Federated Shan States

Subdivision of British Burma

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1922–1949

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1917 map of the Shan and Karenni States already within one border

Government

Monarchy

History

•

Establishment.

1922

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Independence of Burma

1949

The Federated Shan States was an administrative division of the British Empire made up by the much larger Shan States and the Karenni States during British rule in Burma.

The federation was established in order to facilitate the future transfer of the Shan principalities to the Governor of Burma. Unaware of the implications of the British political move, the Shan Saophas lost power in the process and had to contribute 50% of their revenue to the central fund as well. Their status was thus diminished from having been semi-sovereign rulers of princely states when the latter were established in 1888 to that of becoming a kind of tax collectors.

Under the British colonial administration, the former Shan States consisted of nominally sovereign entities, each ruled by a local monarch, but administered by a single British commissioner. On 10 October 1922 the administrations of the Karenni states and the Shan states were officially clustered together in order to establish the Federated Shan States, under a British commissioner who also administered the Wa States.

On 27 May 1942, during World War II, Kengtung State was invaded and its capital captured by the Imperial Japanese Army. Following a previous agreement between Thai Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram and the Japanese Empire, in December the same year the Thai Phayap Army occupied the part of the Karenni states located between the Thai border and the Salween, corresponding to the eastern half of Kantarawadi State, as well as two districts of Mawkmai and four districts of Möngpan. The annexation by Thailand as Saharat Thai Doem northern province was formalised on 1 August 1943.

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Wikipedia