Burma in the second half of the twentieth century was a major development catastrophe, probably the worst in Asia and one of the worst in the developing world. The country emerged into independence after the second world war with apparently bright prospects. During the British colonial era, the export economy developed rapidly and by the late 1930s exports per capita were higher than anywhere else in Southeast Asia except British Malaya. In spite of the devastation brought about during the Japanese occupation, by 1950 per capita GDP and other development indicators were not far behind those in neighbouring Thailand.