Between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar), military regimes have reigned for more than 100 years. In this article, I will study the role of colonialism in deepening and strengthening the political system of military regimes in Burma. To show this, I will first examine the context before exploring the causal factors that help prove my thesis. I chose to compare Burma to Thailand because, despite many pre-colonial similarities, Thailand was never colonized. Therefore, many of the effects of colonialism that we see in Burma we would expect would not exist to the same extent in Thailand. To define political systems, I will use Siaroff's definition which concerns the mechanisms of political representation, the models of repression used by a regime and the way in which the leader is selected (Siaroff 61-63). Before colonialism, the two countries were similar in size, both had long coastal areas, and had a similar population of around 9 million people who primarily followed Theravada Buddhism, each establishing a monarchy within 100 years of the other. This shows that the two countries were very similar in key ways before their divergence during the colonial era. European colonizers began trading in Burma towards the end of the 18th century (Nibset 413) due to the proximity to India and the death of the king. Mindôn led to the violent annexation of land starting in 1826 and all of Burma was under colonial rule by 1886 (Nibset 5-7). Due to primary resistance from some Burmese, British rule was also an occupation rule with resentment towards British forces caused by cultural intolerance. The colonization of Burma was therefore carried out by violent means and supported in the same way. Likewise, the Japanese invaded middle of paper ......es A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. London: Profile, 2012. Print. Baker, Christopher J and Phongpaichit Pasuk. A History of Thailand. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print. Handelman, Howard. “The Third World Development Challenge.” Trans. Painting. 7th edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2013. Chapter 8. Print. Nisbet, John. Burma under British rule and before. Westminster: A. Constable, 1901. Print. Siaroff, Alan. Comparing Political Regimes: A Thematic Introduction to Comparative Politics, Chapter 3. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. Print. Taylor, Robert H and Robert H. Taylor. The State in Myanmar. London: C. Hurst, 2008. Print. Zakaria, bin H.A and Harold A. Crouch. Military-civilian relations in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1985. Print.