Anglo-Burmese Wars
Part of European colonisation of Southeast Asia
Photograph of surrender of the Burmese Army, 3rd Anglo-Burmese War
Date 5 March 1824 – 29 November 1885 Location Burma, East Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Cachar and Jaintia Result British victory End of Konbaung dynasty Start of British rule in Burma Beginning of Burmese resistance Territorial changes All territores of Konbaung dynasty annexed into British Raj
Belligerents
British Empire  East India Company (until 1858)  India (from 1858) Co-belligerent:  Siam (until 1826)	Burma under Konbaung Dynasty Shan States
Commanders and leaders
Henry Godwin Garnet Wolseley Harry Prendergast Lord Amherst Sir Edward Paget Sir Archibald Campbell Joseph Wanton Morrison # Co-belligerent: Rama III Chaophraya Mahayotha Phraya Surasena Phraya Chumphon	Bagyidaw Thibaw Min Pagan Min Maung Gyi Kyauk Lon Maha Bandula † Maha Ne Myo † Minkyaw Zeya Thura
Units involved
Presidency armies Royal Regiments Co-belligerent: Royal Siamese Army	Royal Burmese armed forces Shan Levies
Strength
Over 50,000 (include Siamese)	Over 40,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown but some died by disease	Unknown

History of Myanmar
Prehistory of Myanmar 11,000–200 BCE Pyu city-states 200 BCE – 1050 CE (Sri Ksetra Kingdom, Tagaung Kingdom) Mon kingdoms 825?–1057? CE (Thaton Kingdom) Arakanese kingdoms 788?–1406
Pagan Kingdom 849–1297 Early Pagan Kingdom 849–1044 Warring states period Upper Myanmar 1297–1555 Myinsaing and Pinya Kingdoms 1297–1365 Sagaing Kingdom 1315–1365 Kingdom of Ava 1365–1555 Prome Kingdom 1482–1542 Hanthawaddy Kingdom 1287–1539, 1550–1552 Shan States 1215–1563 Kingdom of Mrauk U 1429–1785 Toungoo dynasty 1510–1752 First Toungoo Empire 1510–1599 Nyaungyan Restoration 1599–1752 Restored Hanthawaddy 1740–1757 Konbaung dynasty 1752–1885
British colonial period 1824–1948 Anglo-Burmese Wars 1824–1885 Resistance movement 1885–1895 Nationalist movement 1900–1948 Japanese occupation 1942–1945
Modern era 1948–present AFPFL government 1948–1962 Ne Win dictatorship 1962–1988 SLORC / SPDC junta 1988–2010 Political reforms 2011–2015 SAC junta 2021–present
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The Anglo-Burmese Wars were an armed conflict between two expanding empires, the British Empire and the Konbaung dynasty, that became British India‘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 Burmese Wars or Anglo-Burmese Wars:

• First Anglo-Burmese War (1824 to 1826)^[1]
• Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852 to 1853)
• Third Anglo-Burmese War (1885)

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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

In 1852, Commodore Lambert was dispatched to Burma by Lord Dalhousie over a number of minor issues related to the previous treaty.^[2] 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,^[1] 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).^[2]

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.^[1][5] 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,^[6] 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.^[1] 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.^[1][7]

• Burma campaign (World War II)

• 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) excerpt