Myanmar
The Union of Myanmar, as Burma before 1989, is a republic in Southeast Asia. Much of the country is mountainous. The most fertile areas are the southern valleys of the Irrawaddy and Sittang rivers. The delta of the Irrawaddy is one of the world's great rice growing areas. The climate is mainly tropical, with heavy monsoon rains from May to September. The people are mostly Burmese, Minorities, including the Karen, Sha, Naga, and other hill peoples, have resisted central government in a struggle to preserve their cultures and establish autonomous local government. A Burmese kingdom existed in the A.D. 1000's. The country was annexed by Britain in the 1800's, and became independent in 1948. From the 1960's the country had few foreign contacts. Pro-democracy movements challenged the unreconstructed marxist ideologues' rule of the country in the 1980's.