Only a small number of the people receive more than a primary education. Rangoon and Mandalay have universities and state schools. The educational focus has been on vocational and technical training. Health facilities are fairly well developed for a tropical country. Infectious diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, plague, and tuberculosis still occur, however, and malaria takes a heavy toll.

Myanmar was first united as a single kingdom in 1044 under the ruler Anawrahta, who made it the center of Theravada Buddhism. After a series of wars in the 19th century, the country came under British control. The British took Tenasserim and Arakan in 1826; most of the delta region, including Rangoon, in 1852; and a large part of the rest of the country in 1885. From 1886 to 1937 they governed it as a province of India.

The Japanese occupied the country in 1942 and created a puppet-state that lasted until 1945, when British rule was restored. Burma was granted independence from the British in 1948. Burma's policy of neutrality and isolation in international relations was strained by Chinese pressures in the northeast. A boundary treaty between Burma and China, signed in 1960, helped ease tensions. In 1958 a caretaker government was set up under the army chief of staff, Gen. Ne Win, who prepared the country for elections. U Nu was elected prime minister of the government, which ruled from 1960 until 1962, when Ne Win staged a coup. He dissolved the parliament, abandoned the constitution, and began nationalizing industry. Under the 1974 constitution, Burma became a one-party socialist republic, with Ne Win as president. He dissolved the Revolutionary Council that was set up after the coup of 1962 and inaugurated a one-chamber assembly. Ne Win stepped down in 1981 but retained his leading role as chairman of the Burma Socialist Program party (BSPP).

In July 1988 Ne Win resigned as chairman of the BSPP after antigovernment demonstrations led to violent protests. Sein Lwin, a former military officer, became president but resigned two weeks later. Maung Maung became president in August, as the first civilian leader in 26 years, but failed to end the street violence. On September 18 Saw Maung, a four-star general and close associate of Ne Win, toppled the civilian government. Street violence and military actions resulted in the deaths of 10,000 people. On September 10 Article 11 of the constitution, making the country a one-party state, was dropped. On September 26 the name of the BSPP was changed to the National Unity party. In an attempt to quiet protests by ethnic minorities, the country's name and many cities' names were changed in 1989.

Despite the arrest and disqualification of most of its leadership, the National League for Democracy won about 82 percent of parliamentary seats in 1990 elections. The military government, however, never permitted the elected government to take power. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest since 1989, was awarded the 1991 Nobel prize for peace. The United Nations Human Rights Commission condemned the military regime for human rights abuses, but economic sanctions failed to bring about changes.

The Karen people of Burma, who numbered about 2.6 million in the early 1990s, are, with the Shans, one of the two largest non-Burmese ethnic groups in that country. A Karen state lies east of Rangoon along the Thai border, but only a minority of Karens live there; the rest are mainly dispersed in the densely populated deltas of the Irrawaddy, Sitang, and Salween rivers. Some speak a Karen dialect, and others have adopted Burmese. Although many leading Karens are Christians, the majority (about two-thirds) are Buddhist. The influence of the Karens under British rule was out of proportion to their numbers. Many of them, especially those who were Christian, came to hold important positions in the colonial army, and they were disliked by the Burmese who led the nationalist movement that gained independence for Burma in 1948. Unwilling to submit to Burmese rule, the Karens rebelled unsuccessfully in 1949, and Karen insurgency has persisted since then with varying degrees of intensity

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