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History

Scholars generally agree that the words ‘Burma’ and ‘Myanmar’ have a common etymology. Some suggest that the name came from the Sanskrit “Brahma” or the realm of the gods from where humans are said to have come, hence it might mean “The first inhabitants of the world”, reflecting the Burmese people’s conception of themselves. This interpretation is however generally regarded as somewhat fanciful.

The history of Burma is shrouded in myth and mystery and has been plagued with violence at every turn, contrasting sharply with the ideal purity, self-sacrifice and peace-loving nature of Buddhism.

Sections:

Ancient History
Enter the Europeans
British Rule
20th Century Nationalism
World War Two
Independence
The Democracy Movement

Ancient History

The Mons are thought to be the first group to have reached Burma, migrating from present-day Cambodia several centuries before the birth of Christ. They were followed by the Pyu and the Arakanese, migrating from the Tibetan Plateau. The Mons’ dominance continued until around the 9th century CE, when the Burmans began arriving, likewise from the Tibetan Plateau.

King Anawrahta established the first Burmese empire at Bagan in 1044, which is widely regarded by travellers as one of the wonders of the world. Anawrahta reigned for 30 years and succeeded in making Theravada Buddhism the state religion which was adopted from Mon culture.

Burma entered a period of decline in the 13th century, partly as a result of the great expense showered upon the monuments at Bagan, and also due to the ransacking of Bagan in 1287 by Kublai Khan. After the fall of Bagan, Burma was divided into several states for almost three hundred years, with the Mons and Shans engaged in a protracted war between 1385 and 1425.


Enter the Europeans

It was in the 15th century that Europeans began to make inroads into Burma, when a Venetian merchant visited Pegu. During the 17th century, the French, Dutch and British set up trading companies in the coastal areas of Burma.

By the start of the 19th Century, the British East India Company had effectively established its authority over the Indian subcontinent. Border incidents occurred when the Burmese pursued rebel armies across the frontier and diplomatic relations were further strained when the British Raj failed to attend a Burmese king’s coronation. An invasion by the Burmese gave the British the pretext they needed to annex parts of Lower Burma, in what is now known as the First Anglo-Burmese War.

The Burmese were effectively leaderless throughout the first half of the 19th century. When King Pagan ascended to the throne in 1846, he massacred all potential heirs to the throne, as a number of his predecessors had done before him. An incident in a Burmese court with two British captains incited a further invasion by the British. The British conquered all of lower Burma in what is known as the Second Anglo-Burmese War.

Under King Mindon, there seemed some prospect of stabilisation for the rump of Burmese territory not under British control. But Mindon failed to nominate his successor from among his 48 sons, 62 daughters, and 63 recognized queens. On his death in 1878 a power struggle ensued in which the youthful King Thibaw was forced on to the throne. This led to the massacre of over 80 close relatives and potential rivals in 1879. Other atrocities occurred, including the massacre of some 300 prisoners thought to have been recruited to stage a coup. Even more bizarre was the threatened propitiatory sacrifice of 600 hundred selected individuals, who were to include 100 foreigners, when astrologers voted for a change of the capital city, which Thibaw refused to contemplate. The threatened descent into anarchy, accompanied by evidence of French designs on northern Burma, gave the British yet another excuse to annex the remainder of Burma. On January 9th 1886, following the Third Anglo-Burmese War, Burma ceased to exist as an independent kingdom, and became part of British India.


British Rule

In order to facilitate their exercise of power, the British permitted the autonomy of the country’s main ethnic groups. They recruited military forces from the Karen and from northern hill tribes and India. Burmans were generally discouraged from admission to the armed forces, further straining tensions between the ethnic groups.

The British were primarily interested in Burma for economic reasons and this led to an upsurge in the economy. Rice cultivation increased dramatically and Indian money lenders became wealthy in creating new enterprises. An influx of missionaries brought the spread of Christianity, and English became the language of the elite. Tensions between ethnic groups were not resolved, and have remained strained up to the present day.


20th Century Nationalism

The 20th century saw the rise of nationalist sentiment within Burma, beginning with the establishment of the Young Men’s Buddhist Association in 1906 by a group of London trained lawyers.

A major revolt took place north of Rangoon between 1930 and 1932, organised by Saya San, a former monk who convinced his followers that British bullets could not harm them. This reflects a traditional Burmese reliance on the supernatural and has continued to be an element of Burmese politics and daily life. In the ensuing battles, 3,000 supporters were killed and 9,000 taken prisoner, of whom 78 were executed.

In accordance with the Government of Burma Act of 1935, Burma became a separate colony with its own legislative council. This only applied to Burma proper, and not to the indirectly-ruled border areas. Despite Burma’s greater autonomy, the underground nationalist movement was gaining momentum. Already in 1930 the All Burma Student Movement had emerged to defy British rule at Rangoon University, the site of much political disturbance throughout the 20th century. The group’s leaders were Aung San (father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) and U Nu, who were to become pivotal in the independence struggle. In 1936, another strike was held to complain about the ‘alien’ educational system.


World War Two

Burma became strategically important during World War Two following the opening of the Burma Road, built to supply Chinese forces who were attempting to repel the Japanese invaders. In 1940, Aung San left Burma clandestinely with 30 members of his movement, later to be known as the ‘Thirty Comrades’, to be trained by the Japanese in the art of guerrilla warfare.

In 1941, the Japanese invaded, assisted by the Burmese Liberation Army, led by Aung San. The invasion was successful, but Burma then became the scene for some of the bloodiest battles of World War Two.

Aung San and the ‘Thirty Comrades’ joined the Japanese to help advance the Burmese independence cause. During the Japanese occupation, many Burmans joined the Liberation Movement, whereas the ethnic minorities largely remained loyal to the Allies. This disunity between the various ethnic groups contributed to the tensions between groups that can still be seen today.

In 1943, the Japanese granted ‘independence’ to Burma, with Dr. Ba Maw as head of the puppet state, and Aung San as minister of defence. The Burmese had by now realized that the Japanese had no serious intention of granting them true independence, and in 1944, Aung San and his army of 10,000 men switched loyalties and helped the Allies to expel the Japanese.

Burma was devastated by the war, and as Europe was concerned with rebuilding itself with the aid of the Marshall Plan (financed by the US), Burma received minimal aid from the UK. However, the British reclaimed their position as colonial masters and planned three years of direct rule.

Despite the continued growth of nationalism, spearheaded by the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL), under the leadership of Aung San, the British remained in control. A general strike in 1946 brought the country to a halt and only with the assistance of the AFPFL was the strike ended.

Aung San and the AFPFL demanded independence, and a conference was convened in London in 1947, where Burma was granted its independence. A number of issues remained outstanding, especially since the ethnic minorities (who had generally supported the British) were at loggerheads with the Burmans (who had collaborated with the Japanese). Aung San met with minority leaders in Panglong, and the result was an agreement that all ethnic groups would work together to achieve independence in a unified, federal state, with an option for the Shan and other minorities to opt for their own separate independence in ten years’ time. Some ethnic groups were not present during this meeting, or like the Karen only sent observers, and some did not trust Aung San.

National elections for a Constituent Assembly were held in 1947 and Aung San and his AFPFL won convincingly. The elections were not contested by the Karen National Union, the group which had suffered the most from Burman military attacks.

On July 19th, 1947 armed men burst in on the government secretariat and assassinated Aung San and six ministers. U Nu was asked to become Prime Minister, and at the astrologically auspicious hour of 4:20 a.m. on 4 January 1948, the Union of Burma became independent. Burma also became the first former British colony not to join the Commonwealth.

Independence

Independence marked the start of country-wide violence, with five separate groups, two communist and three ethnic, taking up arms against the central authority, including the Karens, who were opposed to the Union of Burma from the outset. Lieutenant General Ne Win became the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and Burmans took over all high ranking military posts. General Ne Win swept to power in 1962 with a bloodless coup, replacing U Nu, who was facing political turmoil.

Ne Win’s first move was to appoint a Revolutionary Council, made up entirely of military personnel. The Council published its manifesto, entitled “The Burmese Way to Socialism”, and Ne Win continued to rule by decree for the next twelve years. The state took control of all affairs and nationalised foreign businesses. The army was put in charge of commerce and a policy of self-imposed isolation and neutrality was promoted. Tourist visas were reduced to 24 hours and the world slowly lost touch with this strategically important nation.

The ousted leader, U Nu, formed the National United Liberation Front, a collection of U Nu’s followers, the Mons and the Karens. Some successful raids were launched, but Ne Win sought to improve relations with the Chinese and some of the ethnic minorities. In 1974, the Revolutionary Council was disbanded and the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was formed, with Ne Win as President of the Union and Chairman of the sole political party authorized, the Burma Socialist Programme Party. All did not run smoothly, and a number of failed coups occurred.

Ne Win stepped down as President in 1981, replaced by his loyal disciple U San Yu, but he remained as Chairman of the BSPP and so hugely influential over the ruling elite. The Ne Win years were mixed, hampered by the incompatibility of Burmese Socialism with Soviet or Chinese style Marxism; however one of his major successes was to keep Burma neutral, if not isolated, from the wars that engulfed most of South East Asia throughout the 1960s and 1970s.



The Democracy Movement

In 1987, deteriorating economic conditions encouraged students to stage public protests. The immediate cause was that the government invalidated 75, 35 and 25 kyat notes, replacing them with 90 and 45 kyat notes, because Ne Win – like many Burmese – believed that any number divisible by 9 was auspicious. Many people’s savings were destroyed overnight.

From March 1988, students again took to the streets again, demanding the departure from power of Ne Win. On August 8th, a general strike began, and the regime responded by killing hundreds and arresting thousands. An estimated 3,000 deaths occurred over a six week period. On 26th August, half a million people gathered to hear the Oxford-educated daughter of Aung San, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who had in March returned to Burma to look after her ailing mother, speak at the Shwedagon Pagoda. She would later announce at another of her speeches, “I would like every country in the world to recognise that the people of Burma are being shot down for no reason at all”.

On 18 September 1988 the military took control, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) was formed to govern the country and martial law was imposed.

The SLORC had promised to hold elections in Burma once the situation was more stable, and these were held on 27 May 1990. Of the 235 parties that registered for the elections and of the 93 which actually put up candidates, the National League for Democracy (NLD), under the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was the most important. Although Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest in July 1989, and despite severe restrictions on campaigning and various ‘dirty tricks’ by the SLORC, such as forcibly relocating a million ‘squatters’, the NLD won almost 60% of the vote and over 80% of the seats. The SLORC refused to allow the successful candidates to convene a parliament; instead, many of those elected were arrested.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and was finally released from house arrest in July 1995. There are some reports that she even had to sell some of her furniture to pay for food. ‘The Lady’, as she is often known in Burma, was reluctant to visit her terminally ill husband, a professor at Oxford University, who later died, as she feared she might not be allowed to return.

Throughout the 1990s, the regime attempted to legitimate itself through displays of Buddhist piety. Human rights abuses were prevalent, with many hundreds of thousands of ethnic minorities, including Shan, Chin, Kachin, Karen and Karenni being forcibly displaced. In this period, the government signed cease-fire accords with most of the ethnic minorities and began concentrating on eliminating the ‘uncooperative’ groups, such as the Karen National Union, using arms supplied by China. There are now around 145,000 Karen and Karenni refugees on the Burma/Thailand border.

Burma is now second only to Afghanistan in the production of opium and its derivative heroin, though significant progress has been made in recent years under the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in opium crop substitution. Ever since 1991 the UN General Assembly has passed annual Resolutions deploring Burma’s extrajudicial and arbitrary execution, torture, inhumane treatment, slave labour, resettlement and mass arrests. Currently, the army stands at 450,000, a 120% rise since the demonstrations in 1988. Border skirmishes with Thai troops are nowadays less frequent. The iconic Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is now in her 11th year of detention and house arrest.

Burma is currently in a position of some stability internally, despite being under immense pressure from the international community. Fellow members of ASEAN have attempted to cooperate with the military junta, whereas countries such as the US have implemented harsh economic sanctions against the country. Recent announcements by the Burmese leader Than Shwe regarding the progress to democracy are given little credence by the Burmese themselves and the international community. We hope that the next chapter in Burmese history will be more positive…