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The Mon are
considered to be the first inhabitants of Myanmar possibly as early as 3,000
BC. The Mon people settled in central Myanmar and on down along the Bay of
Bengal covering the eastern coast. Irrigation systems were created and
contacts, both cultural and commercial were established with India. In
addition to keeping in contact with India, the Mon people had contact and
influence upon their Mon neighbors in Siam (current day Thailand). As with
the others who followed, the Monshad gone down the Irrawaddy River to set up
their establishments. Following the Mons, were the Pyu, although they
arrived much later in time. They started a capital in AD 628, near modern
day Prome, but in the mid-ninth century, the arrival of the Burmans
absorbed the communities of the Mon and Pyu people that were in their path.
The Pagan
Kingdom brought about the first unified state of Myanmar, through King Anawrahta
(r 1044-1077). The state compared to a Hindu kingdom, with support coming
from household taxes. By the thirteenth century though, Myanmar was
starting to decline in part due to large amounts of money and time being spent
on building pagodas. In 1287, Kublai Khan ransacked Pagan thus starting a
period of continual conflicts that continued for many centuries. The
appearance of Europeans had little effect on Myanmar due to their internal (and
external) conflicts until they infringed on the Raj in Bengal. This
brought about British occupation to keep peace on the borders of these countries
and after 60 years, took over all of Myanmar. A positive result of this
was that Myanmar became the world's major exporter of rice. The downside
is that there was also an influx of Chinese and Indian immigrants, who tended to
exploit the Burmans. There was also slow social disintegration due to the
British rule and it brought about a nationalist movement.
The start
of World War II was a time for political development among individuals. A
student leader, U Aung San, put together the Burma Independent Army (BIA), a
group who had been previously trained by the Japanese. In 1942, when the
Japanese invaded Myanmar, the BIA joined the Japanese forces. Although
they didn't fight many battles, their numbers greatly increased eventually
enabling them to overthrow the then weak Japanese government at the end of the
war. By now they were known as the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL),
with U Aung San still being the leader.
After the
war, the AFPFL talked with the British in an attempt to gain the independence of Myanmar
and in April 1947 they won a majority of the constitutional assembly
seats. Three months later, U Aung San's political adversary U Saw had him,
along with most of his cabinet, assassinated. Myanmar's leader, as well as
the AFPFL's, during its early years of independence was U Nu, a former student
leader and the foreign minister of Ba Maw.
In 1962, an
army takeover by General Ne Win, threw out U Nu's government and put U Nu in
prison for four years. General Ne Win's idea was to turn Myanmar into a
socialist country. This was called the "Burmese Path to
Socialism" and only went downhill from there with everything, even retail
stores, being nationalized. The economy quickly crumbled and as a result a
very profitable black market evolved. Even when Ne Win turned over the
presidency to San Yu, life didn't improve for the populace. Some citizens
lost their status with a ruling creating "associate citizens," which
were simply people whose ancestors weren't from the "original" Myanmar
races. Those targeted were the Sino-Burman and Indo-Burman communities and
their rights included being able to vote, but they weren't allowed to be elected
or hold government positions above a certain level.
Enough was
enough and the people finally revolted after a devaluation of the currency, thus
wiping out any monetary surplus people may have had. There were
antigovernment riots and public letters criticizing Ne Win and declaring he
needed to leave. He did eventually step down and retire in July 1988, but
not until after the antigovernment riots in March and June of 1988.
After Ne
Win's retirement, Myanmar had a few months of great turmoil. There were
protests, looting, and a brutal police responses (the leader of the riot police
was in change of the government) that led to up to a thousand people dead in
Yangon, with thousands dead in other parts of the country. Maung Maung
took charge and tried to appease those who resented the military rule and was
successful in gaining a partnership with Brigadier Aung Gyi, General Tin U, and
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (the daughter of U Aung San). The armed forces
appeared to side with this group thus causing the military to stage a coup
against their government. In September of 1988, the Defense Minister (Genreal
Saw Maung) declared the establishment of a State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) that promised to re-establish law and order among other key
items, but meeting the first item resulted in hundreds, possibly even over a
thousand deaths.
Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, which brought great
pressure on the SLORC. The SLORC had placed her under house arrest and
General Tin U in prison in July 1989, since they were the leaders of the
National League for Democracy (NLD). Although the NLD had won 80 percent
of the seats and 60 percent of the votes, the SLORC retaliated by arresting a
lot of them and declaring that a non-military government couldn't be established
without a new constitution being written.
In 1992,
General Than Shwe took over as SLORC chairman, prime minister and minister of
defense. Many political prisoners were released and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
was allowed visits from her family, with visits from a U.S congressman, a UN
official and an American reporter two years later. Since she would not
leave Myanmar (be exiled), she was detained for longer than the legal limit
(which the government then changed). Finally, in August of 1995 she was
released from house arrest and was permitted to stay in Yangon, where she
conversed weekly with thousands of people, both citizens and foreigners outside
her front gate.
In 1993,
the SLORC selected a national convention to start drafting a new constitution
and told the convention to give the military a major government role.
Obviously, since the convention was not being conducted democratically, the NLD
party members walked out the convention and as of 1998, a new constitution had
yet to be completed.
In 1996,
the SLORC increased tensions between the two groups (SLORC and NLD) by arresting
over 200 members of NLD on their way to a part congress and doing it again in
May 1997. In November 1997, the SLORC was disbanded and replaced with the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which still had the same leadership
as the SLORC.
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