Yangon Heritage Trust chairman and historian Thant Myint-U has posted a fascinating little explainer on the beginning of diplomatic ties between the United States and Myanmar.
The year was 1856 (160 years ago) and the opening was sought by King Mindon in a letter to Franklin Pierce, the 14th US president.
“King Mindon’s modernization drive was then in full swing,” Thant Myint-U wrote in the July 4 post.
“Over the next 15 years he tried to reform all aspects of government, fundamentally changing the tax system, sending students to Europe (and appointing them to high positions on their return), setting up the first factories and expanding the oil industry (one of the first in the world), promoting exports to China (cotton primarily), laying the first telegraph lines, running a steamer service, and upgrading the military using international experts and imported arms.”
To put things in context, this was four years before the US civil war and 29 years before Mindon’s successor, Thibaw, would be defeated and exiled by the British.
Read the full post here.
