People power: Understanding the making of Myanmar

The story of Myanmar is more about people than territory. The country as we know it today was only created in 1948, when what was then Burma achieved independence from Britain. Beforehand, it had never been a single political entity. Instead, for centuries the region had been home to competing kingdoms and clans, vying for control, as their fortunes ebbed and flowed. Some of these powers stretched into neighbouring India, Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand, yet all failed to conquer the highlands forming the north of modern Myanmar. And as battles were fought and kingdoms expanded or contracted, so too people moved with them. This area of Southeast Asia had a relatively small population f