Burma (British)

British Burma was administered as a province of India from 1886 and became a separate colony in 1937. Britain had taken it in three wars across sixty years, ending with the deposition of King Thibaw in 1885 and his exile to India. Governing Burma from Calcutta had consequences the British never quite reckoned with. It brought large-scale Indian immigration - moneylenders, labourers and clerks - until Rangoon had an Indian majority, which produced anti-Indian riots and shaped Burmese nationalism into something ethnically defensive from the start. The monarchy's abolition also removed the patron of the Buddhist sangha, so monks became a principal channel of political resistance. The Irrawaddy delta was cleared and planted, making Burma the world's largest rice exporter, with the land heavily mortgaged to Indian lenders. The hills were administered separately from the Burman lowlands, and minorities were recruited into the colonial army while Burmans largely were not - a division that became civil war after independence and has not ended. Separation from India in 1937 came with a legislature and limited self-government. Japan invaded in 1942 and was welcomed by nationalists who had trained with it, including Aung San; they changed sides in 1945 when the occupation proved worse. Britain returned and negotiated. Aung San signed the independence agreement and was assassinated with most of his cabinet in July 1947. Burma became independent on 4 January 1948 and left the Commonwealth, alone among the major colonies in doing so. The teak forests were among the most valuable in the empire and were worked by elephant. Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda was a focus of nationalist gatherings throughout. George Orwell served five years in the Burma police and wrote Burmese Days out of it.

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