Yangon

Yangon or Rangoon, the largest city and the commercial capital of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Yangon is in the southern part of Myanmar in the Irrawaddy delta on the Yangon River, near the Gulf of Martaban (an arm of the Andaman Sea). Yangon was the official capital of Myanmar from the country’s independence in 1948 until 2005, when the government named Naypyidaw (near Pyinmana) the new administrative capital and began moving government offices there.

Yangon is the country's principal seaport and its main commercial, manufacturing, and transportation center. Major products include processed food, wood and metal items, pharmaceuticals, and printed materials. Government activities, shipbuilding and ship repairing, and petroleum refining are also important to the city's economic base. In the Yangon area are the Arts and Science University at Yangon (1920); state schools of fine arts and of music and drama; the National Museum of Art and Archaeology, with collections of paintings and antiquities; the National Library; and the World Peace Pagoda, built in 1952 to honor the 2500th anniversary of the death of the Buddha. Perhaps the most notable monument in the city is the large Shwedagon Pagoda, an ancient Buddhist shrine about 100 m (about 325 ft) high and covered with gold leaf on the outside.

The settlement first came into prominence in the mid-1750s when King Alaungpaya, or Alompra, founder of the last dynasty of Burmese kings, chose the site as the administrative capital of Lower Burma and named it Yangon, meaning “the end of strife.” (“Rangoon” is an English transliteration of this name.) Yangon was captured by the British in 1824, but they relinquished control two years later. It began to develop as a modern community in the late 19th century after it had again come under British rule at the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852. In 1930 Yangon was badly damaged by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. During World War II (1939-1945) the city was occupied by Japanese forces. When Myanmar achieved independence in 1948, Yangon became the capital. Population (2000 estimate) 4,196,000.