Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. The country is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east,Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the southwest.

Burma's diverse population has played a major role in defining its politics, history and demographics in modern times, and the country continues to struggle to mend its ethnic tensions. The military has dominated government since Ne Win led a coup in 1962 that toppled the civilian government of U Nu. Burma remains under the tight control of the military.

In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression by the government led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country known as the 8888 Uprising. Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and General Saw Maung staged a coup d'état and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

SLORC changed the country's official English name from the "Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma" to the "Union of Myanmar" in 1989.

In May 1990, the government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years. The National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi won the election with 392 out of the 489 seats, but the election results were annulled by SLORC, which refused to step down. In 1997, the State Law and Order Restoration Council was renamed State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

The 2007 Burmese anti-government protests were a series of protests that started in Burma on 15 August 2007. The immediate cause of the protests was mainly the unannounced decision of the ruling Military junta, to remove Fuel subsidies which caused the price of fuel to suddenly rise as much as 100%. The protest demonstrations were at first dealt with quickly and harshly by the junta, with dozens of protesters arrested and detained. Starting 18 September, the protests were led by thousands of Buddhist monks, and those protests were allowed to proceed until a renewed government crackdown on 26 September.

On 3 May 2008, Cyclone Nargis devastated the country when winds of up to 215 km/h (135 mph) touched land in the densely populated, rice-farming delta of the Irrawaddy Division. Reports estimated that more than 200,000 people are dead or missing from Cyclone Nargis that hit the country's Irrawaddy delta. Damage is estimated to be as much as US$10 billion.