Editing Economy of Myanmar (section)

===British Burma (1885–1948)===
{{Further|British rule in Burma}}

Under the British administration, the people of Burma were at the bottom of social hierarchy, with Europeans at the top, Indians, Chinese, and Christianized minorities in the middle, and Buddhist Burmese at the bottom.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Thant Myint-U. |title=The river of lost footsteps : histories of Burma |date=2006 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-16342-6 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=65064707}}</ref> Integrated into the world economy by force, economic growth in Burma was driven by the extractive industries and [[cash crop]] agriculture, and the country had the second-highest GDP per capita in Southeast Asia. However, much of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of Europeans. The country became the world's largest exporter of rice, mainly to European markets, while other colonies like India suffered mass starvation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davis, Mike |title=Late Victorian holocausts: El Niño famines and the making of the third world |date=2001 |publisher=Verso |isbn=1-85984-739-0 |location=London |oclc=45636958}}</ref> The British followed the ideologies of [[Social Darwinism]] and the free market, and opened up the country to a large-scale immigration with Rangoon exceeding New York City as the greatest immigration port in the world in the 1920s. Historian Thant Myint-U states, "This was out of a total population of only 13 million; it was equivalent to the United Kingdom today taking 2 million people a year." By then, in most of the largest cities in Burma, [[Rangoon]], [[Akyab]], [[Pathein|Bassein]] and [[Moulmein]], the Indian immigrants formed a majority of the population. The Burmese under British rule felt helpless, and reacted with a "racism that combined feelings of superiority and fear".<ref name=":02" />

Crude oil production, an indigenous industry of [[Yenangyaung]], was taken over by the British and put under [[Burmah Oil]] monopoly. British Burma began exporting crude oil in 1853.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Total |title=Oil and Gas in Myanmar |url=http://burma.total.com/myanmar-en/oil-and-gas-in-myanmar/oil-and-gas-in-myanmar-900130.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415084151if_/http://burma.total.com/myanmar-en/oil-and-gas-in-myanmar/oil-and-gas-in-myanmar-900130.html |archive-date=15 April 2015}}</ref> It produced 75% of the world's teak.<ref name="steinberg">{{Cite book |last=Steinberg |first=David I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CSTuWZ0BMmMC |title=Burma: The State of Myanmar |date=2002 |publisher=Georgetown University Press |isbn=978-1-58901-285-1 |page=xi}}</ref> The wealth was however, mainly concentrated in the hands of Europeans. In the 1930s, agricultural production fell dramatically as international rice prices declined and did not recover for several decades.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Booth, Anne |date=Spring 2003 |title=The Burma Development Disaster in Comparative Historical Perspective |url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/sbbr/editions/file64274.pdf |journal=SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research |volume=1 |issue=1 |issn=1479-8484 |access-date=30 January 2021 |archive-date=9 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809043455/http://www.soapy-massage.com/thai-soapy-massage-turkish-bath-house.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

During the Japanese invasion of Burma in World War II, the British followed a [[scorched earth]] policy. They destroyed the major government buildings, oil wells and mines for tungsten, tin, lead and silver to keep them from the Japanese. Myanmar was bombed extensively by the Allies. After independence, the country was in ruins with its major infrastructure completely destroyed. With the loss of India, Burma lost relevance and obtained independence from the British. After a parliamentary government was formed in 1948, Prime Minister U Nu embarked upon a policy of nationalisation and the state was declared the owner of all land. The government tried to implement an eight-year plan partly financed by injecting money into the economy which caused some inflation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Watkins |first=Thayer |title=Political and Economic History of Myanmar (Burma) Economics |url=http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/burma.htm |access-date=8 July 2006 |publisher=San Jose State University |archive-date=26 May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526144053/http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/burma.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>