Road infrastructure is still for driving on the left.
Myanmar (Burmese:မြန်မာ), formerly and occasionally calledBurma in English, is a country inSoutheast Asia. Its full name is theRepublic of the Union of Myanmar. Myanmar is the largest country in Southeast Asia that is not an island country. Its capital city isNaypyidaw and its largest city isYangon. Myanmar is one of the most popular with natural resources gas, rich in minerals, and including metal ores.[11]
It is bordered byChina on the north,Laos on the east,Thailand on the southeast,Bangladesh on the west, andIndia on the northwest, with theAndaman Sea to the south, and theBay of Bengal to the southwest. There are over2,000 kilometres (1,200mi) of coastline.
In 1989, the military junta officially changed theEnglish version of its name fromBurma toMyanmar. It also made a new name in English for places in the country, such as its formercapital city, fromRangoon toYangon. The official name of the country in theBurmese language,Myanmar did not change, however. The renaming was controversial, seen by some aslinguistically bad. Accepting the name change in the English-speaking world has been slow, with many people still using the nameBurma to refer to the country. Major news organizations like theBBC still call it Burma. Some question the military junta's authority to "officially" change the name in English in the first place.Aung San Suu Kyi, however, calls the country Myanmar now.
Myanmar had a strong kingdom in ancient times, but the nation was taken over by theBritish in the 1800s. It was occupied by theEmpire of Japan in the 1940s. Myanmar became independent in 1948 as the Union of Burma, and had a democratic government at first. However, in 1962, acoup d'état brought the military into power, where it has been ever since. The founder of modern Myanmar,Aung San was assassinated months before independence. His daughterAung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest many times for leading the democracy movement.
In 1991, the military junta agreed to democratic elections, which were won by theNational League for Democracy, and should have made Aung San Suu Kyi the Prime Minister. However, the dictatorship ignored the results of the elections and continued ruling. InNovember 2005, the militarygovernment stated that the national capital would be moved fromYangon to a location nearPyinmana, which was renamedNaypyidaw inMarch 2006.
The country was ruled by amilitaryjunta led byGeneralNe Win from 1962 to 1988. Its political system today stays under the tight control of its military government. In 1991, Senior GeneralThan Shwe began ruling the country. In 2011Thein Sein was elected as a first president of the civilian government. In 2016Htin Kyaw became the second elected civilian leader.[13]Aung San Suu Kyi, who is prevented from becoming president by theconstitution of Myanmar, will act as an advisor to Kyaw.[13]
In March 2018,Win Myint became the country's tenth President.
.svg)
![Location of Myanmar (green)in ASEAN (dark grey) — [Legend]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fsimple.wikipedia.org%2f%2fsimple.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLocation_Burma_(Myanmar)_ASEAN.svg)
.jpg)
.jpg)