Editing Politics of Myanmar (section)

==== World War II ====
During [[World War II]], a coalition of mostly members of the Bamar ethnic group volunteered to fight alongside the Japanese in hope of overthrowing the occupying British forces. Meanwhile, many other ethnic groups supported the Allied forces against the Bamar-backed Japanese forces. This conflict would come to be very significant in the aftermath of World War II when Burma was granted its independence from Great Britain in 1948. Prior to the end of their colonization, the British government had created a novel map of the country with new borders that included some previously sovereign ethnicities. Many groups of racially and culturally diverse people suddenly found themselves as part of a country that was named after the Bamar, a group they did not identify with. The division created during World War II only exacerbated the growing resentment towards the Bamar. By granting independence to Burma, the British government handed the control of all the containing ethnicities over to the Bamar.