FRONTIER AND OVERSEAS EXPEDITIONS FROM INDIA: VOLUME V BURMA

This volume is made up in four parts, one part each for the three Burmese Wars and a fourth part dealing with operations against the Chins, Kachins ans Shans.It begins with an overview of Burma, its boundaries, its people, its climate and early history, and it also discusses causes of friction with the British government The first war was caused by the Burmese invasion of Arakan, whose people appealed to Britain for protection, and their invasion of Assam and Manipur. War was declared on 5th Marc h 1824 and an expedition mounted against Rangoon. Fighting continued to early 1826 when the Burmse army was defeated and peace signed on 24th February 1826.. Deaths among the 3,586 British rank and file who first landed at Rangoon, amounted to 3,115 of whom just under 3,000 died of disease. The second Burmese War began on 2n April 1852 following indignities offered to our representatives in Burma and a couple of outrageous cases of extortion. Rangoon was taken in three days but fighting went on till February 1853 . But this was followed by a month’s operations against Dacoits which cost the British nearly 250 casualties of whom over a hundred died of cholera, The account of the tird Burmese War is preceded by a lengthy description of the political and commercial relation between British India and Upper Burma from 1853 to 1880. The King of Burma was displaying anti-British feelings, going so far as to conduct secret negotiations with the French about rights in Upper Burma. War with Britain began in November 1885 with an expeditiion against Mandalay and by the end of December the city had been taken and the King of Burma had surrendered. and Upper Burma annexed. There followed for the next few yearrs a c onstant battle with bands of dacoits, finally eneded in 1890 . The final part describes the country and people of the Chins, Kachins and Shans and the operations against them in the closing years of the nineteenth century.