Burma profileA chronology of key events Shwedagon Pagoda:
Burma's key religious site - Said to date back 2,500 years -
Restored in 1998 - Jewellery donated for gold roof 1057 - King
Anawrahta founds the first unified Burmese state at Pagan and
adopts Theravada Buddhism. 1287 - Mongols under Kublai Khan
conquer Pagan. 1531 - Toungoo dynasty, with Portuguese help,
reunites Burma. 1755 - Alaungpaya founds the Konbaung dynasty.
1824-26 - First Anglo-Burmese war ends with the Treaty of
Yandabo, according to which Burma ceded the Arakan coastal
strip, between Chittagong and Cape Negrais, to British India.
1852 - Britain annexes lower Burma, including Rangoon, following
the second Anglo-Burmese war. 1885-86 - Britain captures
Mandalay after a brief battle; Burma becomes a province of
British India. 1937 - Britain separates Burma from India and
makes it a crown colony.Japanese occupation 1942 - Japan invades
and occupies Burma with some help from the Japanese-trained
Burma Independence Army, which later transforms it