Can someone explain the ethnic conflicts in Myanmar? I’m trying to understand the details of what ethnic groups are against one another.

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1. ELI5 simplified explanation: Myanmar is ethnically only about 50% Burmese. The rest are a number of very different minorities, some with a past history of their own civilization and writing (Mon, Shan, Hand Chinese), some closely related to Burmese (Rakhine), some tribal (Wa).

   The former Burmese empire and British Empire were willing to rule the minorities through arrangements that left them a lot of minorities. Upon independence, the Burmese government promised autonomy to the minorities but a military junta overthrew the government and instead try to impose a Burmese dominated society and assimilation of all the minorities into Burmese culture and Buddhist religion.

   Predicably, all the minorities rebel and they’ve been fighting the government since. The ethnic minorities all have their own movements and armies, sometimes multiple, and they might ally with each other or content with each other for resources and territory. They might also come to truces, ceasefires, or arrangements with the Burmese government. Over time, the oppression of the military junta has led to ethnic Burmese to also form opposition groups against the military junta as well.

   Sometimes the military junta relaxes its grip and allows greater democratic government institutions, but when it feels it loses too much control, it seizes power again. This happened 3 years ago, leading to another outbreak of fighting, as a number of ethnic armies and the Burmese opposition formed an armed alliance to fight the military junta.

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