Myanmar was known as Burma until 1989. Note most people continue to use both names interchangeably without much fuss. Sometimes Burma is just an easier word to pronounce. Both words have the same origin, linguistically. Myanma is the literary, written name of the country and Bama is more colloquial. Captured Thailand's capital city in 1767, burning the palace and the city, but driven out by Chinese. First Anglo-Burmese War then came in 1824-1826, and finished with Burma losing territory she had earlier gained in Assam, India. Second Anglo-Burmese War 1852-1853, finished with Britain annexing Burma but with no treaty and which occurred in the midst of Burmese-Siamese War 1849-1855 with Siam invading Burma but being driven back. Finally Third Anglo-Burmese War with Siam neutral (Nov 1885), finished with Burma fully under British rule until independence in 1948. Large Cities Mandalay was its former royal capital until 1885. In 1870 it had a population of 100,000. Today 1 million. Yangon (known as Rangoon until 1989) 10,000 in 1824, 100,000 in 1872, 248,000 in 1901, 500,000 in 1941, 1.5m in 1960, 3m in 1990, 7m today. Yangon is its largest city. It was a fishing village that was captured by British in 1824 and became the capital city after 1852 until 2006. Since 2006, the capital has been Naypyidaw, population 1 million.
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