During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systemic human rights violations in the country. Following a coup d'état in 1962, it became a military dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Programme Party.įor most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. After a brief Japanese occupation, Myanmar was reconquered by the Allies and gained independence in 1948. The British East India Company seized control of the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century, and the country became a British colony. The early 19th-century Konbaung dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo dynasty, the country became the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a short period.

The Pagan Kingdom fell to Mongol invasions, and several warring states emerged. In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley, and following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture, and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. Įarly civilisations in the area included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Myanmar and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Myanmar. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon (Rangoon). Myanmar is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest.

It is the largest country in Mainland Southeast Asia, and has a population of about 54 million as of 2017. Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar ( Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်‌, ), formerly Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia. You may need rendering support to display the Burmese script in this article correctly.

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