![]() Fifty years later it was one of the poorest. In 1962 Burma had been one of Asia’s richest countries. They were also embarrassed about the country’s economy, which they had driven into the ground. Decades of diplomatic isolation by the West had forced Myanmar into China’s orbit, something the generals were uneasy about. ![]() The first was that they were worried about the country’s direction of travel. In 2011, though, the Tatmadaw amazed the world by making way for a civilian government. In 1988 it savagely quashed a democratic uprising. After toppling a democratically elected government in 1962 it stayed in power almost continuously for nearly 50 years, justifying its rule on the basis that it was the only institution capable of holding the country together. The army, then as now dominated by officers from the Bamar ethnic majority, began a suppression of such separatism that has gone on ever since. After independence in 1948 many of those groups promptly rebelled against the new government. When created through conquest in the 19th century, British Burma lumped together over 100 different ethnic groups. The army, known as the Tatmadaw, is used to being in charge.
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