TRANSFER OF POWER IN BURMA

main British interests in Burma: protecting India; rice, oil, and timber trades

strands of Burmese nationalism:
urban, secular, constitutional nationalism (led by western-educated elites)
millenarian, rural, peasant nationalism (led by monks)
radical, militant nationalism (led by students)

1612             the East India Company establishes three factories in the Empire of Burma

1824-26         First Anglo-Burmese War leads to the British annexation of Assam, Arakan, and Tenasserim

1852             Second Anglo-Burmese War leads to the British annexation of Pegu

1862             Arakan, Pegu, and Tenasserim linked together as British Lower Burma while Assam remains a part of Bengal; Burma governed as an                         Indian province

1885-90        deposition of King Thebaw followed by the military subjugation of Upper Burma by the British

1906             founding of the Young Men’s Buddhist Association which aimed to

                    revive Burmese culture and religion; led by western-educated elites

1916             the YMBA launches an overtly anti-British campaign (protesting the European habit of wearing shoes in pagoda precincts)

1919             the YMBA coordinates protests against Burma’s exclusion from the Government of India Act (which had instituted dyarchy in India)

1920s            millenarian upheaval led by monks (pongyis) in the Irrawaddy delta; rural unrest and religious revivalism

1920             the YMBA reforms as the General Council of Buddhist Associations and broadens its appeal; the government agrees to introduce                             dyarchy

1927-30         the Simon Commission raises the question of Burma’s connection to India; Burma’s Indian community opposes separation

1930                 the Hsaya San rebellion, the most significant anti-colonial peasant movement in Burma, challenges the government for over a year;                     the movement protests British commercial exploitation and Indian money-lenders who have dispossessed them;  the rebellion is put                         down by Indian Army units

1935              the Government of Burma Act provides for responsible government in which a cabinet of Burmese ministers is answerable to a                             Westminster-style legislature (constitutional nationalists now in a power-sharing arrangement with the British)

1937              -Burma is separated from India and gets its own crown-nominated Governor

                    -Dr Ba Maw, an elite Burman, becomes the first premier

                    -challenges to the constitutional nationalists by students of Rangoon University (Thakins); adopt the language of Marxism,                                   republicanism, and nationalism to demand an independent republic; committed to the use of strikes and force to achieve their                               objectives; Aung San emerges as a Thakin leader

1939              the Thakins take control of the Dobama Asi-ayon (We Burmese Assoc) and topple the government of Ba Maw

1940              Ba Maw and the Thakins join forces in the anti-war Freedom Bloc

1942              Japanese invasion and occupation of Burma; return of Thakins who

                    fled at the outbreak of the war

1943              -the Japanese, deliberately courting nationalists, grant Burma a form of self-government under Ba Maw as Adipati (or Furhrer)

 -Aung San supports the Japanese who, in turn, support his Independence Army (renamed the Burma National Army)

1944-5           the British successfully reconquer Burma, recovering the Irrawaddy Basin and Rangoon

1944              Aung San’s Burma National Army switches allegiance and join the Burma Communist Party in the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League

1945              -the Burma National Army rises against the Japanese

                    -Aung San and the British agree to the absorption of the Burma National Army into a new Burma army

                    -Aung San and the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League take over the Executive Council, which is still nominally under a British                              governor

1946              the Labour Cabinet, hoping to work with Aung San, offers the Burmese the choice to stay within the British system and agree to        elections and a timetable for the transfer of power

1947             -Aung San, head of the AFPLF,  becomes acting Prime Minister in January but is assassinated in July
                 
                    -Burma secures a formal grant of independence

1948              Burma becomes an independent republic and leaves the Commonwealth; civil war breaks out between the AFPLF and communists and separatists

1988              the military regime governing Burma changes the name of the country  to Myanmar