Mid-Theme Visit: Country Links - Myanmar and Swaziland

 

Mid-Theme Visit: Country Links

Myanmar and Swaziland

 

Hello, and I hope you enjoy article two of country links. This article will look at two countries that despite being so geographically far apart were at one point politically intertwined.

Myanmar and Swaziland held no obvious prior connection throughout history, but this would change, with this starting in the 19th century. At this time, the reason two such distant countries could be connected was through ongoing imperialism of the age. This was specifically the British empire that had successfully catapulted itself to the top over the past centuries (watch out for my Boston article available soon). It achieved this through a combination of trade, political and military power and organisation, and innovative resourcefulness.

One such resource would connect Myanmar and Swaziland inseparably for decades.

Bark Strips off the Tree

Once again, colonialism proves to be the glue keeping random countries together, and there is no better empire to exemplify this with than Britain’s.

In Asia, the British empire in 1826 conquered territories of Myanmar in India’s northeast (then part of the empire of Burma) after achieving victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War. These notably included Tenasserim and Cachar, amongst others. All these regions turned out to be hotspots of the wood type called teak, which the British empire had utilised from other areas most importantly in ship construction for the navy, amongst other wood materials.

With this sudden huge supply, the British government quickly began tearing trees out the ground as if there was an endless amount at its disposal, and removal of this magnitude skyrocketed once Myanmar was formally colonized in 1885. Wood, such as teak, once made into an effective vessel could transport various goods and people to many different parts of the world, especially those Britain had already colonised or were planning on colonising.

Swaziland, inside the South African landmass was included in this category, with British colonisation commencing following the Second Boer War. This was when the British heavily asserted control over colonial South Africa from the descendants of Dutch settlers there before, and control was near absolute come 1903.

Upon this stage of colonial completion, Swaziland received the same treatment and services as other colonies, with the same ships, some of which would have been made of teak from Myanmar’s territories stopping at areas such as Swaziland with soldiers, amongst other people.

In this way, the connection between Myanmar and Swaziland was related to transportation as ships made of Myanmar’s teak were sent to Swaziland to deliver people and goods. Therefore, bark being stripped off teak trees to be processed into workable wood fuelled the Myanmar-Swaziland link.  

 

 

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