History http://proxy.stu.edu:2058/docview/200010304/141EE2B93723EE5FBF5/3?accountid=14129 The country we know now as Burma was originally formed in 11th century with King Anawrahta who united Burma in his reign. His and the successors’ strong religious belief of Buddhism contributed to the enormous amount of pagodas in the capital of that period called Pagan.
Although the megalomaniac activities to build all kinds of pagodas and monasteries had impoverished and weakened the country making it vulnerable to the invasion of exterior ethnic groups, it still remained generally united with the efforts of kings until Britain government intervened. Taking advantage of the instable status of Burma politics, Britain finally conquered Burma and identified it as its colony after sixty years of war in 1886 and brought British culture, architecture style and tradition into the country. It also became the world’s largest rice exporter at this time.
Britain granted privilege to some particular ethnic groups with the attempt to further split the many ethnic minorities which led to the anger and dissatisfaction of Burma people. A great political leader named Aung San emerged to lead Burma people to hold a series of protests. With the leadership of Aung San, Burma seized the opportunity to regain its sovereignty during the Second World War after defeating Japanese and negotiating with Britain.
While Aung San was preparing for the foundation of new Burma and drafting the constitution, he was assassinated by opposition group. But the country still achieved independence on January 4th, 1948. As the economy depressed and society was unstable, the successor of Aung San, U Nu was forced to leave the office by Ne Win. He became the military dictator of Burma. He canceled constitution and resorted to military rule over the country. The development of economy, culture and environment were totally ruined by his ruthless rule of the country. Insurgence happened in many areas of the country.
In 1988 Ne Win announced that he was planning to leave the stage. Being taken as the country’s last chance to recover the economy, re-thrive the culture and run as a democratic country, many protests and demonstrations appeared. People poured to the streets to strive for their rights and hope for a better country including Aung San’s daughter Aung San Suu Kyi. But Ne Win handed over the rights to a State Law and Order Restoration Council and nationwide slaughter began. Thousands of people were killed and Aung San Suu Kyi was also arrested. In 1990, the National League for Democracy Party won the national election but the State Law and Order Restoration Council refused to acknowledge the election and grasped the power and ruled the country in a repressive way since then.
Demographics
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Burma now is making preparations for having its national census in 2014 which will be the first time during recent 30 years.
Burma’s population grew 2% from 1998 to 2006 according to government statistics. In October 2011, Burma’s population reached 60 million. For the capital of Burma-Yangon, its population rised by 23% in 2011 compared to its population of 2010. Burma completed its last census in 1983 with nearly 25% of the people living in urban areas. Among the urban citizens, 40% lived in the Rangoon region. Now Burma is right on its way of population structure transition which makes the next census critical to the future development of the country. The statistics from the census will be an important guidance to estimate future requirements like infrastructure construction, the needs for social institutions,etc. http://proxy.stu.edu:2058/docview/759067523/141F4C1D2306579FD02/2?accountid=14129 Eastern Burma’s demographics are featured as high birth rates, high death rates and acute scarcity of men under the age of 45 due to years of conflicts between Burma government and ethnical insurgencies.
In Shan State and similar ethnic Karen area, thousands of people are homeless and become refugees due to wars with other countries and confilicts with the country.
Language
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Now Burma Education Ministry attaches great importance to the learning and teaching of foreign languages. Learning courses are provided including English, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In recent years Thai has also been added to one of the popular language due to better and more frequent interactions between the two countries.
Among the 8 languages, English and Chinese are the two most popular and widely used languages with more people learning and using. More Burma people are now having the interest in learning language both because of the advertisement of China on TV and more importantly the closer economic and business relations between the two countries. http://proxy.stu.edu:2058/docview/1430944423/141F4DFCE5194BC95B/3?accountid=14129 Myanmar language is the main language in Burma, so do the TV channels. But now more languages of other races have also stared to be broadcast on TV by a new channel from mis-October this year. This action is aimed to unite and develop all the ethnic minorities in Burma and enlighten more people even in the isolated regions. http://proxy.stu.edu:2058/docview/1266076305/141F4DFCE5194BC95B/5?accountid=14129 Free publication of newspapers in Myanmar language, ethnic minorities languages and foreign languages will be allowed from April 1st this year.
Religion
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Burma is a country with strong Buddhism religion. In the last many centuries, kings and governments of Burma emphasized and strongly enhanced the unique role and the importance of Buddhism. Religion of Buddhism and politics were always bonded tightly together as faith in Buddhism is the demonstration of national identity. The political reflection in Buddhism was weakened during the colonial rule under Britain. While soon after regaining independence, the rulers of the country conceived of new ways to control the religion.
In modern Burma, leaders of the country still tried to use the old, historical Buddhism to help serve politics. U Nu and Ne Win both used the strong belief of Buddhism as a great motivation of having a united nation and tried to enlarge and confine the influence of Buddhism.
In recent years Buddhism seems to be less political and slightly thriving but it’s still too soon to know the final result. Huge political, economic and social pressures are upon the Buddhist Burma among which Marxism and Communism are the most prominent. In terms of the crisis, Buddhism has once again been set up as an inseparable part of Burma public order.
Government
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Value systems
Business practices

Attitude toward foreign investment http://proxy.stu.edu:2058/docview/217681711/141FD875B524E8F479E/10?accountid=14129 Burma foreign investment law was released in end of 1988 by State Law and Order Restoration Council. The law aims to transform Burma’s economic mechanism from planned socialist system into private-enterprise-led market. The law had offered foreign investment favoring incentives to stimulate more foreign investment into Burma. The terms of the law showed the military council’s great eagerness for foreign capital injection especially for hard currency including direct foreign investment and earnings from exports and high technology. With the implementation of the law, a steady flow of private companies and government made contributions to Burma but there were still peculiar problems in front of foreign investors in Burma. It turned out that the economic growth contributed by foreign investment wouldn’t be able to last long.