MyanmarBackground
Ethnic Burmans and other ethnic and religious minority groups have resisted external efforts to consolidate control throughout Myanmar's history. Britain conquered Myanmar from the 1820s to the 1880s and administered it as a province of India until it became a self-governing colony in 1937. Myanmar gained independence in 1948; Ne Win seized power in 1962, ruling until a new military regime took control in 1988. In 1990, the regime rejected the NLD's election victory and kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest until 2010. Rising fuel prices sparked the 2007 Saffron Revolution, which activists and monks launched before the regime violently suppressed it.
A constitution designed to preserve military control preceded the 2010 election, which the NLD boycotted and the military's proxy won. Reforms began haltingly; Aung San Suu Kyi returned to government in 2012, and the NLD won a sweeping victory in 2015. Her government faced criticism for blocking investigations into military operations against the ethnic Rohingya population, which the US Department of State determined constituted genocide. The NUG announced armed PDF militias and an insurgency in 2021; by 2024, PDF units continued fighting the regime.
Source: CIA World Factbook · 2026-02-01 · text generated from this source, approved by a person