The History of Burma

The history of Burma begins with several city-states inhabited by the Pyu People along the Irrawaddy River from c. 200 BCE. During the 11th Century, they were united under the Kingdom of Pagan, laying the foundations of the Burmese state. Burdended by tax-exempt Buddhist monastaries in the 13th Century, Pagan became easy prey for Mongol armies, who destroyed the kingdom in 1297. Several weaker states followed over the coming centuries, such as Myinsaing, Pinya and Ava. Burma was again revaged in the early 16th Century by Shan peoples to the north, cultimating in the destruction of Ava in 1527. From the ruins, a new Toungoo Dynasty emerged and began to dominate South East Asia for the next two centuries. Political turmoil in the 18th Century lead to the rise of the Konbaung Dynasty, which ruled all of Burma until it was conquered by the British Empire through three wars between 1824-85. Occupied by Japan during the Second World War, Burma gained independence in 1948, experimenting with various fo