous. In 1486, King Minkyinyo of Taungoo broke away from Ava and established a small independent kingdom. In 1527, Mohnyin (Shan: Mong Yang) Shans captured Ava ending the delicate power balance that had existed for nearly two centuries. The Shans would rule Upper Burma until 1555.Burmese-Siamese War of 1548–49. Siam defeated the first Burmese invasion.Despite the wars, this period is considered a golden age for Burmese culture. During the rule of Queen Shin Sawbu (1453–1472) of Bago, the Shwedagon Pagoda, the epicenter of Burmese religion, was raised to its present height. The many pagodas and temples of Mrauk U were built during this period.Reinforced by fleeing Burmans from Ava, the Kingdom of Taungoo under its young, ambitious king Tabinshwehti defeated the more powerful Mon kingdom at Bago and was ruling all of Lower Burma by 1540. Tabinshwehti's successor King Bayinnaung retook Ava from the Shans and went on to conquer a vast swathe of western South East Asia including Manipur (now in India), Mong Mao (Southern Yunnan), the Shan states, the Siamese regions of Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya, and Lan Xang (Laos). However, Bayinnaung's massive empire unravelled soon after his death in 1581. The Siamese recaptured Ayutthaya by 1593 and invaded the Tenasserim region of Lower Burma. The Taungoo capital at Bago was sacked by Rakhine forces aided by Portuguese mercenaries in 1599.The Taungoo King Anaukpetlun regrouped and defeated Rakhine and Portuguese forces in 1611 and reestablished a smaller reconstituted kingdom based in Ava that covered most of Burma excepting the Tenasserim and Arakan (which were under Siamese and Rakhine control respectively). In 1747, the Mons took control of Lower Burma with French and Siamese help and, with the fall of Ava to Mon forces in 1752, the Taungoo dynasty ended.A British 1825 lithograph of Shwedagon Pagoda reveals early British occupation in Burma during the First Anglo-Burmese War.After the fall of Ava, pockets of resistance against Mon rule sprang up across the upper Irrawaddy region and Alaungpaya defeated the Mons establishing the Konbaung Dynasty in Shwebo in 1752.[25] By the time of his death in 1760, the Konbaungs ruled the entire country except the Rakhine. Alaungpaya's successor, Hsinbyushin defeated four Chinese invasions and at the same time, conquered Siamese capital Ayutthaya in 1767 and Manipur in 1770. He also captured Cachar and Jaintia as tributaries. But his victories were short lived. His brother, King Bodawpaya formally annexed Rakhine in 1784 and Manipur in 1813. King Bagyidaw's general Maha Bandula captured the kingdom of Assam (now a part of India) in 1819 and again in 1821 creating the second largest empire in Burmese history. However, the breadth of this empire was short lived and the Konbaungs lost Assam, Manipur, Rakhine State (Arakan) and Tanintharyi (Tenessarim) to the British in 1826 after their defeat in the First Anglo-Burmese War, and, later had to cede Rangoon, Bago, and the Irrawaddy Delta regions to the British after the Second Anglo-Burmese War.King Mindon founded Mandalay in 1859 and made it his capital, skilfully navigating the growing threats posed by the competing interests of Britain and France. However, his successor King Thibaw was largely ineffectual and, in 1885, the British, alarmed by the French conquest of neighbouring Laos, occupied Mandalay and Upper Burma in 1885 after the brief Third Anglo-Burmese War.[edit]Colonial era (1886–1948)Main article: British rule in BurmaThe landing of British forces in Mandalay after the last of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, which resulted in the abdication of the last Burmese monarch, King Thibaw Min.British troops firing a mortar on the Mawchi road, July 1944.With the fall of Mandalay, all of Burma came under British rule. Throughout the colonial era, many Indians arrived as soldiers, civil servants, construction workers and traders and, along with the anglo-Burmese community, dominated commercial and civil life in Burma. Rangoon became the capital of British Burma and an important port between Calcutta and Singapore.Burmese resentment was strong and was vented in violent riots that paralysed Yangon on occasion all the way until the 1930s.[26] Some of the discontent was caused by a disrespect for Burmese culture and traditions such as the British refusal to remove shoes when they entered pagodas. Buddhist monks became the vanguards of the independence movement. U Wisara, an activist monk, died in prison after a 166-day hunger strike to protest a rule that forbade him from wearing his Buddhist robes while imprisoned.[27]On 1 April 1937, Burma became a separately administered colony of Great Britain and Ba Maw the first Prime Minister and Premier of Burma. Ba Maw was an outspoken advocate for Burmese self-rule and he opposed the participation of Great Britain, and by extension Burma, in World War II. He resigned from the Legislative Assembly and was arrested for sedition. In 1940, before Japan formally entered the Second World War, Aung San formed the Burma Independence Army in Japan.A major battleground, Burma was devastated during the Second World War. By March 1942, within months after they entered the war, Japanese troops had advanced on Rangoon and the British administration had collapsed. A Burmese Executive Administration headed by Baw Maw was established by the Japanese in August 1942. Beginning in late 1944, allied troops launched a series of offensives that led to the end of Japanese rule in July 1945. However, the battles were intense with much of Burma laid waste by the fighting.Although many Burmese fought initially for the Japanese, some Burmese, mostly from the ethnic minorities, also served in the British Burma Army.[28] The Burma Independence Army and the Arakan National Army fought with the Japanese from 1942–1944, but switched allegiance to the Allied side in 1945.Following the World War II, Aung San negotiated the Panglong Agreement with ethnic leaders that guaranteed the independence of Burma as a unified state. In 1947, Aung San became Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of Burma, a transitional government. But in July 1947, political rivals backed by the British[29] assassinated Aung San and several cabinet members.[30][edit]Democratic republic (1948–1962)Main article: Post-independence Burma, 1948–1962On 4 January 1948, the nation became an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu as its first Prime Minister. Unlike most other former British colonies and overseas territories, it did not become a member of the Commonwealth. A bicameral parliament was formed, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of Nationalities,[31] and multi-party elections were held in 1951–1952, 1956 and 1960.The geographical area Burma encompasses today can be traced to the Panglong Agreement, which combined Burma Proper, which consisted of Lower Burma and Upper Burma, and the Frontier Areas, which had been administered separately by the British.[14]In 1961, U Thant, then the Union of Burma's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former Secretary to the Prime Minister, was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations, a position he held for ten years.[32] Among the Burmese to work at the UN when he was Secretary-General was a young Aung San Suu Kyi, who went on to become winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.[edit]Military rule (1962–2011)[edit]The Ne Win yearsMain article: 1962 Burmese coup d'étatOn 2 March 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état and the government has been in direct or indirect control by the military since then. Between 1962 and 1974, Burma was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general, and almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalized or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism[23] which combined Soviet-style nationalisation and central planning with the governmental implementation of superstitious beliefs.[citation needed]. A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974, until 1988, the country was ruled as a one-party system, with the General and other military officers resigning and ruling through the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP),.[33] During this period, Burma became one of the world's most impoverished countries.[34]There were sporadic protests against military rule during the Ne Win years and these were almost always violently suppressed. On 7 July 1962, the government broke up demonstrations at Rangoon University, killing 15 students.[23] In 1974, the military violently suppressed anti-government protests at the funeral of U Thant. Student protests in 1975, 1976 and 1977 were quickly suppressed by overwhelming force.