Annexation
Britain took Burma in three wars. After the first, in 1826, it gained Arakan and Tenasserim; after the second, in 1852, Lower Burma, including Rangoon and Pegu; after the third, in 1885, Upper Burma and the end of the monarchy. The territories were combined as the province of Burma, part of British India, under a chief commissioner from 1862 and a lieutenant-governor from 1897. The frontier hill regions of the Shan, Kachin and Chin peoples were administered separately under their own chiefs.
The colonial economy
The British opened the delta of the Irrawaddy to rice cultivation for export, and Burma became the world's largest rice exporter. Much of the capital came from Indian moneylenders of the Chettiar community, and Indian labourers, merchants and officials came in large numbers, so that Rangoon became a majority-Indian city. When rice prices collapsed in the Depression of the 1930s, many Burmese farmers lost their land to the moneylenders, and anti-Indian riots broke out in 1930 and 1938.
Nationalism
Burmese nationalism began with religious and cultural organisations such as the Young Men's Buddhist Association, founded in 1906, and its protests over Europeans wearing shoes in pagodas. Monks such as U Ottama took a leading part. In 1920 students struck against the act establishing Rangoon University, which they saw as designed to restrict higher education, and the anniversary became a national day. The General Council of Burmese Associations campaigned for self-government, and in 1923 Burma received the dyarchy reforms already granted to the Indian provinces. The Saya San rebellion of 1930–32, a peasant rising led by a former monk with millenarian claims, was suppressed with many deaths. In the 1930s students at Rangoon University, including Aung San and U Nu, formed the Dobama Asiayone, "We Burmans" association.
Separation and independence
Under the Government of Burma Act 1935, Burma was separated from India on 1 April 1937 and given its own legislature, with Ba Maw as the first premier. The Japanese occupation of 1942–45 and the war devastated the country. After the war Aung San negotiated independence with the British government, but he and most of his cabinet were assassinated in July 1947 on the orders of a political rival. Burma became independent on 4 January 1948, under U Nu, and chose not to join the Commonwealth.
Further reading
- Metcalf, Barbara D. A Concise History of Modern India. Cambridge University Press, 2012
- Brown, Judith M. Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy. Oxford University Press, 1994
- Gombrich, Richard F. Theravada Buddhism: A Social History. Routledge, 2006
See also
- First Anglo-Burmese War — The First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–1826 was fought between the East India Company and the Konbaung kingdom of Burma over the borderlands of Assam, Manipur and Arakan, and ended with the treaty of Yandabo, by which Burma ceded those territories and Tenasserim.
- Third Anglo-Burmese War — The Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885 was the brief British campaign that captured Mandalay, deposed King Thibaw and ended the Konbaung monarchy, after which Upper Burma was annexed to British India.
- Konbaung Dynasty — The Konbaung dynasty was the last royal house of Burma, founded by Alaungpaya in 1752, which reunited the country, sacked Ayutthaya, repelled Chinese invasions and expanded into Arakan, Manipur and Assam, before losing its kingdom to the British in three wars between 1824 and 1885.
- Japanese conquest of Burma — The Japanese conquest of Burma in 1942 drove British, Indian and Chinese forces out of Burma between January and May, cut the road to China, and set off a mass flight of Indian civilians to India, before the Allies reconquered the country in 1944–45.
- British Raj — The British Raj was the period of direct Crown rule over India from 1858 to 1947, following the East India Company's dissolution after the rebellion of 1857.
This entry was last revised on 12 November 2026.