British Burma was a period from 1824 to 1948 that saw the United Kingdom rule over the present-day country of Burma as a part of British Raj after many wars with the Burmese dynasties. Rangoon (Yangon) served as the capital of British-ruled Burma, which gained independence in 1948 due to Aung San's activism.
History[]
British Burma in 1939
Burma's conquest by the British Empire began in 1824 with the First Anglo-Burmese War, which arose due to the dispute over the ownership of the Arakan region. The United Kingdom would go on to fight the Burmese Empire two more times and eventually conquer the country in 1885, and in November 1885 Secretary of State for India Randolph Churchill (the father of future Prime Minister Winston Churchill) declared Burma to be a province of British India. The British abolished the monarchy and separated church and state, with secular schools teaching both English and Burmese. However, in 1937 Burma was separated from British Raj as an independent colony of Britain, with Rangoon becoming the capital of the new State of Burma, which had a fully-elected assembly. World War II would see the British Commonwealth fight against the Empire of Japan for control of Burma, and some Burmese people such as Aung San fought alongside the Japanese against the British in hopes of achieving independence. After the war, like India, Burma was granted independence from the United Kingdom in a rough transition, with Aung San being murdered before independence could be achieved.