Yangon (also known as Rangoon) is the largest city and a former capital of Burma/Myanmar. Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial center. Yangon has the largest number of colonial buildings in Southeast Asia today.
Yangon was founded as Dagon in the 6th century AD by the Mon, who dominated Lower Burma at that time. Dagon was a small fishing village centered about the Shwedagon Pagoda. In 1755, King Alaungpaya conquered Dagon, and renamed it "Yangon". The British captured Yangon during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26) but returned it to Burmese administration after the war. The city was destroyed by a fire in 1841. The British Empire seized Yangon and all of Lower Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, and subsequently transformed Yangon into the commercial and political hub of British Burma. By the early 20th century, Yangon had public services and infrastructure on par with London. Before World War II, almost half of Yangon's population was Indian or South Asian. Yangon was under Japanese occupation (1942–45), and incurred heavy damage during World War II.
Soon after Burma's independence in 1948, many colonial names of streets and parks were changed to more nationalistic Burmese names. In 1989, the current military government changed the city's English name to "Yangon", along with many other changes in English transliteration of Burmese names.
