Interpreting the End of Traditional Burma

Abstract

British rule over all of Burma required the termination of the Konbaung Dynasty.¹ This overt political transformation was as dramatic as it was decisive, but the country was also undergoing massive social transformations, brought about by rapid economic development. These alterations affected every aspect of Burma, including the interpretations of its past. This chapter focuses upon the ways in which the British conceptualized Burma’s past. The immediate priority would be to understand recent history—that which had occurred between the Second and Third Anglo-Burmese Wars. A second larger aim, which reflected the pressures which arose from modernization, addressed comprehending Burma’s more remote past.