British Imperialism In Burma

After generations of a disorganized and ununified city-state collection that was at the time today’s Myanmar, British imperialism did not stop at the Eastern borders of British India. The British exploited the political instability and ethnic diversity of Burma to colonize it over the 62 year period of the three Anglo-Burmese wars. Up until 1937, Burma was a direct extremity of India, and only became its own crown colony in that year. As if to continue its history of invasion and occupation, the Japanese, with assistance from the Burma Independence Army (later to become the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League ), occupied Burma in 1942. However Japanese seizure of Burma was only a brief stint due to the fact that after merely three years,

He may have been democratically re-elected in 1952 and 1956, however his leading period was plagued by insurgencies from ethnic minority groups and communists, a nation-wide economic immobilism, as well as a wide spread inefficiency within his own government. However, U grabbed a decisive victory for his final time in 1960, only to anger his military and his minorities by placing Buddhism as the official state language. It was this decision that led to his eventual ousting after two years by a military coup, and the instatement of General Ne Win. Ne Win’s new government ruled on a single-party system under the Socialist Programme Party, with the goals of shut down opposition/ independent newspapers, nationalizing the state economy by taking large control of the private sector, rescinding the federal system, and finally and perhaps most importantly for Myanmar’s development, was the birth of the “Burmese way to Socialism.” His new constitution in 1974 created a fully authoritarian rule of the military in Burma, and created a catalyst of for military action against the minority ethnicities and the communist rebels. For example it was in 1976 when the National Democratic Front organized twelve different Ethnic parties to unite against their common enemy of the Ne Win military regime. This opposition group used targeted guerrilla insurgencies to begin a strategic attempt at a takedown of the anti-minority military regime. The variety of ethnic minority groups in ‘Military Myanmar’ were even further excluded from local and political decisions, with an example of the 1982 law ruling those of so-called ‘non-indigenous’ backgrounds to being ‘associate citizens.’ The 1982 Citizenship Law also laid the foundation for the future Rohingya problem, as they weren’t granted