Professional Documents
Culture Documents
History of Burma
The history of Burma (Myanmar) covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were the Pyu who entered the Irrawaddy valley from Yunnan c. 2nd century BCE. By the 4th century CE, the Pyu had founded several city states as far south as Prome (Pyay), and adopted Buddhism. Farther south, the Mon, who had entered from Haribhunjaya and Dvaravati kingdoms in the east, had established city states of their own along the Lower Burmese coastline by the early 9th century. Another group, the Mranma (Burmans or Bamar) of the Nanzhao Kingdom, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley in the early 9th century. They went on to establish the Pagan Empire (10441287), the first ever unification of Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. The Burmese language and culture slowly came to replace Pyu and Mon norms during this period. After Pagan's fall in 1287, several small kingdoms, of which Ava, Hanthawaddy, Arakan and Shan states were principal powers, came to dominate the landscape, replete with ever shifting alliances and constant wars. In the second half of the 16th century, the Toungoo Dynasty (15101752) reunified the country, and founded the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a brief period. Later Toungoo kings instituted several key administrative and economic reforms that gave rise to a smaller, peaceful and prosperous kingdom in the 17th and early 18th centuries. In the second half of the 18th century, the Konbaung Dynasty (17521885) restored the kingdom, and continued the Toungoo reforms that increased central rule in peripheral regions and produced one of the most literate states in Asia. The dynasty also went to war with all its neighbors. The kingdom fell to the British over a six-decade span (18241885). The British rule brought several enduring social, economic, cultural and administrative changes that completely transformed the once-feudal society. Most importantly, the British rule highlighted out-group differences among the country's myriad ethnic groups. Since independence in 1948, the country has been in one of the longest running civil wars that remains unresolved. The country was under military rule under various guises from 1962 to 2010, and in the process has become one of the least developed nations in the world.
History of Burma
Pyu city-states
The Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu entered the Irrawaddy valley from present-day Yunnan, c. 2nd century BCE, and went on to found city states throughout the Irrawaddy valley. The original home of the Pyu is reconstructed to be Kokonor Lake in present-day Qinghai and Gansu provinces.[4] The Pyu were the earliest inhabitants of Burma of whom records are extant.[5] During this period, Burma was part of an overland trade route from China to India. Trade with India brought Buddhism from southern India. By the 4th century, many in the Irrawaddy valley had converted to Buddhism.[2] Of the many city-states, the largest and most important was Sri Ksetra, southeast of modern Prome (Pyay). In March 638, the Pyu of Sri Ksetra launched a new calendar that later became the Burmese calendar.[5] Eighth century Chinese records identify 18 Pyu states throughout the Irrawaddy valley, and describe the Pyu as a humane and peaceful people to whom war was virtually unknown and who wore silk cotton instead of actually silk so that they would not have to kill silk worms. The Chinese records also report that the Pyu knew how to make astronomical calculations, and that many Pyu boys entered the monastic life at seven to the age of 20.[5] It was a long-lasting civilization that lasted nearly a millennium to early 9th century until a new group of "swift horsemen" from the north, the Mranma, (Burmans) entered the upper Irrawaddy valley. In the early 9th century, the Major Pyu city states (Pagan not Pyu city states of Upper Burma came under constant attacks by the Nanzhao contemporary) Kingdom in present-day Yunnan. In 832, the Nanzhao sacked then Halingyi, which had overtaken Prome as the chief Pyu city state. A subsequent Nanzhao invasion in 835 further devastated Pyu city states in Upper Burma. While Pyu settlements remained in Upper Burma until the advent of the Pagan Empire in mid 11th century, the Pyu gradually were absorbed into the expanding Burman kingdom of Pagan in the next four centuries. The Pyu language still existed until the late 12th century. By the 13th century, the Pyu had assumed the Burman ethnicity. The histories/legends of the Pyu were also incorporated to those of the Burmans.[2]
Mon kingdoms
As early as 6th century, another people called the Mon began to enter the present-day Lower Burma from the Mon kingdoms of Haribhunjaya and Dvaravati in modern-day Thailand. By the mid 9th century, the Mon had founded at least two small kingdoms (or large city-states) centered around Pegu and Thaton. The earliest external reference to a Mon kingdom in Lower Burma was in 844848 by Arab geographers.[5] The Mon practiced Theravada Buddhism. The kingdoms were prosperous from trade. The Kingdom of Thaton is widely considered to be the fabled kingdom of Suvarnabhumi (or Golden Land), referred to by the tradesmen of Indian Ocean.
History of Burma
History of Burma
Pagan Empire during Sithu II's reign. Burmese chronicles also claim Kengtung and Chiang Mai. Core areas shown in darker yellow. Peripheral areas in light yellow. Pagan incorporated key ports of Lower Burma into its core administration by the 13th century
The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon and Pali norms by the Pagan plains today late 12th century. By then, the Burman leadership of the kingdom was unquestioned. The Pyu had largely assumed the Burman ethnicity in Upper Burma. The Burmese language, once an alien tongue, was now the lingua franca of the kingdom. The kingdom went into decline in the 13th century as the continuous growth of tax-free religious wealthby the 1280s, two-thirds of Upper Burma's cultivable land had been alienated to the religionaffected the crown's ability to retain the loyalty of courtiers and military servicemen. This ushered in a vicious circle of internal disorders and external challenges by Mons, Mongols and Shans.[7] Beginning in the early 13th century, the Shans began to encircle the Pagan Empire from the north and the east. The Mongols, who had conquered Yunnan, the former homeland of the Burmans in 1253, began their invasion of Burma in 1277, and in 1287 sacked Pagan, ending the Pagan kingdom's 250-year rule of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. Pagan's rule of central Burma came to an end ten years later
Small kingdoms
After the fall of Pagan, the Mongols left the searing Irrawaddy valley but the Pagan Kingdom was irreparably broken up into several small kingdoms. By the mid-14th century, the country had become organized along four major power centers: Upper Burma, Lower Burma, Shan States and Arakan. Many of the power centers were themselves made up of (often loosely held) minor kingdoms or princely states. This era was marked by a series of wars and switching alliances. Smaller kingdoms played a precarious game of paying allegiance to more powerful states, sometimes simultaneously.
Ava (13641555)
Founded in 1364, Ava (Inwa) was the successor state to earlier, even smaller kingdoms based in central Burma: Toungoo (12871322), MyinsaingPinya (12971364), and Sagaing (13151364). In its first years of existence, Ava, which viewed itself as the rightful successor to the Pagan Empire, tried to reassemble the former empire. While it was Southeast Asia c.1400 CE, showing Khmer Empire in red, Ayutthaya Kingdom in violet, Lan able to pull Toungoo and peripheral Shan states (Kale, Mohnyin, Xang kingdom in teal, Sukhothai kingdom in Mogaung, Thibaw (Hsipaw)) into its fold at the peak of its power, it orange, Champa in yellow, Kingdom of Lanna in failed to reconquer the rest. The Forty Years' War (13851424) with purple, Dai Viet in blue. Hanthawaddy left Ava exhausted, and its power plateaued. Its kings regularly faced rebellions in its vassal regions but were able to put them down until the 1480s. In the late 15th century, Prome and its Shan states successfully broke away, and in the early 16th century, Ava itself came under attacks from its former vassals. In 1510, Toungoo also broke away. In 1527, the Confederation of Shan States led by Mohnyin captured Ava. The Confederation's rule of Upper Burma, though lasted until 1555, was marred by internal fighting between Mohnyin and Thibaw houses. The kingdom was toppled by Toungoo forces in 1555. The Burmese language and culture came into its own during the Ava period.
History of Burma
Arakan (12871785)
Although Arakan had been de facto independent since the late Pagan period, the Laungkyet dynasty of Arakan was ineffectual. Until the founding of the Mrauk-U Kingdom in 1429, Arakan was often caught between bigger neighbors, and found itself a battlefield during the Forty Years' War between Ava and Pegu. Mrauk-U went on to be a powerful kingdom in its own right between 15th and 17th centuries, including East Bengal between 1459 and 1666. Arakan was the only post-Pagan kingdom not to be annexed by the Toungoo dynasty.
History of Burma the Arakanese forces aided by Portuguese mercenaries, and in alliance with the rebellious Toungoo forces, sacked Pegu. The country fell into chaos, with each region claiming a king. Portuguese mercenary Filipe de Brito e Nicote promptly rebelled against his Arakanese masters, and established Goa-backed Portuguese rule at Thanlyin in 1603.
History of Burma
History of Burma
Culture
Cultural integration continued. For the first time in history, the Burmese language and culture came to predominate the entire Irrawaddy valley, with the Mon language and ethnicity completely eclipsed by 1830. The nearer Shan principalities adopted more lowland norms. The evolution and growth of Burmese literature and theater continued, aided by an extremely high adult male literacy rate for the era (half of all males and 5% of females).[7] Monastic and lay elites around the Konbaung kings, particularly from Bodawpaya's reign, also launched a major reformation of Burmese intellectual life and monastic organization and practice known as the Sudhamma Reformation. It led to amongst other things Burma's first proper state histories.[16]
British rule
Britain made Burma a province of India in 1886 with the capital at Rangoon. Traditional Burmese society was drastically altered by the demise of the monarchy and the separation of religion and state. Though war officially ended after only a couple of weeks, resistance continued in northern Burma until 1890, with the British finally resorting to a systematic destruction of villages and appointment of new officials to finally halt all guerrilla activity. The economic nature of society also changed Recorder's Court on Sule Pagoda Road, with the Sule Pagoda at the far end, dramatically. After the opening of the Suez Rangoon, 1868. Photographer: J. Jackson. Canal, the demand for Burmese rice grew and vast tracts of land were opened up for cultivation. However, in order to prepare the new land for cultivation, farmers were forced to borrow money from Indian moneylenders called chettiars at high interest rates and were often foreclosed on and evicted losing land and livestock. Most of the jobs also went to indentured Indian labourers, and whole villages became outlawed as they resorted to 'dacoity' (armed robbery). While the Burmese economy grew, all the power and wealth remained in the hands of several British firms, Anglo-Burmese and migrants from India.[17] The civil service was largely staffed by the Anglo-Burmese community and Indians, and Burmese were excluded almost entirely from military service. Though the country prospered, the Burmese people failed to reap the rewards. (See George Orwell's novel Burmese Days for a fictional account of the British in Burma.) Throughout colonial rule through the mid-1960s, the Anglo-Burmese were to dominate the country, causing discontent among the local populace. By around the start of the 20th century, a nationalist movement began to take shape in the form of Young Men's Buddhist Associations (YMBA), modelled on the YMCA, as religious associations were allowed by the colonial authorities. They were later superseded by the General Council of Burmese Associations (GCBA) which was linked with Wunthanu athin or National Associations that sprang up in villages throughout Burma Proper. Between 1900 1911 the "Irish Buddhist" U Dhammaloka challenged Christianity and British rule on religious grounds. A new generation of Burmese leaders arose in the early 20th century from amongst the educated classes that were permitted to go to London to study law. They came away from this experience with the belief that the Burmese situation could be improved through reform. Progressive constitutional reform in the early 1920s led to a legislature with limited powers, a university and more autonomy for Burma within the administration of India. Efforts were also undertaken to increase the representation of Burmese in the civil service. Some people began to feel that the rate of change was not fast enough and the reforms not expansive enough.
History of Burma
10
In 1920 the first university students strike in history broke out in protest against the new University Act which the students believed would only benefit the elite and perpetuate colonial rule. 'National Schools' sprang up across the country in protest against the colonial education system, and the strike came to be commemorated as 'National Day'.[18] There were further strikes and anti-tax protests in the later 1920s led by the Wunthanu athins. Prominent among the political activists were Buddhist monks (pongyi), such as U Ottama and U Seinda in Vegetable stall on the roadside at the Madras Lancer Lines, Mandalay, January the Arakan who subsequently led an armed 1886. Photographer: Hooper, Willoughby Wallace (1837-1912) rebellion against the British and later the nationalist government after independence, and U Wisara, the first martyr of the movement to die after a protracted hunger strike in prison.[18] (One of the main thoroughfares in Yangon is named after U Wisara.) In December 1930, a local tax protest by Saya San in Tharrawaddy quickly grew into first a regional and then a national insurrection against the government. Lasting for two years, the Galon rebellion, named after the mythical bird Garuda enemy of the Nagas i.e. the British emblazoned on the pennants the rebels carried, required thousands of British troops to suppress along with promises of further political reform. The eventual trial of Saya San, who was executed, allowed several future national leaders, including Dr Ba Maw and U Saw, who participated in his defence, to rise to prominence.[18] May 1930 saw the founding of the Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association) whose members called themselves Thakin (an ironic name as thakin means "master" in the Burmese languagerather like the Indian 'sahib' proclaiming that they were the true masters of the country entitled to the term usurped by the colonial masters).[18] The second university students strike in 1936 was triggered by the expulsion of Aung San and Ko Nu, leaders of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU), for refusing to reveal the name of the author who had written an article in their university The paddle steamer Ramapoora (right) of the British India Steam Navigation magazine, making a scathing attack on one Company on the Rangoon river having just arrived from Moulmein. 1895. of the senior university officials. It spread to Photographers: Watts and Skeen. Mandalay leading to the formation of the All Burma Students Union (ABSU). Aung San and Nu subsequently joined the Thakin movement progressing from student to national politics.[18] The British separated Burma from India in 1937 and granted the colony a new constitution calling for a fully elected assembly, but this proved to be a divisive issue as some Burmese felt that this was a ploy to exclude them from any further Indian reforms whereas other Burmese saw any action that removed Burma from the control of India to be a positive step. Ba Maw served as the first prime minister of Burma, but he was succeeded by U Saw in 1939, who served as prime minister from 1940 until he was arrested on January 19, 1942
History of Burma by the British for communicating with the Japanese. A wave of strikes and protests that started from the oilfields of central Burma in 1938 became a general strike with far-reaching consequences. In Rangoon student protesters, after successfully picketing the Secretariat, the seat of the colonial government, were charged by the British mounted police wielding batons and killing a Rangoon University student called Aung Kyaw. In Mandalay, the police shot into a crowd of protesters led by Buddhist monks killing 17 people. The movement became known as Htaung thoun ya byei ayeidawbon (the '1300 Revolution' named after the Burmese calendar year),[18] and December 20, the day the first martyr Aung Kyaw fell, commemorated by students as 'Bo Aung Kyaw Day'.[19]
11
History of Burma and Thakin Soe, and Socialist leaders Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein which led to the formation of the Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) in August 1944 at a secret meeting of the CPB,the PRP and the BNA in Pegu. The AFO was later renamed the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League(AFPFL).[18] Thakins Than Tun and Soe, while in Insein prison in July 1941, had co-authored the Insein Manifesto which, against the prevailing opinion in the Dobama movement, identified world fascism as the main enemy in the coming war and called for temporary cooperation with the British in a broad allied coalition which should include the Soviet Union. Soe had already gone underground to organise resistance against the Japanese occupation, and Than Tun was able to pass on Japanese intelligence to Soe, while other Communist leaders Thakins Thein Pe and Tin Shwe made contact with the exiled colonial government in Simla, India.[18] There were informal contacts between the AFO and the Allies in 1944 and 1945 through the British organisation Force 136. On March 27, 1945 the Burma National Army rose up in a countrywide rebellion against the Japanese.[18] March 27 had been celebrated as 'Resistance Day' until the military renamed it 'Tatmadaw (Armed Forces) Day'. Aung San and others subsequently began negotiations with Lord Mountbatten and officially joined the Allies as the Patriotic Burmese Forces (PBF). At the first meeting, the AFO represented itself to the British as the provisional government of Burma with Thakin Soe as Chairman and Aung San as a member of its ruling committee. The Japanese were routed from most of Burma by May 1945. Negotiations then began with the British over the disarming of the AFO and the participation of its troops in a post-war Burma Army. Some veterans had been formed into a paramilitary force under Aung San, called the Pyithu ybaw tat or People's Volunteer Organisation (PVO), and were openly drilling in uniform.[18] The absorption of the PBF was concluded successfully at the Kandy conference in Ceylon in September 1945.[18]
12
History of Burma On 19 July 1947 U Saw, a conservative pre-war Prime Minister of Burma, engineered the assassination of Aung San and several members of his cabinet including his eldest brother Ba Win, while meeting in the Secretariat.[18][21] July 19 has been commemorated since as Martyrs' Day. Thakin Nu, the Socialist leader, was now asked to form a new cabinet, and he presided over Burmese independence on January 4, 1948. The popular sentiment to part with the British was so strong at the time that Burma opted not to join the British Commonwealth, unlike India or Pakistan.[18]
13
Independent Burma
194862
The first years of Burmese independence were marked by successive insurgencies by the Red Flag Communists led by Thakin Soe, the White Flag Communists led by Thakin Than Tun, the Ybaw Hpyu (White-band PVO) led by Bo La Yaung, a member of the Thirty Comrades, army rebels calling themselves the Revolutionary Burma Army (RBA) led by Communist officers Bo Zeya, Bo Yan Aung and Bo Y Htut all three of them members of the Thirty Comrades, Arakanese Muslims or the Mujahid, and the Karen National Union (KNU).[18] After the Communist victory in China in 1949 remote areas of Northern Burma were for many years controlled by an army of Kuomintang (KMT) forces under the command of General Li Mi.[18] Burma accepted foreign assistance in rebuilding the country in these early years, but continued American support for the Chinese Nationalist military presence in Burma finally resulted in the country rejecting most foreign aid, refusing to join the South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and supporting the Bandung Conference of 1955.[18] Burma generally strove to be impartial in world affairs and was one of the first countries in the world to recognize Israel and the People's Republic of China. By 1958, the country was largely beginning to recover economically, but was beginning to fall apart politically due to a split in the AFPFL into two factions, one led by Thakins Nu and Tin, the other by Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein.[18] And this despite the unexpected success of U Nu's 'Arms for Democracy' offer taken up by U Seinda in the Arakan, the Pa-O, some Mon and Shan groups, but more significantly by the PVO surrendering their arms.[18] The situation however became very unstable in parliament, with U Nu surviving a no-confidence vote only with the support of the opposition National United Front (NUF), believed to have 'crypto-communists' amongst them.[18] Army hardliners now saw the 'threat' of the CPB coming to an agreement with U Nu through the NUF, and in the end U Nu 'invited' Army Chief of Staff General Ne Win to take over the country.[18] Over 400 'communist sympathisers' were arrested, of which 153 were deported to the Coco Island in the Andaman Sea. Among them was the NUF leader Aung Than, older brother of Aung San. The Botataung, Kyemon and Rangoon Daily were also closed down.[18] Ne Win's caretaker government successfully established the situation and paved the way for new general elections in 1960 that returned U Nu's Union Party with a large majority.[18] The situation did not remain stable for long, when the Shan Federal Movement, started by Nyaung Shwe Sawbwa Sao Shwe Thaik (the first President of independent Burma 1948-52) and aspiring to a 'loose' federation, was seen as a separatist movement insisting on the government honouring the right to secession in 10 years provided for by the 1947 Constitution. Ne Win had already succeeded in stripping the Shan Sawbwas of their feudal powers in exchange for comfortable pensions for life in 1959.
History of Burma
14
196288
On 2 March 1962, Ne Win, with sixteen other senior military officers, staged a coup d'tat, arrested U Nu, Sao Shwe Thaik and several others, and declared a socialist state to be run by their Union Revolutionary Council. Sao Shwe Thaik's son, Sao Mye Thaik, was shot dead in what was generally described as a 'bloodless' coup. Thibaw Sawbwa Sao Kya Seng also disappeared mysteriously after being stopped at a checkpoint near Taunggyi.[18] A number of protests followed the coup, and initially the military's response was mild.[22] However, on 7 July 1962, a peaceful student protest on Rangoon University campus was suppressed by the military, killing over 100 students. The next day, the army blew up the Students Union building.[18] Peace talks were convened between the RC and various armed insurgent groups in 1963, but without any breakthrough, and during the talks as well as in the aftermath of their failure, hundreds were arrested in Rangoon and elsewhere from both the right and the left of the political spectrum. All opposition parties were banned on March 28, 1964.[18] The Kachin insurgency by the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) had begun earlier in 1961 triggered by U Nu's declaration of Buddhism as the state religion, and the Shan State Army (SSA), led by Sao Shwe Thaik's wife Mahadevi and son Chao Tzang Yaunghwe, launched a rebellion in 1964 as a direct consequence of the 1962 military coup.[18] Ne Win quickly took steps to transform Burma into his vision of a 'socialist state' and to isolate the country from contact with the rest of the world. A one-party system was established with his newly formed Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) in complete control.[18] Commerce and industry were nationalized across the board, but the economy did not grow at first if at all as the government put too much emphasis on industrial development at the expense of agriculture. In April 1972, General Ne Win and the rest of the Union Revolutionary Council retired from the military, but now as U Ne Win, he continued to run the country through the BSPP. A new constitution was promulgated in January 1974 that resulted in the creation of a People's Assembly (Pyithu Hluttaw) that held supreme legislative, executive, and judicial authority, and local People's Councils. Ne Win became the president of the new government.[18] Beginning in May 1974, a wave of strikes hit Rangoon and elsewhere in the country against a backdrop of corruption, inflation and food shortages, especially rice. In Rangoon workers were arrested at the Insein railway yard, and troops opened fire on workers at the Thamaing textile mill and Simmalaik dockyard.[18] In December 1974, the biggest anti-government demonstrations to date broke out over the funeral of former UN Secretary-General U Thant.[18] U Thant had been former prime minister U Nu's closest advisor in the 1950s and was seen as a symbol of opposition to the military regime. The Burmese people felt that U Thant was denied a state funeral that he deserved as a statesman of international stature because of his association with U Nu. On 23 March 1976, over 100 students were arrested for holding a peaceful ceremony (Hmaing yabyei) to mark the centenary of the birth of Thakin Kodaw Hmaing who was the greatest Burmese poet and writer and nationalist leader of the 20th. century history of Burma. He had inspired a whole generation of Burmese nationalists and writers by his work mainly written in verse, fostering immense pride in their history, language and culture, and urging them to take direct action such as strikes by students and workers. It was Hmaing as leader of the mainstream Dobama who sent the Thirty Comrades abroad for military training, and after independence devoted his life to internal peace and national reconciliation until he died at the age of 88 in 1964. Hmaing lies buried in a mausoleum at the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda.[23] A young staff officer called Captain Ohn Kyaw Myint conspired with a few fellow officers in 1976 to assassinate Ne Win and San Yu, but the plot was uncovered and the officer tried and hanged.[18][24] In 1978, a military operation was conducted against the Rohingya Muslims in Arakan, called the King Dragon operation, causing 250,000 refugees to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. U Nu, after his release from prison in October 1966, had left Burma in April 1969, and formed the Parliamentary Democracy Party (PDP) the following August in Bangkok, Thailand with the former Thirty Comrades, Bo Let Ya, co-founder of the CPB and former Minister of Defence and deputy prime minister, Bo Yan Naing, and U Thwin, ex-BIA and former Minister of Trade. Another member of the Thirty Comrades, Bohmu Aung, former Minister of
History of Burma Defence, joined later. The fourth, Bo Setkya, who had gone underground after the 1962 coup, died in Bangkok shortly before U Nu arrived.[18] The PDP launched an armed rebellion across the Thai border from 1972 till 1978 when Bo Let Ya was killed in an attack by the Karen National Union (KNU). U Nu, Bohmu Aung and Bo Yan Naing returned to Rangoon after the 1980 amnesty.[18] Ne Win also secretly held peace talks later in 1980 with the KIO and the CPB, again ending in a deadlock as before.[18]
15
19892006
The military government announced a change of name for the country in English from Burma to Myanmar in 1989. It also continued the economic reforms started by the old regime and called for a Constituent Assembly to revise the 1974 Constitution. This led to multiparty elections in May 1990 in which the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory over the National Unity Party (NUP, the successor to the BSPP) and about a dozen smaller parties.[18] The military, however, would not let the assembly convene, and continued to hold the two leaders of the NLD, U Tin U and Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San, under house arrest imposed on them the previous year. Burma came under increasing international pressure to convene the elected assembly, particularly after Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and also faced economic sanctions. In April 1992 the military replaced Saw Maung with General Than Shwe.
History of Burma Than Shwe released U Nu from prison and relaxed some of the restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, finally releasing her in 1995, although she was forbidden to leave Rangoon. Than Shwe also finally allowed a National Convention to meet in January 1993, but insisted that the assembly preserve a major role for the military in any future government, and suspended the convention from time to time. The NLD, fed up with the interference, walked out in late 1995, and the assembly was finally dismissed in March 1996 without producing a constitution. During the 1990s, the military regime had also had to deal with several insurgencies by tribal minorities along its borders. General Khin Nyunt was able to negotiate cease-fire agreements that ended the fighting with the Kokang, hill tribes such as the Wa, and the Kachin, but the Karen would not negotiate. The military finally captured the main Karen base at Manerplaw in spring 1995, but there has still been no final peace settlement. Khun Sa, a major opium warlord who nominally controlled parts of Shan State, made a deal with the government in December 1995 after U.S. pressure. After the failure of the National Convention to create a new constitution, tensions between the government and the NLD mounted, resulting in two major crackdowns on the NLD in 1996 and 1997. The SLORC was abolished in November 1997 and replaced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), but it was merely a cosmetic change. Continuing reports of human rights violations in Burma led the United States to intensify sanctions in 1997, and the European Union followed suit in 2000. The military placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest again in September 2000 until May 2002, when her travel restrictions outside of Rangoon were also lifted. Reconciliation talks were held with the government, but these came to a stalemate and Suu Kyi was once again taken into custody in May 2003 after an ambush on her motorcade reportedly by a pro-military mob. The government also carried out another large-scale crackdown on the NLD, arresting many of its leaders and closing down most of its offices. The situation in Burma remains tense to this day. In August 2003, Kyin Nyunt announced a seven-step "roadmap to democracy", which the government claims it is in the process of implementing. There is no timetable associated with the governments plan, or any conditionality or independent mechanism for verifying that it is moving forward. For these reasons, most Western governments and Burma's neighbors have been skeptical and critical of the roadmap. On February 17, 2005, the government reconvened the National Convention, for the first time since 1993, in an attempt to rewrite the Constitution. However, major pro-democracy organisations and parties, including the National League for Democracy, were barred from participating, the military allowing only selected smaller parties. It was adjourned once again in January 2006. In November 2005, the military junta started moving the government away from Yangon to an unnamed location near Kyatpyay just outside Pyinmana, to a newly designated capital city. This public action follows a long term unofficial policy of moving critical military and government infrastructure away from Yangon to avoid a repetition of the events of 1988. On Armed Forces Day (March 27, 2006), the capital was officially named Naypyidaw Myodaw (lit. Royal City of the Seat of Kings). In 2005, the capital city was relocated from Yangon to Naypyidaw. In November 2006, the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced it will be seeking - at the International Court of Justice.[26] - "to prosecute members of the ruling Myanmar junta for crimes against humanity" over the continuous forced labour of its citizens by the military. According to the ILO, an estimated 800,000 people are subject to forced labour in Myanmar.[27]
16
History of Burma
17
Cyclone Nargis
On May 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis devastated the country when winds of up to 215km/h (135mph)[32] touched land in the densely populated, rice-farming delta of the Irrawaddy Division.[33] It is estimated that more than 130,000 people died or went missing and damage totalled 10 billion dollars (USD); it was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history. The World Food Programme report that, "Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out."[34] The United Nations estimates that as many as 1 million were left homeless and the World Health Organization "has received reports of malaria outbreaks in the worst-affected area."[35] Yet in the critical days following this disaster, Burma's isolationist regime complicated recovery efforts by delaying the entry of United Nations planes delivering medicine, food, and other supplies. The government's failure to permit entry for large-scale international relief efforts was described by the United Nations as "unprecedented."[36]
History of Burma
18
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Cooler 2002: Chapter 1: Prehistoric and Animist Periods Myint-U 2006: 45 Hudson 2005: 1 Moore 2007: 236 Hall 1960: 810
[6] Htin Aung 1967: 329 [7] Lieberman 2003: 9091 [8] Harvey 1925: 2425 [9] Htin Aung 1967: 34 [10] Lieberman 2003: 24 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travels to Burma to promote democratic reforms
[11] Fernquest 2005: 2050 [12] Phayre 1883: 153 [13] Dai 2004: 145189 [14] Wyatt 2003: 125 [15] Marx 1853: 201202 [16] Charney 2006: 96107 [17] Tarun Khanna, Billions entrepreneurs : How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours, Harvard Business School Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4221-0383-8 [18] Smith, Martin (1991). Burma Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. London and New Jersey: Zed Books. pp.49, 91, 50, 53, 54, 56, 57, 589, 60, 61, 60, 66, 65, 68, 69, 77, 78, 64, 70, 103, 92, 120, 176, 1689, 177, 178, 180, 186, 1957, 193, 202, 204, 199, 200, 270, 269, 275276, 2923, 318320, 25, 24, 1, 416, 365, 375377, 414. [19] "The Statement on the Commemoration of Bo Aung Kyaw" (http:/ / www. burmalibrary. org/ reg. burma/ archives/ 199912/ msg00642. html). All Burma Students League. Dec 19 1999. . Retrieved 2006-10-23. [20] "The Panglong Agreement, 1947" (http:/ / www. ibiblio. org/ obl/ docs/ panglong_agreement. htm). Online Burma/Myanmar Library. . [21] "Who Killed Aung San? an interview with Gen. Kyaw Zaw" (http:/ / www. irrawaddy. org/ article. php?art_id=719). The Irrawaddy. August 1997. . Retrieved 2006-10-30. [22] Boudreau, Vincent (2004) Resisting Dictatorship: Repression and Protest in Southeast Asia Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., pp. 37-39 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ZpoCNHhUe7QC& pg=PA37), ISBN 0-521-83989-0 [23] "Thakin Kodaw Hmaing (18761964)" (http:/ / www. irrawaddymedia. com/ article. php?art_id=1836). The Irrawaddy March 1, 2000. . Retrieved 2008-03-06. [24] Aung Zaw. "A Coup Against Than Shwe" (http:/ / www. irrawaddy. org/ opinion_story. php?art_id=14681). The Irrawaddy November 24, 2008. . Retrieved 2008-11-24. [25] "Burma Communist Party's Conspiracy to take over State Power" (http:/ / www. ibiblio. org/ obl/ docs/ BCP_Conspiracy. htm). SLORC. August 5, 1989. . [26] "ILO seeks to charge Myanmar junta with atrocities" (http:/ / in. today. reuters. com/ news/ newsArticle. aspx?type=worldNews& storyID=2006-11-16T163442Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-276537-1. xml& archived=False). Reuters. 2006-11-16. . Retrieved 2006-11-17. [27] ILO cracks the whip at Yangon (http:/ / www. atimes. com/ atimes/ Southeast_Asia/ GC29Ae02. html) [28] Burma leaders double fuel prices (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ 2/ hi/ asia-pacific/ 6947251. stm) [29] UN envoy warns of Myanmar crisis (http:/ / english. aljazeera. net/ NR/ exeres/ 4081D23F-F1A4-46AF-BA50-D47FA2B7A4AE. htm) [30] Booth, Jenny (September 24, 2007). "Military junta threatens monks in Burma" (http:/ / www. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ news/ world/ asia/ article2521951. ece). The Times (London). . Retrieved May 4, 2010. [31] "100,000 Protestors Flood Streets of Rangoon in "Saffron Revolution"" (http:/ / www. novinite. com/ view_news. php?id=85644). . [32] CNN. http:/ / www. cnn. com/ 2008/ WORLD/ asiapcf/ 05/ 07/ myanmar. aidcyclone/ #cnnSTCText. [33] Aid arrives in Myanmar as death toll passes 22,000, but worst-hit area still cut off - International Herald Tribune (http:/ / www. iht. com/ articles/ ap/ 2008/ 05/ 06/ asia/ AS-GEN-Myanmar-Cyclone. php) [34] The Associated Press: AP Top News at 4:25 p.m. EDT (http:/ / ap. google. com/ article/ ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD90GBUQ81) [35] The Associated Press: Official: UN plane lands in Myanmar with aid after cyclone (http:/ / ap. google. com/ article/ ALeqM5greyFH3qkj9mc9oagSoulgjN4KHgD90HICSO3) [36] "The UN resumes foreign aid flights" (http:/ / www. guardian. co. uk/ world/ 2008/ may/ 09/ cyclonenargis. burma4). The Guardian (London). 2008-05-09. . Retrieved 2008-05-09.
History of Burma
19
References
Aung-Thwin, Michael A. (2005). The Mists of Rmaa: The Legend that was Lower Burma (illustrated ed.). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN0824828860, 9780824828868. Callahan, Mary (2003). Making Enemies: War and State Building in Burma. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Charney, Michael W. (2009). A History of Modern Burma. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-61758-1. Charney, Michael W. (2006). Powerful Learning: Buddhist Literati and the Throne in Burma's Last Dynasty, 1752-1885. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. Cooler, Richard M. (2002). "The Art and Culture of Burma". Northern Illinois University. Dai, Yingcong (2004). "A Disguised Defeat: The Myanmar Campaign of the Qing Dynasty". Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press): 145189. Fernquest, Jon (Autumn 2005). "Min-gyi-nyo, the Shan Invasions of Ava (152427), and the Beginnings of Expansionary Warfare in Toungoo Burma: 1486-1539". SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, Vol. 3, No. 2. ISSN1479-8484. Hall, D.G.E. (1960). Burma (3rd ed.). Hutchinson University Library. ISBN978-1-4067-3503-1. Harvey, G. E. (1925). History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. Htin Aung, Maung (1967). A History of Burma. New York and London: Cambridge University Press. Hudson, Bob (March 2005), "A Pyu Homeland in the Samon Valley: a new theory of the origins of Myanmar's early urban system" (http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/~hudson/BH2005Jan.pdf), Myanmar Historical Commission Golden Jubilee International Conference Kyaw Thet (1962) (in Burmese). History of Burma. Yangon: Yangon University Press. Lieberman, Victor B. (2003). Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 8001830, volume 1, Integration on the Mainland. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-80496-7. Mark, Karl (1853). War in Burma--The Russian Question--Curious Diplomatic Correspondence. 12 (1979 ed.). New York: International Publishers. Moore, Elizabeth H. (2007). Early Landscapes of Myanmar. Bangkok: River Books. ISBN974-9863-31-3. Myint-U, Thant (2001). The Making of Modern Burma. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-79914-7, 9780521799140. Myint-U, Thant (2006). The River of Lost Footsteps--Histories of Burma. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN978-0-374-16342-6, 0-374-16342-1. Phayre, Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur P. (1883). History of Burma (1967 ed.). London: Susil Gupta. Selth, Andrew (2012). Burma (Myanmar) Since the 1988 Uprising: A Select Bibliography. Australia: Griffith University. Smith, Martin John (1991). Burma: insurgency and the politics of ethnicity (Illustrated ed.). Zed Books. ISBN0-86232-868-3, 9780862328689. Steinberg, David I. (2009). Burma/Myanmar: what everyone needs to know. Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-539068-7, 9780195390681. Wyatt, David K. (2003). Thailand: A Short History (2 ed.). p.125. ISBN978-0-300-08475-7.
History of Burma
20
External links
Factfile: Burma's history of repression (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2530607. ece) Biography of King Bayinnaung (r. 1551-1581) (http://www.arts.chula.ac.th/~complit/event/hantawadi.htm) U Thaw Kaung [[University of Washington (http://www.lib.washington.edu/asp/myanmar/main.asp)] Library] papers by Burmese historians Than Tun, Yi Yi, U Pe Maung Tin, Ba Shin [[SOAS (http://web.soas.ac.uk/burma/bulletin.htm)] Bulletin of Burma Research] articles on Burma's history The Origins of Pagan (http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/~hudson/bobhpage.htm) Bob Hudson The Changing Nature of Conflict Between Burma and Siam as seen from the Growth and Development of Burmese States from the 16th to the 19th Centuries (http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/docs/wps/wps06_064.pdf) Pamaree Surakiat, Asia Research Institute, Singapore, March 2006 Online Burma/Myanmar Library (http://www.burmalibrary.org/show.php?cat=10&lo=d&sl=0) a veritable mine of information Burma Yunnan Bay of Bengal (c. 1350-1600) (http://slipperybannanapeel.blogspot.com/) Jon Fernquest The Royal Ark: Burma (http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Burma/burma.htm) Christopher Buyers WorldStatesmen (http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Myanmar.htm) The Bloodstrewn Path:Burma's Early Journey to Independence (http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/highlights/ story/2005/09/050829_vjdayspecials.shtml) BBC Burmese, September 30, 2005, Retrieved 2006-10-28 The Nu-Attlee Treaty and Let Ya-Freeman Agreement, 1947 (http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/1947_treaty. htm) Online Burma/Myanmar Library Federalism in Burma (http://ibiblio.org/obl/show.php?cat=2015&lo=d&sl=0) Online Burma/Myanmar Library Burma Communist Party's Conspiracy to take over State Power and related information (http://ibiblio.org/obl/ show.php?cat=1509) Online Burma/Myanmar Library (http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/459593/Burma-Bibliography-for-web.pdf) Understanding Burma's SPDC Generals (http://www.mizzima.com/Solidarity/2006/January/26-Jan-06-02. htm) Mizzima, Retrieved 2006-10-31 Strangers in a Changed Land (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=2210) Thalia Isaak, The Irrawaddy, MarchApril 2001, Retrieved 2006-10-29 Behold a New Empire (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=6426) Aung Zaw,The Irrawaddy, October 2006, Retrieved 2006-10-19 Daewoo A Serial Suitor of the Burmese Regime (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=6481) Clive Parker, The Irrawaddy, December 7, 2006, Retrieved on 2006-12-08 Heroes and Villains (http://www.irrawaddymedia.com/article.php?art_id=6883) The Irrawaddy, March 2007 Lion City Lament (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=6869) Kyaw Zwa Moe, The Irrawaddy, March 2007 Pyu Homeland in Samon Valley (http://www.timemap.net/~hudson/BH2005Jan.pdf) Bob Hudson 2005 The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period (http://persian.packhum.org/ persian/index.jsp?serv=pf&file=80201010&ct=0); by Sir H. M. Elliot; Edited by John Dowson; London Trubner Company 18671877. The Packard Humanities Institute (http://persian.packhum.org/persian/index. jsp), Persian Texts in Translation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7543347.stm Was the uprising of 1988 worth it?
21
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/