Post-independence Burma (1948–1962)

Period of Burmese history from the end of British rule in 1948 to the 1962 coup

"Union of Burma" redirects here. For other uses, see Union of Burma (disambiguation).

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Union of Burma

ပြည်ထောင်စု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်‌ (Burmese)
Pyidaunzu Myăma Nainngandaw

1948–1962

Flag

Seal

Motto: သမဂ္ဂါနံ တပေါ သုခေါ (Pali)
Samaggānaṃ tapo sukho
"Happiness through harmony"
Anthem: ကမ္ဘာမကျေ (Burmese)
Kaba Ma Kyei
"Till the End of the World"
Capital| Rangoon
Official languages| Burmese
Recognised languages| English[a]
Religion

| Buddhism (majority; state religion from 1961)[1][2]
Demonym(s)| Burmese
Government| Federal parliamentary republic (de jure)
Unitary dominant-party parliamentary republic (de facto)
President|

• 1948–1952 (first)

| Sao Shwe Thaik

• 1957–1962 (last)

| Win Maung
Prime minister|

• 1948–1956 (first)

| U Nu

• 1960–1962 (last)

| U Nu
Legislature| Union Parliament

• Upper house

| Chamber of Nationalities

• Lower house

| Chamber of Deputies
Historical era| Cold War

• Independence Act

| 10 December 1947

• Established

| 4 January 1948

• 1962 coup d'état

| 2 March 1962
Currency| Burmese kyat
Driving side| left
ISO 3166 code| MM

Preceded by | Succeeded by

|

|  | British rule in Burma

|

| Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma |

|

Today part of| Myanmar
History of Myanmar

* Prehistory of Myanmar 11,000–200 BCE
* Pyu city-states 200 BCE – 1050 CE

(Sri Ksetra Kingdom, Tagaung Kingdom)

* Mon kingdoms 825?–1057? CE

(Thaton Kingdom)

* Arakanese kingdoms 788?–1406

* Pagan Kingdom 849–1297
* Early Pagan Kingdom 849–1044
* Warring states period
* Upper Myanmar 1297–1555
* Myinsaing and Pinya Kingdoms 1297–1365
* Sagaing Kingdom 1315–1365
* Kingdom of Ava 1365–1555
* Prome Kingdom 1482–1542
* Hanthawaddy Kingdom 1287–1539, 1550–1552
* Shan States 1215–1563
* Kingdom of Mrauk U 1429–1785
* Toungoo dynasty 1510–1752
* First Toungoo Empire 1510–1599
* Nyaungyan Restoration 1599–1752
* Restored Hanthawaddy 1740–1757
* Konbaung dynasty 1752–1885

* British colonial period 1824–1948
* Anglo-Burmese Wars 1824–1885
* Resistance movement 1885–1895
* Nationalist movement 1900–1948
* Japanese occupation 1942–1945

* Modern era 1948–present
* Union of Burma 1948–1962
* Socialist Republic 1962–1988
* Union of Myanmar 1988–2010
* Political reforms 2011–2015
* State Administration Council (2021–present)

* Timeline
* List of capitals
* Leaders
* Royal chronicles
* Military history

Myanmar portal

* v
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The first fourteen years of post-independence Burma were marred by several communist and ethnic insurgencies. Prominent insurgent groups during this period include the Communist Party of Burma (CPB, "white flags") led by Thakin Than Tun, the Communist Party (Burma) ("red flags") led by Thakin Soe, the People's Volunteer Organisation (Yèbaw Hpyu) led by Bo La Yaung (a member of the Thirty Comrades), the Revolutionary Burma Army (RBA) led by communist officers Bo Zeya, Bo Yan Aung and Bo Yè Htut (all three of them members of the Thirty Comrades), and the Karen National Union (KNU).[3][page needed]

## History[edit]

Remote areas of northern Burma were for many years controlled by an army of Kuomintang (KMT) forces after the Communist victory in China in 1949.[3][page needed] Burma accepted foreign assistance in rebuilding the country in these early years, but continued American support for the Chinese Nationalist military presence in Burma finally resulted in the country rejecting most foreign aid, refusing to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and supporting the Bandung Conference of 1955.[3][page needed] Burma generally strove to be impartial in world affairs and was one of the first countries in the world to recognise Israel and China.

By 1958, the country was largely beginning to recover economically, but was beginning to fall apart politically due to a split in the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) into two factions, one led by Thakins Nu and Tin, the other by Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein.[3][page needed][4] This was despite the unexpected success of U Nu's "Arms for Democracy" offer taken up by U Seinda in Arakan, the Pa'O, some Mon and Shan groups, but more significantly by the PVO surrendering their arms.[3][page needed] The situation became very unstable in parliament, with U Nu surviving a no-confidence vote only with the support of the opposition National United Front (NUF), believed to have "crypto-communists" amongst them.[3][page needed]

Army hardliners now saw the 'threat' of the CPB coming to an agreement with U Nu through the NUF, and in the end U Nu "invited" Army Chief of Staff General Ne Win to take over the country.[3][page needed] Over 400 "communist sympathisers" were arrested, of which 153 were deported to the Coco Islands in the Andaman Sea. Among them was the NUF leader Aung Than, older brother of Aung San. The Botataung, Kyemon and Rangoon Daily were also closed down.[3][page needed]

Ne Win's caretaker government successfully stabilised the situation and paved the way for new general elections in 1960 that returned U Nu's Union Party with a large majority.[3][page needed] The situation did not remain stable for long, when the Shan Federal Movement, started by Nyaung Shwe Sawbwa Sao Shwe Thaik (the first President of independent Burma 1948–1952) and aspiring to a "loose" federation, was seen as a separatist movement insisting on the government honouring the right to secession in ten years provided for by the 1947 Constitution.[3][page needed]

Ne Win had already succeeded in stripping the Shan Sawbwas of their feudal powers in exchange for comfortable pensions for life in 1959. He staged a coup d'état on 2 March 1962, arrested U Nu, Sao Shwe Thaik and several others, and declared a socialist state run by the Union Revolutionary Council (URC), which consisted of senior military officers. Sao Shwe Thaik's son, Sao Mye Thaik, was shot dead in what was generally described as a "bloodless" coup. Thibaw Sawbwa Sao Kya Seng also disappeared mysteriously after being stopped at a checkpoint near Taunggyi.[3][page needed] The URC later founded the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) on 4 July 1962 to nominally separate the powers of the military from the government and to lead a one-party state.[5]

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ The 1947 Constitution of the Union of Burma states: "The official language of the Union shall be Burmese, provided that the use of the English language may be permitted."

## References[edit]

### Citations[edit]

1. ^ "၁၉၆၁ခုနှစ် ဖွဲ့စည်းအုပ်ချုပ်ပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ (တတိယပြင်ဆင်ချက်) အက်ဥပဒေ" [1961 Act of the Third Amendment of the Constitution]. Act of 26 August 1961 (in Burmese). Union Parliament.
2. ^ "၁၉၆၁ ခုနှစ်၊ နိုင်ငံတော်ဘာသာသာသနာချီးမြှောက်ထောက်ပံ့ရေးအက်ဥပဒေ" [1961 year, State Religion Promotion Act]. Constitutional Tribunal of the Union, Law Library. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022. "တည်ဆဲဥပဒေဖြစ်ပါသည်"
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Smith 1991.
4. ^ "Myanmar Since Independence". Britannica. Archived from the original on 14 September 2020. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
5. ^ Yoshihiro, p. 330. sfn error: no target: CITEREFYoshihiro (help)

### Sources[edit]

* Smith, Martin (1991). Burma: Insurgency and the politics of ethnicity (1st ed.). London and New Jersey: Zed Books. ISBN 0862328683.
* Yoshihiro, Nakanishi (2003). "Party-State Manqué: Ne Win and the Burma Socialist Programme Party". Japanese Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (in Japanese). 41 (3): 330–360. doi:10.20495/tak.41.3_330. Archived from the original on 2 June 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.

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Myanmar is also known as Burma

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