President Franklin Pierce

The dawn of Myanmar-US relations

Official Myanmar-US relations began in 1856 with a letter from King Mindon (pictured on the left) to Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States (pictured on the right). When the letter was written, King Mindon had just built his new city, Mandalay, and his modernization drive was then in full swing. Over the next 15 years King Mindon would try to reform all aspects of government, fundamentally changing the revenue system and reforming administrative structures; mint coins; send...