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Answer

Who colonized Myanmar?

Southeast Asia — the powers that ruled Myanmar, the dates, and what independence did and did not change.

In short

Who colonized Myanmar?

Britain, in three wars between 1824 and 1885, after which Burma was governed as a province of British India until separation in 1937 and independence on 4 January 1948.

Britain dismantled the Burmese state rather than ruling through it, abolishing the monarchy in 1885 and administering the country as an appendage of India.

World map showing imperial possessions and spheres of rule in 1914
A world map of imperial possessions in 1914, offered as global context only. It is a single snapshot: countries that became independent earlier, later occupations, disputed borders and differences between colonies and protectorates require the chronology below.Source — Wikimedia Commons

How rule changed in Myanmar

These periods describe different governing arrangements. The presence of a trading company, a military occupation and direct colonial government are not interchangeable; the notes preserve those distinctions where the record identifies them.

Political chronology

Rulers, periods and governing arrangements

PeriodRuler or administrationContext
1752–1885Konbaung dynastySee the chronology and context below.
1886–1937British Burma, a province of British IndiaSee the chronology and context below.
1937–1948Separate British colonySee the chronology and context below.

Periods may overlap where control differed by territory. A national independence date does not imply that every enclave or dependency changed status on that day.

At a glance

Key facts

Colonising powers
Britain, Japan (1942–45 occupation)
Independence
4 January 1948
Rice
The Irrawaddy delta was turned into the world's largest rice exporter
Indian migration
Colonial labour policy reshaped the demography of Rangoon
Monarchy
Abolished by Britain in 1885, removing the central institution of the state

Chronology

Key dates

  1. 1824–26

    First Anglo-Burmese War; huge indemnity imposed.

  2. 1852

    Second war; Lower Burma annexed.

  3. 1885

    Third war; the king exiled, the monarchy abolished.

  4. 1930–32

    Saya San peasant rebellion.

  5. 1948

    Independence.

Context

What the record shows

The ethnic administrative divisions Britain used — separating the lowlands from the frontier areas — hardened into the fault lines of Myanmar's post-independence conflicts.

Questions

Frequently asked

Who colonised Myanmar?
Britain, through the three Anglo-Burmese wars of 1824–26, 1852 and 1885.
Was Burma part of India?
Yes. It was administered as a province of British India from 1886 until it was separated as its own colony in 1937.
When did Myanmar become independent?
4 January 1948.

Read on

Related in the archive

References

Sources — colonial Myanmar

  1. [1]Bartolomé de las Casas, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (Seville, 1552).
  2. [2]Noble David Cook, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650 (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
  3. [3]Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America (Monthly Review Press, 1971; English 1973).
  4. [4]Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
  5. [5]Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa (Random House, 1991).
  6. [6]Shashi Tharoor, Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India (Hurst, 2017).
  7. [7]Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (Henry Holt, 2005).
  8. [8]Alfred W. McCoy, Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State (Wisconsin, 2009).
  9. [9]Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019).
  10. [10]Jürgen Zimmerer, "The birth of the Ostland out of the spirit of colonialism", Patterns of Prejudice 39:2 (2005), on the German South-West Africa → Holocaust lineage.
  11. [11]Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bogle-L'Ouverture, 1972).
  12. [12]Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I (1867), Chapter 31 ("Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist").

All works cited in good faith for documentary, educational and critical use. Errors and omissions: contact the archive.