From Panglong to Bangkok: The British Colonial Legacy in Burma (original) (raw)

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to study the effects of the British decolonization process on post-colonial Burma and the rise of Ne Win's military dictatorship after the 1962 coup d'état. Between 1947, the year of independence, and the establishment of Ne Win’s Burma Socialist Programme Party, the United Kingdom continued to diplomatically and aggressively monitor the new republic. Beginning with British official colonial absence from the Panglong Conference in 1947, which thus gave the right for self-determination to the popular Burmese leader, Aung San, the British implemented a hasty decolonization process in the post-war period. Additionally, by offering military and economic assistance to the Union of Burma, the United Kingdom continued to influence the post-colonial nation. Britain's influential foreign policies, including military and financial assistant, continued through the 1950s when Kuomintang (KMT) forces arrives in the Shan States. By using a combination of diplomatic records, private journals, and newspapers, this thesis analyzes the effects of the British hasty decolonization process from the post-war period and the way it continued to influence the Union of Burma in the post-colonial period until the rise of Ne Win's military dictatorship. It begins by its analysis of the decolonization process with the Panglong Conference in 1947 and continues by analyzing the British reaction, or lack thereof, during the KMT informal invasion and occupation of the Shan States. It concludes by examining Ne Win's coup d'état in 1962, the establishment of the military dictatorship in 1963, and Britain’s failure to leave a legacy of majority-ruled states in the region whose minorities claimed adequate rights within those states.

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