Burma

**Burma**, also known as the **Union of Burma** is a county in Southeast Asia. It borders Siam to the East, Bengal to the West, Tibet and the Yunnan Clique to the North.

# History

## British India (1824-1914)

Conflict began between Burma and the British when the Konbaung dynasty decided to expand into Arakan in the state of Assam, close to British-held Chittagong in India. This led to the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26). The British dispatched a large seaborne expedition that took without a fight in 1824. In Danuphyu, at the Ayeyarwadddy Delta, Burmese General Maha Bandula was killed and his armies routed. Burma was forced to cede Assam and other northern provinces. The 1826 Treaty of Yandabo formally ended the First Anglo-Burmese War, the longest and the most expensive war in the history of British India. Fifteen thousand European and Indian soldiers died, together with an unknown number of Burmese army and civilian casualties. The campaign cost the British between 5 and 13 million pounds sterling which led to an economic crisis in British India in 1833.

In 1852, the Second Anglo-Burmese War was provoked by the British, who sought the teak forests in Lower Burma as well as a port between Calcutta and Singapore. After 25 years of peace, British and Burmese fighting started afresh and continued until the British occupied all of Lower Burma. The British were victorious in this war and as a result obtained access to the teak, oil, and rubies of their newly conquered territories.

In Upper Burma, the still unoccupied part of the country, King Mindon had tried to adjust to the thrust of imperialism. He enacted administrative reforms and made Burma more receptive to foreign interests. But the British initiated the Third Anglo-Burmese War, which lasted less than two weeks during November 1885. The British government justified their actions by claiming that the last independent king of Burma, Thibaw Min, was a tyrant and that he was conspiring to give France more influence in the country. British troops entered Mandalay on 28 November 1885. Thus, after three wars gaining various parts of the country, the British occupied all the area of present day Burma, and the Siamese provinces of Moulmein and Kachin, making the territory a Province of British India on 1 January 1886 and would remain so for the next 50 years.

## The Great War (1914-1918)

Burma during the Great War provided needed manpower, equipment and raw materials to the European and Pacific frontlines. Most of the manpower were Burmese ethnic minorities, while for the time being, as Germany posed no major threat to British interests in South East Asia, Burma remained unscathed in the war. The war came and went and for the next 3 years British Burma stayed in tranquil isolation, until the end of 1919

## The Cairo War

The British used all available men and resources to fight the revolting Egyptians, but as the war spread and the British began to loose, a sense of unease was present in the air of Burma. After the loss of the Suez Canal, Burmese nationalists saw a new opportunity to declare a free and independent country. In November, in tandem with trade unions and a fragile alliance with socialists, a general strike was declared in Rangoon in support of the enemies of the British Empire. By December just before the declaration of war by Siam, the general strike was crushed following by London declaring martial law on the province.

### The Second Anglo-Siamese War

In response to a growing anti-Japanese fear, the Kingdom of Siam in late December declared war on Britain in order to seize the Malacca Strait and fulfill irredentist goals of retaking Northern Malaysia and parts of Burma. Without enough British soldiers or garrisons to protect both colonies, Siam slowly occupied Malaysian and Burmese land. With help from the Japanese navy, the Siamese Navy also blockaded strategic ports in Burma, leading to widespread unrest as food and material aid became scarce. The Burmese people, for their part, rioted and sabotaged both British and Siamese troops. Ethnic divides were exacerbated as nationalistic groups often targeted religious and ethnic minorities, often accusing said groups of pro-British or Siamese collaboration.

By the time a ceasefire was declared, Burma was on the verge of starvation, cities were in ruins, and the Siamese reached as far as Northern Shan before being stopped. In the resulting Treaty of Valletta, which Burmese nationalists see as a national disgrace, forked over the Southwestern coast and Shan territories of the Burma province to Bangkok.

## Post-war anti-colonial sentiment

In peace time, Burma was absolutely shattered from war, and emerged in a worse condition than it found itself before the Cairo War. Burma, like India experienced unprecedented amounts of anti-British sentiment, not seen in decades since the first years of British occupation.

Strikes, a handful of them performed by students were widespread, protesting against taxes and pro-colonial elitism. The chaos-plagued province would slowly spiral until 1921 when British garrisons and soldiers were able to arrive en masse and violently broke up growing opposition groups and cracked down in several cities and universities. Dozens died and Rangoon was virtually up in flames, but in the end Burma remained pacified, for the time being.

Anti-colonialist sentiment always boiled under British-occupied society, and to ease the burdens of war, London, with heavy hesitation gave into a few reforms many pressured the government into, including tax reforms. Through rebuilding efforts, Burma experienced peace and reconstruction over the next few years.

## Indian Civil War

With the British Civil War breaking out on the British Isles, it soon proved to be the last straw for the fracturing British Empire, as only a few months later Indian separatists seized Hyderabad and declared the Republic of India, beginning the Indian Civil War.

**WIP**

## Republican independence

As the British Civil War ended, London actively refused to recognize the independence of their colonies in South Asia, and despite this further peace agreements were signed between all new states, including Burma.

# Economy

The economy of Burma was temporarily uprooted due to the civil war, and after the government expelled most British influence, the economy of the country remained largely the same as it did under British control, exporting rice and creating profit from cultivating cash crops.

Due to the tenants of Asian Internationalism, Burma largely relies on Indian, Laotian, Vietnamese and Bengali imports and trade which helped the Burmese economy get off the ground after 1934.

# International relations

## Asian internationalism

(Main article: Asian Internationalism)

Developed by South Asian nations following the end of the Indian Civil War, Asian Internationalism follows the ideas that all Asian nations should be reliant on each other instead of reliant on European imports and markets. Originally beginning in Burma and spreading to Bengal, India and part of the Indochinese Peninsula, part of Asian Internationalism is, in many ways an anti-Siamese political and economic bloc, as most of the nations which embrace the tenants of Asian Internationalism have grievances against Bangkok, with the exception of India, but as India is an ally of Burma, Indian-Siamese relations remain very cold to this day.