This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2014) |
Union of Burma ပြည်ထောင်စု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် (Burmese) Pranyhtaungcu. Mranma Nuingngamtau | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1948–1962 | |||||||||
Motto: သမဂ္ဂါနံ တပေါ သုခေါ (Pali) Sa.ma.ganam ta.pau: su.hkau: "Happiness through harmony" | |||||||||
Anthem: ကမ္ဘာမကြေ (Burmese) Ka.bha ma. kye "Till the End of the World" | |||||||||
Capital | Rangoon | ||||||||
Official languages | Burmese | ||||||||
Recognised languages | English [lower-alpha 1] | ||||||||
Religion | Buddhism (majority; state religion from 1961) [1] [2] | ||||||||
Demonym(s) | Burmese | ||||||||
Government | Federal parliamentary republic (de jure) Unitary dominant-party parliamentary republic (de facto) | ||||||||
President | |||||||||
• 1948–1952 (first) | Sao Shwe Thaik | ||||||||
• 1957–1962 (last) | Win Maung | ||||||||
Prime minister | |||||||||
• 1948–1956 (first) | U Nu | ||||||||
• 1960–1962 (last) | U Nu | ||||||||
Legislature | Union Parliament | ||||||||
Chamber of Nationalities | |||||||||
Chamber of Deputies | |||||||||
Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
10 December 1947 | |||||||||
• Established | 4 January 1948 | ||||||||
2 March 1962 | |||||||||
Currency | Burmese kyat | ||||||||
Driving side | left | ||||||||
ISO 3166 code | MM | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Myanmar |
History of Myanmar |
---|
|
|
|
|
Myanmarportal |
The first fourteen years of independent Burma (Myanmar) were marred by several communist and ethnic insurgencies. Prominent insurgent groups during this period include the Communist Party of Burma (CPB, "white flags") led by Thakin Than Tun, the Communist Party (Burma) ("red flags") led by Thakin Soe, the People's Volunteer Organisation (Yèbaw Hpyu) led by Bo La Yaung (a member of the Thirty Comrades), the Revolutionary Burma Army (RBA) led by communist officers Bo Zeya, Bo Yan Aung and Bo Yè Htut (all three of them members of the Thirty Comrades), and the Karen National Union (KNU). [3] [ page needed ]
Remote areas of northern Burma were for many years controlled by an army of Kuomintang (KMT) forces after the Communist victory in China in 1949. [3] [ page needed ] Burma accepted foreign assistance in rebuilding the country in these early years, but continued American support for the Chinese Nationalist military presence in Burma finally resulted in the country rejecting most foreign aid, refusing to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and supporting the Bandung Conference of 1955. [3] [ page needed ] Burma generally strove to be impartial in world affairs and was one of the first countries in the world to recognise Israel and China.
By 1958, the country was largely beginning to recover economically, but was beginning to fall apart politically due to a split in the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) into two factions, one led by Thakins Nu and Tin, the other by Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein. [3] [ page needed ] [4] This was despite the unexpected success of U Nu's "Arms for Democracy" offer taken up by U Seinda in Arakan, the Pa'O, some Mon and Shan groups, but more significantly by the PVO surrendering their arms. [3] [ page needed ] The situation became very unstable in parliament, with U Nu surviving a no-confidence vote only with the support of the opposition National United Front (NUF), believed to have "crypto-communists" amongst them. [3] [ page needed ]
Army hardliners now saw the 'threat' of the CPB coming to an agreement with U Nu through the NUF, and in the end U Nu "invited" Army Chief of Staff General Ne Win to take over the country. [3] [ page needed ] Over 400 "communist sympathisers" were arrested, of which 153 were deported to the Coco Islands in the Andaman Sea. Among them was the NUF leader Aung Than, older brother of Aung San. The Botataung, Kyemon and Rangoon Daily were also closed down. [3] [ page needed ]
Ne Win's caretaker government successfully stabilised the situation and paved the way for new general elections in 1960 that returned U Nu's Union Party with a large majority. [3] [ page needed ] The situation did not remain stable for long, when the Shan Federal Movement, started by Nyaung Shwe Sawbwa Sao Shwe Thaik (the first President of independent Burma 1948–1952) and aspiring to a "loose" federation, was seen as a separatist movement insisting on the government honouring the right to secession in ten years provided for by the 1947 Constitution. [3] [ page needed ]
Ne Win had already succeeded in stripping the Shan Sawbwas of their feudal powers in exchange for comfortable pensions for life in 1959. He staged a coup d'état on 2 March 1962, arrested U Nu, Sao Shwe Thaik and several others, and declared a socialist state run by the Union Revolutionary Council (URC), which consisted of senior military officers. Sao Shwe Thaik's son, Sao Mye Thaik, was shot dead in what was generally described as a "bloodless" coup. Thibaw Sawbwa Sao Kya Seng also disappeared mysteriously after being stopped at a checkpoint near Taunggyi. [3] [ page needed ] The URC later founded the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) on 4 July 1962 to nominally separate the powers of the military from the government and to lead a one-party state. [5]
The history of Myanmar covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were a Tibeto-Burman-speaking people who established the Pyu city-states ranged as far south as Pyay and adopted Theravada Buddhism.
Aung San was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goal was realized. Aung San is considered the founder of modern-day Myanmar and the Tatmadaw, and is commonly referred to by the titles "Father of the Nation", "Father of Independence", and "Father of the Tatmadaw".
Nu, commonly known as U Nu and also by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the provisions of the 1947 Constitution of the Union of Burma, from 4 January 1948 to 12 June 1956, again from 28 February 1957 to 28 October 1958, and finally from 4 April 1960 to 2 March 1962.
The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) was the dominant political alliance in Burma from 1945 to 1958. It consisted of political parties and mass and class organizations.
U Saw, also known as Galon U Saw, was a leading Burmese politician who served as Prime Minister of British Burma during the colonial era before the Second World War. He is also known for his role in the assassination of Burma's national hero Aung San and other independence leaders in July 1947, only months before Burma gained independence from Britain in January 1948. He was executed by hanging for this assassination.
Ba Swe was the second Prime Minister of Burma. He was a leading Burmese politician during the decade after the country gained its independence from Britain in 1948. He held the position of prime minister from 12 June 1956 to 28 February 1957. When Ba Swe became prime minister, Time magazine reported the news in an article titled: 'The Day of the Tiger' based on his nickname 'Big Tiger' since his university days in the 1930s as a student leader.
The Burmese Way to Socialism, also known as the Burmese Road to Socialism, was the state ideology of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, the socialist state governed by the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) from 1962 to 1988.
Burma (Myanmar) was under the military dictatorship of Ne Win from 1962 to 1988. Ne Win and his allies in the Tatmadaw overthrew the government of Prime Minister U Nu in a coup d'état on 2 March 1962. A day later, the coupists established the Revolutionary Council of the Union of Burma as the country's governing body. In April 1962, the Revolutionary Council introduced the Burmese Way to Socialism and declared it Burma's state ideology. The Revolutionary Council then founded the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) as the country's vanguard party on 4 July 1962. In 1974, Ne Win introduced a new constitution and replaced the Revolutionary Council with the People's Assembly, which consisted solely of BSPP members. The country's official name was also changed from the Union of Burma to the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma.
Kyaw Zaw was one of the founders of the Tatmadaw and a member of the Thirty Comrades who trained in Japan in the struggle for independence from Britain. He was also one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Burma, and had lived in exile in Yunnan Province, China, since 1989 after retiring from politics.
Thakin Than Tun was a Burmese politician and leader of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) from 1945 until his assassination in 1968. He was the brother-in-law of Myanmar's independence leader Aung San and the uncle of the former State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi.
Martyrs' Day is a Burmese national holiday observed on 19 July to commemorate Gen. Aung San and seven other leaders of the pre-independence interim government, and one bodyguard —Thakin Mya, Ba Cho, Abdul Razak, Ba Win, Mahn Ba Khaing, Sao San Tun, Ohn Maung and Ko Htwe—all of whom were assassinated on that day in 1947. It is customary for high-ranking government officials to visit the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Yangon in the morning of that day to pay respects.
Thakin Soe was a founding member of the Communist Party of Burma, formed in 1939 and a leader of Anti-Fascist Organisation. He is regarded as one of Burma's most prominent communist leaders.
The Panglong Conference, held in February 1947, was a historic meeting that took place at Panglong in the Shan States in Burma between the Shan, Kachin and Chin ethnic minority leaders and Aung San, head of the interim Burmese government. Aung Zan Wai, Pe Khin, Bo Hmu Aung, Sir Maung Gyi, Dr. Sein Mya Maung and Myoma U Than Kywe were among the negotiators of the historical Panglong Conference who negotiated with Bamar representative General Aung San and other ethnic leaders in 1947. All these leaders unanimously decided to join the Union of Burma. On the agenda was the united struggle for independence from Britain and the future of Burma after independence as a unified independent republic.
The Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) was a resistance movement against the Japanese occupation of Burma and independence of Burma during World War II. It was the forerunner of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League.
The Shan State Army was one of the largest insurgent groups that fought government forces in Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). The SSA was founded in 1964 after the merging of two existing insurgent groups.
Burmese names lack the serial structure of most Western names. The people of Myanmar have no customary matronymic or patronymic naming system and therefore have no surnames. In the culture of Myanmar, people can change their name at will, often with no government oversight, to reflect a change in the course of their lives. Also, many Myanmar names use an honorific, given at some point in life, as an integral part of the name.
The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is a clandestine communist party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country.
The Communist Party (Burma) (Burmese: ကွန်မြူနစ်ပါတီ (ဗမာပြည်)), sometimes referred to as the Red Flag Communist Party (Burmese: အလံနီကွန်မြူနစ်ပါတီ; RFCP), was a communist party in Burma. The party was formed after a more radical faction broke away from the Communist Party of Burma in 1946. In the same year, it began a protracted armed insurgency; first against British rule, then against the Burmese government. The party was led by Thakin Soe, a firebrand communist leader. In the 1970s, the party lost influence and was militarily defeated by 1978.
The 1962 Burmese coup d'état marked the beginning of one-party rule in Burma (Myanmar) and the political dominance of the military in Burmese politics. In the 2 March 1962 coup, the military replaced the civilian AFPFL-government headed by Prime Minister U Nu, along with the Union Revolutionary Council Chaired by General Ne Win.
The communist insurgency in Burma was waged primarily by the Communist Party of Burma and the Communist Party (Burma) from 1948 to 1989. The conflict ended when the CPB, severely weakened by an internal mutiny, disbanded its armed wing.
တည်ဆဲဥပဒေဖြစ်ပါသည်