Myanmar Matriculation History cheat sheet

Pagan (Bagan) is the first unified Burmese kingdom, founded by Anawrahta in 1044; he introduced Theravada Buddhism after conquering Thaton in 1057.

The three Burmese empires in exam chronology: First (Pagan, 1044-1287), Second (Toungoo, 1510-1752), Third (Konbaung, 1752-1885).

King Bayinnaung of Toungoo (r. 1551-1581) built the largest empire in mainland Southeast Asian history, subduing Siam and Lan Na; his capitals were Toungoo and later Pegu (Hanthawaddy).

Alaungpaya founded the Konbaung dynasty in 1752 by overthrowing Mon rule at Pegu; his successors moved the capital to Ava, then Amarapura, then Mandalay (1857).

The three Anglo-Burmese Wars: 1824-1826 (Treaty of Yandabo, ceding Arakan and Tenasserim), 1852 (annexation of Lower Burma/Pegu), 1885 (annexation of Upper Burma, end of monarchy).

King Mindon (r. 1853-1878) founded Mandalay in 1857 and hosted the Fifth Buddhist Synod in 1871; King Thibaw, his successor, was the last Burmese monarch.

The Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA), founded 1906, and the General Council of Burmese Associations (GCBA) became the organizational base of early Burmese nationalism.

The Rangoon University Students' Strike of 1920 and the 1930 peasant rebellion led by Saya San are key markers of the interwar nationalist movement.

Dobama Asiayone ("We Burmans"), founded 1930, gave the independence movement its Thakin leadership, including Aung San, Ne Win, and U Nu.

Angkor, capital of the Khmer Empire, flourished from the 9th to the 15th century; its most famous ruler Jayavarman VII (r. 1181-1218) built Angkor Thom and the Bayon temple.

Srivijaya, a maritime empire centred on Palembang in Sumatra from the 7th to 13th centuries, controlled the Strait of Malacca trade and was a Buddhist centre visited by the Chinese pilgrim Yijing.

Majapahit, an East Javanese empire (1293-c.1527), reached its height under Hayam Wuruk and his prime minister Gajah Mada, and is celebrated in the Nagarakretagama.

The Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya (1351-1767) was destroyed by the Burmese under Hsinbyushin; its successor states were Thonburi under Taksin and then Bangkok under the Chakri dynasty (1782).

The Malacca Sultanate (c.1400-1511) was founded by Parameswara and converted to Islam; its capture by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511 opened Portuguese dominance of the spice trade.

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) took control of Java after the 1619 founding of Batavia, and governed the island until the Dutch state assumed control in 1799.

The French Indochina Union (1887) combined Tonkin, Annam, Cochinchina, and Cambodia; Laos was added in 1893, and Siam alone preserved independence in mainland Southeast Asia.

The Philippines was a Spanish colony from 1565 (Legazpi at Cebu) until 1898, when the Treaty of Paris transferred it to the United States after the Spanish-American War.

ASEAN was established by the Bangkok Declaration on 8 August 1967 with five founding members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

The French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the Declaration of the Rights of Man followed in August 1789, and the monarchy was abolished in September 1792.

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain around 1760; key innovations include the steam engine (Watt, 1769), the spinning jenny, and the railway (Stockton-Darlington, 1825).

The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), chaired by Metternich, restored the European balance of power after Napoleon's defeat and created the German Confederation.

World War I (1914-1918) was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo on 28 June 1914; the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 had two phases: the February Revolution that ended the tsarist autocracy and the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks under Lenin to power.

The League of Nations was founded in 1920 as part of the Versailles settlement; the United States never joined, and the League was replaced by the United Nations in 1945.

World War II in Europe began with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939; the Pacific war began with the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

The Cold War was a rivalry between the US-led NATO bloc (founded 1949) and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact (founded 1955); the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the USSR dissolved in 1991.

The Non-Aligned Movement was founded at the Belgrade Conference in 1961, building on the 1955 Bandung Conference of Asian and African states.

1044: Anawrahta founds the Pagan dynasty; 1057: conquest of Thaton brings Theravada Buddhist texts and Mon craftsmen to Pagan.

1287: Mongol forces under Khubilai Khan end Pagan's dominance; the kingdom fragments into Ava, Pegu, and Shan states.

1510: Mingyinyo founds the Toungoo dynasty; 1551-1581: Bayinnaung's reign of expansion.

1752: Alaungpaya founds the Konbaung dynasty; 1767: Burmese armies sack Ayutthaya.

1824-1826: First Anglo-Burmese War; the Treaty of Yandabo cedes Arakan and Tenasserim and imposes an indemnity.

1852: Second Anglo-Burmese War annexes Lower Burma; 1885: Third Anglo-Burmese War ends the monarchy and Thibaw is exiled to Ratnagiri.

1871: Fifth Buddhist Synod held at Mandalay under King Mindon; the Pali canon is inscribed on marble slabs (the Kuthodaw Pagoda).

1906: YMBA founded; 1920: Rangoon University Students' Strike; 1930: Saya San rebellion and founding of Dobama Asiayone.

1947: Panglong Agreement (12 February) and the assassination of Aung San (19 July); 4 January 1948: independence under U Nu.

Pagan (Myanmar), Angkor (Khmer), Srivijaya (Sumatra), Majapahit (Java), and Ayutthaya (Siam) are the five classical mainland/island empires most examined.

Khmer Empire: Suryavarman II (r. 1113-c.1150) built Angkor Wat; Jayavarman VII built Angkor Thom and the Bayon and adopted Mahayana Buddhism.

Srivijaya's power rested on control of maritime trade through the Malacca and Sunda straits; it declined after the 13th-century Chola raids and the rise of Majapahit.

Ayutthaya fell to Burma in 1767; Taksin reunified Siam from Thonburi, and Rama I founded the Chakri dynasty at Bangkok in 1782.

Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511; the Dutch VOC took Malacca from Portugal in 1641; Britain acquired it by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.

Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines began in 1565; the Katipunan revolution (1896) under Bonifacio and the 1898 declaration of independence preceded US annexation.

French Indochina: Cochinchina was ceded in 1862 and 1867, Cambodia became a protectorate in 1863, Annam and Tonkin in 1883-1884, and the Union was formed in 1887.

Siam's independence was preserved through modernization under Mongkut (r. 1851-1868) and Chulalongkorn (r. 1868-1910), who abolished slavery and reformed administration.

8 August 1967: ASEAN founded by the Bangkok Declaration; the ASEAN Charter entered into force in 2008, giving the grouping legal personality.

1789: French Revolution begins; 1799: Napoleon's coup of 18 Brumaire; 1815: Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna.

1760s-1830s: first Industrial Revolution in Britain (textiles, steam); 1870s onward: second Industrial Revolution (steel, chemicals, electricity).

1914-1918: World War I; 1917: Russian Revolutions; 1919: Treaty of Versailles; 1920: League of Nations established.

1929: Wall Street Crash and the onset of the Great Depression; 1933: Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany.

1939: German invasion of Poland; 1941: Operation Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor; 1945: Yalta and Potsdam conferences, atomic bombs, UN founded.

1947: Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan; 1949: NATO founded and the People's Republic of China proclaimed; 1955: Warsaw Pact.

1961: Berlin Wall built and the Non-Aligned Movement founded at Belgrade; 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis.

1989: fall of the Berlin Wall; 1991: dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Key concepts to distinguish: nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and alliance systems as causes of WWI; collective security versus balance of power as organizing principles.

British Burma was administered as a province of British India until 1937, when the Burma Act of 1935 separated it and created a elected legislature.

Rice cultivation in the Irrawaddy Delta expanded massively after the 1852 annexation; Indian moneylenders (chettiars) financed much of the expansion.

The 1930s Depression collapsed rice prices and intensified peasant debt, providing the economic backdrop to the Saya San rebellion (1930-1932).

The Burma Oil Company and other British firms dominated extractive industry; the Burmah Oil Company's wells at Yenangyaung symbolized colonial economic control.

The 1936 second university students' strike and the 1938-1939 workers' and peasants' strikes (the "Revolution of 1300 ME") radicalized the nationalist movement.

The Burma Independence Army entered with Japanese forces in 1942; Japan granted nominal independence on 1 August 1943 under Ba Maw.

The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), formed in 1945 under Aung San, negotiated independence with Britain through the Aung San-Attlee Agreement of January 1947.

The Panglong Agreement of 12 February 1947 secured the cooperation of Shan, Kachin, and Chin leaders in a future Union of Burma.

British Malaya: the Pangkor Engagement of 1874 began residential intervention; the Federated Malay States formed in 1895 and the Unfederated States were added by 1914.

Singapore was founded as a British trading post by Stamford Raffles in 1819; it became part of the Straits Settlements in 1826.

The Dutch Ethical Policy (1901) and the 1912 founding of Sarekat Islam mark the rise of Indonesian nationalism; Sukarno proclaimed independence on 17 August 1945.

The Philippines: José Rizal's novels and the 1892 founding of the Katipunan preceded the 1896 revolution; independence came on 4 July 1946.

Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2 September 1945 after the August Revolution.

The 1954 Geneva Accords ended the First Indochina War and divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel, leading to the Second Indochina (Vietnam) War.

Cambodia gained independence from France in 1953 under Norodom Sihanouk; the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in 1975.

Thailand's 1932 revolution ended absolute monarchy and established a constitutional system; the country joined ASEAN as a founding member in 1967.

Decolonization milestones: Indonesia 1945/1949, Burma 1948, Malaya 1957, Singapore 1965 (after 1963 merger with Malaysia), Brunei full independence 1984.

The Enlightenment thinkers most examined: Locke (natural rights, consent of the governed), Montesquieu (separation of powers), Rousseau (general will, popular sovereignty).

The American Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776) and the US Constitution (1787) directly influenced French revolutionary documents.

The Meiji Restoration (1868) in Japan ended Tokugawa rule and launched state-led industrialization; the 1889 Meiji Constitution created a constitutional monarchy.

The 1917 Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 shaped post-Ottoman Middle Eastern borders after WWI.

The United Nations was founded at San Francisco in 1945; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on 10 December 1948.

The Bretton Woods Conference (1944) created the IMF and the World Bank; GATT (1947) preceded the WTO (1995).

Decolonization in Africa and Asia peaked in the late 1950s and 1960s; 1960 is known as the "Year of Africa" with 17 newly independent states.

The Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) was resolved by Soviet withdrawal of missiles in exchange for a US pledge not to invade Cuba and removal of missiles from Turkey.

1948-1958: parliamentary democracy under U Nu and the AFPFL; the 1947 Constitution established a federal-style Union with a Chamber of Deputies and Chamber of Nationalities.

1958-1960: caretaker government under General Ne Win; 1960: U Nu returns after winning elections on a "Federal Movement" platform.

2 March 1962: Ne Win's coup ends parliamentary rule; the Revolutionary Council introduces the "Burmese Way to Socialism" and the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP).

1974: a new constitution creates the Socialist Republic of the Burma Union; the BSPP becomes the sole legal party.

1988: the 8888 Uprising; on 18 September 1988 the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) takes power and later renames the country Myanmar (1989).

1990: the National League for Democracy wins a landslide in elections that the military regime does not honour.

1991: Aung San Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; she had been under house arrest since 1989.

2008: a new constitution is approved by referendum; 2010: elections and the transition to a nominally civilian government under Thein Sein.

2015: NLD wins a majority and Htin Kyaw becomes president in 2016; 1 February 2021: the military again seizes power.

The Strait of Malacca is the key maritime chokepoint linking the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea; control of it underpinned Srivijaya, Malacca, and later European power.

The monsoon system governed Southeast Asian trade: the northeast monsoon carried ships west and the southwest monsoon carried them east, forcing port cities to host traders seasonally.

"Indianization" describes the adoption of Indian religious, political, and scriptural models by Southeast Asian states such as Funan, Champa, and Angkor.

The "mandala" or galactic polity model describes Southeast Asian states as centres of personal authority with fluid, contested peripheries rather than fixed borders.

The Irrawaddy, Chao Phraya, Mekong, and Red River deltas were the demographic and rice-surplus cores of mainland Southeast Asia.

Spice trade commodities: cloves and nutmeg from the Moluccas, pepper from Sumatra and Malaya, and sandalwood and tin from mainland ports.

The "plural society" concept (J.S. Furnivall), developed from Burmese colonial experience, describes societies where ethnic groups mix economically but not socially.

The 1967 Bangkok Declaration and the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation enshrine non-interference and consensus as ASEAN's operating principles.

Long-term causes of WWI: alliance blocs (Triple Alliance 1882, Triple Entente 1907), naval rivalry, imperial competition, and Balkan nationalism.

Immediate trigger of WWI: assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo, 28 June 1914; Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914.

US entry into WWI (April 1917) followed unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram.

Consequences of Versailles: German territorial losses, the War Guilt clause, reparations, and the mandate system for former Ottoman and German colonies.

Causes of WWII: the failures of the League, appeasement at Munich (1938), the Great Depression, and the rise of fascist and militarist regimes.

The Holocaust and the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946) established individual criminal responsibility under international law.

Post-1945 decolonization was accelerated by the weakening of European economies and by the Atlantic Charter's endorsement of self-determination.

The Cold War ended through Soviet economic strain, the arms race, and reformist leadership under Gorbachev (glasnost, perestroika), culminating in 1991.

Hluttaw: the royal council of ministers and high officials that advised the Burmese king and heard appeals.

Myoza and myothugyi: hereditary local officials (town and village chiefs) through whom the Konbaung state governed the countryside.

Ahmudan: royal servicemen who owed labour service rather than tax; athi were ordinary tax-paying commoners.

Lethwei, the traditional Burmese martial art, and the Burmese calendar (Chula Sakkaraj) are cultural markers sometimes tested alongside dynastic history.

The Pitaka Taik at Mandalay, built by King Mindon in 1857, housed the Buddhist scriptures inscribed on 729 marble slabs.

The Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon and the Ananda Temple at Pagan are the most frequently cited religious monuments.

The term "Thakin" means "master" and was adopted by Dobama Asiayone members as a challenge to British claims of mastery.

The AFPFL's 21-Point Programme and the Pyidawtha ("Happy Land") welfare plan were U Nu-era development policies.

The 1947 Constitution recognized Burma as a Union of states, with limited autonomy for Shan and Kayah states and special provisions for the frontier areas.

Anawrahta (Pagan), Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII (Angkor), Hayam Wuruk (Majapahit), and Bayinnaung (Toungoo) are the rulers most frequently matched to monuments and conquests.

Angkor Wat was dedicated to Vishnu by Suryavarman II; the Bayon, with its face towers, was a Mahayana Buddhist state temple of Jayavarman VII.

Borobudur (Central Java, 9th century) is the largest Buddhist monument in the world; Prambanan nearby is a Hindu temple complex.

Bagan's plain holds over 2,000 surviving temples; the Ananda, Thatbyinnyu, and Dhammayangyi are among the most cited.

The Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok) is the palladium of the Thai monarchy, brought to Siam in the 18th century.

The Nagarakretagama, a 14th-century Javanese poem by Prapanca, is the main source for Majapahit's extent.

The Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) is the principal literary source for the Malacca Sultanate's history.

The Phra That Luang in Vientiane is the national religious symbol of Laos, associated with the Lane Xang kingdom founded by Fa Ngum in 1353.

English Revolution (1640-1688): Civil War, the 1649 execution of Charles I, the Protectorate under Cromwell, and the 1688 Glorious Revolution establishing parliamentary supremacy.

American Revolution (1775-1783): taxation without representation, the 1776 Declaration, French assistance, and the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

French Revolution phases: constitutional monarchy (1789-1792), republic and Terror (1792-1794), Directory (1795-1799), and Napoleon's Consulate and Empire (1799-1815).

Russian Revolution: the February 1917 revolution ended the Romanov autocracy; the October Revolution brought the Bolsheviks to power under Lenin and Trotsky.

Chinese Revolution: the 1911 Xinhai Revolution ended the Qing dynasty and founded the Republic under Sun Yat-sen; the 1949 communist victory founded the PRC.

Common revolutionary ingredients tested: fiscal crisis, weak or divided elites, mobilized middle and urban classes, and diffusion of Enlightenment or socialist ideology.

The Congress of Vienna's principles were legitimacy, compensation, and balance of power, and it established the Concert of Europe.

The 1848 "Spring of Nations" revolutions spread across Europe but largely failed, though they ended serfdom in parts of Central Europe.

The 1947 Panglong Agreement promised "full autonomy in internal administration for the Frontier Areas"; its interpretation remains contested.

Armed conflict after 1948 included the Karen National Union (founded 1947), which began armed struggle in 1949.

The 1962 coup ended the federal arrangements of the 1947 Constitution; Ne Win's 1974 Constitution recast the Union as a unitary socialist state.

Ceasefire agreements from 1989 onward (starting with the Kokang and Wa forces) ended open warfare with several armed groups without political settlement.

The 2008 Constitution reserves 25 percent of parliamentary seats for military appointees and gives the military control of key ministries.

The Rohingya crisis of 2017 followed attacks on police posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and led to mass displacement to Bangladesh.

The 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement was signed by eight armed groups; others, including the KIA and TNLA, remained outside it.

The United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Army are among the largest non-state armed forces in the country.

The 2021 coup triggered the formation of the National Unity Government and People's Defence Forces, reviving nationwide resistance.

Treaty of Yandabo (1826) ended the First Anglo-Burmese War; the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 divided the Malay world between Britain and the Netherlands.

The Bowring Treaty (1855) between Siam and Britain opened Siam to free trade and extraterritoriality, beginning Siam's unequal-treaty era.

The 1874 Pangkor Engagement created the residential system in Perak and became the model for British intervention in the Malay states.

The 1896 federation of the Federated Malay States grouped Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang under a Resident-General at Kuala Lumpur.

The 1909 Bangkok Treaty transferred Siamese suzerainty over Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, and Perlis to Britain.

The 1945 Potsdam Conference placed southern Vietnam under British and northern Vietnam under Chinese occupation for the surrender of Japanese forces.

The 1954 Geneva Conference produced the division of Vietnam and the independence of Cambodia and Laos from French rule.

The 1967 Bangkok Declaration founded ASEAN; the 1976 Bali Summit produced the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and the Declaration of Concord.

The 1995 Treaty of Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (Bangkok Treaty) complements ASEAN's security framework.

League of Nations structure: Assembly, Council, and Secretariat; it lacked an enforcement mechanism and the United States never joined.

UN principal organs: General Assembly, Security Council (five permanent members with veto), Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice, and Secretariat.

NATO (1949) and the Warsaw Pact (1955) were collective defence alliances; the Warsaw Pact dissolved in 1991.

The European Economic Community was created by the Treaty of Rome (1957); the Maastricht Treaty (1992) created the European Union.

The Geneva Conventions (1949) and their Additional Protocols govern the laws of armed conflict; the International Criminal Court was established by the Rome Statute (1998).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is non-binding; the two binding covenants on civil-political and economic-social rights date from 1966.

The IMF and World Bank were created at Bretton Woods (1944) and began operations in 1945-1946.

The Suez Crisis (1956) marked the decline of British and French imperial power and the rise of US and Soviet dominance.