{{Short description|Three wars between Britain and Burma}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Anglo-Burmese Wars | place = Burma, East Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Cachar and Jaintia | caption = Photograph of surrender of the Burmese Army, 3rd Anglo-Burmese War | image = Third anglo-burmese war.jpg | partof = European colonization of Southeast Asia | date = 5 March 1824 – 29 November 1885 | result = British victory * End of the Konbaung dynasty * Start of British rule in Burma * Beginning of Burmese resistance | territory = All territories of the Konbaung dynasty annexed into British India | combatants_header = Belligerents | combatant1 = {{flagcountry|United Kingdom of Great Britain}} * {{flag|East India Company}} (until 1858) * {{flagcountry|Indian Empire}} (from 1858) '''Co-belligerent:'''<br>{{flagcountry|Rattanakosin Kingdom}} (until 1826) | combatant2 = {{flagcountry|Konbaung dynasty}} * Shan States | commander1 = {{flagicon|UKGBI}} Henry Godwin<br>{{flagicon|UKGBI}} Garnet Wolseley<br>{{flagicon|British Raj}} Harry Prendergast<br>{{flagicon|East India Company}} William Amherst<br>{{flagicon|UKGBI}} Edward Paget<br>{{flagicon|UKGBI}} Archibald Campbell<br>{{flagicon|UKGBI}} Joseph Morrison{{natural causes}}<br>'''Co-belligerent:'''<br>{{flagicon|Rattanakosin Kingdom}} Rama III<br>{{flagicon|Rattanakosin Kingdom}} Chaophraya Mahayotha<br>{{flagicon|Rattanakosin Kingdom}} Phraya Surasena<br>{{flagicon|Rattanakosin Kingdom}} Phraya Chumphon | commander2 = {{flagicon|Konbaung dynasty}} Bagyidaw<br>{{flagicon|Konbaung dynasty}} Thibaw Min{{POW}}<br>{{flagicon|Konbaung Dynasty}} Pagan Min<br>{{flagicon|Konbaung dynasty|war}} Maung Gyi<br>{{flagicon|Konbaung dynasty|war}} Kyauk Lon<br>{{flagicon|Konbaung dynasty|war}} Maha Bandula{{KIA}}<br>{{flagicon|Konbaung dynasty|war}} Maha Ne Myo{{KIA}}<br>{{flagdeco|Konbaung dynasty|war}} Myawaddy U Sa<br>{{flagicon|Konbaung dynasty|war}} Minkyaw Thura | units1 = {{flagicon|East India Company}} Presidency armies <br> {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} Royal Regiments<br/>'''Co-belligerent:'''<br/>{{flagicon|Rattanakosin Kingdom}} Royal Siamese Army | units2 = {{flagicon|Konbaung dynasty|war}} Royal Burmese armed forces * Shan Levies | strength1 = Around 80,000 to 100,000 (including Siamese) | strength2 = 40,000 at full strength with allies, 20,000 by end of Third Anglo-Burmese War | casualties1 = Over 3,000 killed in action, 10,000 wounded, 20,000 died from disease | casualties2 = Over 20,000 casualties, entire generation of fighting men destroyed }} {{History of Burma}} The '''Anglo-Burmese Wars''', also known as the '''Indo-Burmese Wars''',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Banerji |first=Sures Chandra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9DNuAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Indo-Burmese+Wars%22 |title=Cultural Reciprocation Between India and the World |date=1999 |publisher=Sharada Publishing House |isbn=978-81-85616-59-9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IA7AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Indo-Burmese+Wars%22 |title=Geographical Review of India |date=1976 |publisher=Geographical Society of India |language=en}}</ref> were an armed conflict between two expanding empires, the British Empire and the Konbaung dynasty, that became British Indian Empire's most expensive and longest war, costing 5–13 million pounds sterling (£400 million – £1.1 billion as of 2019) and spanning over 60 years. There were three of these wars between 1824 to 1885.<ref name="san">[http://www.san.beck.org/20-8-BurmaMalaya1800-1950.html#a1/ San Beck Org.]</ref>
==Chronology== The expansion of Burma (present-day Myanmar) under the Konbaung dynasty had consequences along its frontiers. As those frontiers moved ever closer to the British East India Company and later British India, there were problems both with refugees and military operations spilling over ill-defined borders.<ref name=san/>
===First Anglo-Burmese War=== {{Main|First Anglo-Burmese War}} The First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826) ended in a British East India Company victory, and by the Treaty of Yandabo, Burma lost territory previously conquered in Assam, Manipur, and Arakan.<ref name=app>{{cite book | title=History of Burma | author=Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur P. Phayre | year=1967 | pages=236–247 | edition=2 | publisher=Susil Gupta | location=London}}</ref> The British also took possession of Tenasserim with the intention to use it as a bargaining chip in future negotiations with either Burma or Siam.<ref name="Hall">{{cite book|url=http://mission.itu.ch/MISSIONS/Myanmar/Burma/bur_history.pdf |author=D.G.E. Hall |author-link=D.G.E. Hall |year=1960 |title=Burma |publisher=Hutchinson University Library |pages=109–113 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050519230755/http://mission.itu.ch/MISSIONS/Myanmar/Burma/bur_history.pdf |archivedate=2005-05-19 }}</ref> As the century wore on, the British East India Company began to covet the resources and main part of Burma during an era of great territorial expansion.<ref name=apt>{{cite book | title=The River of Lost Footsteps | author=Thant Myint-U | year=2008 |pages=113–127 | edition=1 paperback | publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux | location=USA}}</ref>
===Second Anglo-Burmese War=== {{Main|Second Anglo-Burmese War}}
In 1852, Commodore Lambert was dispatched to Burma by Lord Dalhousie over a number of minor issues related to the previous treaty.<ref name=app/> The Burmese immediately made concessions including the removal of a governor whom the British had made their ''casus belli''. Lambert eventually provoked a naval confrontation in extremely questionable circumstances and thus started the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852, which ended in the British annexation of Pegu province,<ref name=san/> renamed Lower Burma. The war resulted in a palace revolution in Burma, with King Pagan Min (1846–1853) being replaced by his half brother, Mindon Min (1853–1878).<ref name=app/>
===Third Anglo-Burmese War=== {{Main|Third Anglo-Burmese War}}
King Mindon tried to modernise the Burmese state and economy to ensure its independence, and he established a new capital at Mandalay, which he proceeded to fortify.<ref name=san/><ref name=egle>[http://www.e-gli.com/thibaw-min/ German Language Institute] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103220416/http://www.e-gli.com/thibaw-min/ |date=2015-01-03 }}</ref> These efforts would eventually prove unsuccessful, however, when the British claimed that Mindon's son Thibaw Min (ruled 1878–1885) was a tyrant intending to side with the French,<ref name=enotes>[http://www.enotes.com/topic/Thibaw_Min www.enotes.com]</ref> that he had lost control of the country, thus allowing for disorder at the frontiers, and that he was reneging on a treaty signed by his father.<ref name=san/> The British declared war once again in 1885, conquering the remainder of the country in the Third Anglo-Burmese War resulting in total annexation of Burma.<ref name=san/><ref name=app3>{{cite book | title=The River of Lost Footsteps | author=Thant Myint-U | year=2008 |pages=161–162 + photo | edition=1 paperback | publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux | location=USA}}</ref>
==See also== * Japanese invasion of Burma (during World War II)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Aung, Htin. ''The Stricken Peacock: Anglo-Burmese Relations 1752–1948'' (Springer Science & Business Media, 2013). * Bruce, George. ''The Burma Wars, 1824–1886'' (1973). * Gupta, AshwAni. ''Military Lessons of Burma'' (2015). * Messenger, Charles, ed. ''Reader's Guide to Military History'' (2001) pp 73–74. * Pollak, Oliver B. ''Empires in Collision: Anglo-Burmese Relations in the Mid-Nineteenth Century'' (1980) * Stewart, A.T.Q. ''Pagoda War: Lord Dufferin and the Fall of the Kingdom of Ava, 1885-186O'' (1972) * Tarling, Nicholas, ed. ''The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Vol. 2, Part 1: From c.1800 to the 1930s'' (2000) [https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-History-Southeast-Asia-Vol/dp/0521663717/ excerpt]
Category:Wars involving Myanmar Burmese Category:19th-century conflicts Category:19th century in Burma Category:19th-century military history of the United Kingdom Category:Anglo-Burmese wars