Burma's ethnic origins are comprised of Indo-Aryans who migrated into the area sometime around 700 BCE, and the Mongolians who invaded in the 13th century.
Before its annexation by the British Burma consisted of the kingdoms of Ava and Pegu.
In 1548 St. Francis Xavier requested missionaries go to Pega, but nothing is known of the outcome of his request and it's unlikely that any went. In 1612 the British East India Company sent representatives to Burma but, like the Dutch and Portuguese, meet heavy resistance when they tried to establish trading posts on the Bay of Bengal. Through the Anglo-Burmese War in 1824-26, the British began to assume control of Burma, but it wasn't until 1852 that the East India Company, after a particularly vicious and bloody war, annexed the kingdom of Pegu, an area about the size of England. Subsequent wars expanded British rule to the whole of Burma by 1886. Burma was annexed to India, became a separate colony in 1937, and independent on Jan. 4, 1948.
Lack of a reliable census makes only a rough estimate of Burma's population or ethnic composition. The best estimate suggest that Burman constitute approximately two-thirds of Burma's 47 million people, and dominate the government and army. Most of Burma's ethnic minorities inhabit the country's mountainous areas. Karen and Shan peoples each make up about 10% of the population, while Akha, Chin, Chinese, Danu, Indian, Kachin, Karenni, Kayan, Kokang, Lahu, Mon, Naga, Palaung, Pao, Rakhine, Rohingya, Tavoyan and Wa peoples each constitute 5% or less of the population.
Burma has a long history of ethnic conflict. Malleable, often changing territorial boundaries only became fixed under Britain's rule. Even though much of Burma's diverse population was brought under nominal central authority, many areas remained virtually self-ruled, with little more than titular British oversight. Although the Karenni have not been single out exclusively for ethnic persecution, their plight is representative of the plight of much of Burma's minorities under the current military regime.
The Union of Burma became independent in 1948 only after extensive negotiations convinced most ethnic minority groups to join the new union. The Karenni are the major ethnic group living in Karenni State. Most are Karen-related, such as the Kayan, Kayaw or Paku, but there is also a small Shan population and a number of Burman immigrants. A 1875 treaty with the Burmese King Mindon officially acknowledged the independence of the western Karenni region, and that independent status was never altered during British rule. Maps of the Indian Empire consistently marked the Karenni State as outside British Burma. Karenni people have always claimed that their territory is independent from Burma. Under Burma's Constitution, the Panglong Agreement of 1947 defined minority rights and gave the Shan and Karenni peoples the option to secede from the union a decade after independence. Yet, those constitutional guarantees have never been respected. Less than a year after independence, ethnic wars erupted throughout Burma that continue with varying intensities to this day. Successive governments have used the conflict to attempt to deny or curtail Karenni demands for independence.
