Myanmar History: Chronology, Kingship and Colonial Conquest
Myanmar History
The Myanmar History domain tests political chronology, institutional change, and the causes and consequences of turning points from the Pyu period to the Union of Myanmar. Questions often ask you to sequence events, identify continuities in Buddhist kingship and administration, and explain how external pressure and internal reform interacted.
Core chronology and concepts
- Pyu city-states - Beikthano, Halin and Sri Ksetra flourished in the first millennium CE; their urban planning, coinage and Buddhist material culture are examinable.
- Bagan (9th–13th centuries) - Anawrahta (r. 1044–1077) consolidated power and promoted Theravada Buddhism; Bagan’s decline is linked to Mongol pressure, internal fragmentation and shifting trade, not one cause.
- Toungoo and Konbaung - the First Toungoo unified much of the Irrawaddy valley; the Konbaung dynasty (1752–1885) expanded westward and fought the British.
- Colonial conquest - the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826) ended with the Treaty of Yandabo; the Second (1852) and Third (1885) wars completed annexation.
- Independence - Panglong Agreement (12 February 1947), 1947 Constitution, independence on 4 January 1948.
Worked example
Question: Explain why the First Anglo-Burmese War broke out and give one territorial consequence. Reasoning: link frontier rivalry in Assam and Manipur with Burmese expansion and British commercial and strategic anxiety; the war began in 1824. The Treaty of Yandabo (1826) ceded Arakan and Tenasserim and imposed an indemnity - a consequence, not a cause.
Traps
Do not merge Panglong (1947) with independence (1948); do not date Yandabo to 1824; avoid monocausal explanations of Bagan’s fall.