British Burma (1826-1942)

For over a hundred years, Britain ruled parts of what is today Myanmar, shaping every aspect of the country’s politics, economy and society. 

Far from being a static period of stability, British Burma was marked by change and upheaval. As it had done in India, the colonial power uprooted the ruling dynasty: the last Mughal emperor of India was secretly buried in Rangoon, while the descendants of Burma’s last king ended up living in penury in a slum in Kolkata, India.

It was a time of searching for new identities and political systems, with various forms of resistance to British rule from the armed uprisings during the early “pacification” of Upper Burma to the heated politics and protests of the decades prior to World War Two. The political landscape was peopled by British-educated Burmese politicians and home-grown activists inspired by Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916. The first-ever election was held in 1922 and, a decade later, it was decided at the Burma Roundtable Conference in London that Burma would separate from British India – perhaps the single most important decision in Myanmar’s 20th-century history.  

Through the empire and technological advancements in transport, Burma became connected with the rest of the world like never before: thousands of Chins, Kachins, Burmans and Karens served in World War One and Rangoon was a key stop on the world’s first long-haul commercial flights. Until the Great Depression struck, business boomed with big profits from exporting rice, teak and oil – at one time the Burmah Oil Company was one of the biggest multinational companies in the world.

In 1927, The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda lived in Rangoon and later encapsulated these heady times in a poem describing the capital of British Burma as “a city of blood, dreams and gold