When it comes to the largest country that has ever appeared in the world, it is not the Mongol Empire that straddles Eurasia, but the British Empire that never set in the sun. Britain's colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand combined were larger than Russia is today.
The British Indian colonies conquered in the 19th century, including today's India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma, can be the seventh largest in the world (sixth in Australia) today. The three countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are similar in ethnicity and culture, and it is understandable why Myanmar was also adopted by India as a British colonial area.
Above_ Britain: The distribution of imperial colonies in the mid-to-late 19th century
Weak and divided Burma became a British colonial target
At the beginning of the 19th century, Britain led the first industrial revolution and became the world's largest industrial country. It joined forces with other European countries to defeat the Napoleonic Empire that swept through Europe, repelled the United States that invaded Canada, and ascended to the position of world hegemon. The British colonists, who had landed on the Indian subcontinent as early as the 17th century, took advantage of the disintegration of the Mughal Empire and the weakness of the Maratha Alliance to intensify their colonization of the Indian region, bringing madras, Bengal and Union provinces into the colonial map, so that British power bordered Burma.
What was the situation in Myanmar at that time? The Gongpung Dynasty, which ruled Burma, was once the hegemon of Southeast Asia in the late 18th century, but after experiencing a war with the Qing Dynasty and Siam, the national strength was greatly damaged, internal divisions intensified, and strong enemies around it were surrounded, and by the beginning of the 19th century, it could be said that it was internal and external troubles. At this time, French colonial forces also set foot on the Indochina Peninsula in an attempt to pocket Vietnam. Fearing that France would also intervene in India and Burma, the British used their naval control of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca, and mastered the passage of the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Siam and the South China Sea, so as to ensure that they could enjoy the colonial rights of the region exclusively.
Above_ Industrial Revolution
Britain has set its sights on Burma for two important reasons. First, it is located in the western part of the Indochina Peninsula, bordering the Bay of Bengal to the south, which is convenient for consolidating and expanding shipping and influence in the Indian Ocean coastal areas, and can also open up the passage into China from the southwest. The first is to seize Myanmar's abundant teak and minerals and build it into a warehouse for agricultural products in India's colony in Asia, and continue to meet the needs of capitalist economic development.
From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, the British sent emissaries to Burma several times, on the pretext of suppressing the Arakan rebellion in Burma, demanding that Burma open trade conditions, release Arakan fugitives and restrict French use of Burmese ports, such an unequal treaty was categorically rejected by the Burmese king. Seeing that Burma did not promise itself, the British openly supported the rebel forces in Arakan to provoke trouble in Burma, and at the same time, taking advantage of the Burmese king Meng's army to quell the royal dispute between Mani Po and Assam, instigated the opposition to split Burma, which is in line with today's British practice of funding separatist forces in some parts of the world.
In 1822, in order to cope with the challenge of British power, the Burmese king Meng sent troops into the Assam region in an attempt to seize the strategic lead. In 1823, some residents of the Chittagong area crossed the Neifu River on the Burmese border and were wounded by burmese border guards. Under the pretext of protecting these inhabitants, the British army entered Shinmohu Island in Burma, only to be driven away by the Burmese army led by General Bandura. This led the British to make up their minds to formally declare war on Burma in 1824.
Above_ Gongpung Dynasty architecture
The arrogant Gongpung Dynasty was taught to be human
During this period, the ruler of the Gongpung Dynasty, Meng Jie, won the counterinsurgency war and drove out the British army, and began to drift. Ignoring the fact that The British were gradually annexing the vast Indian Peninsula to the west, he expressed his arrogance in a letter to the British Royal Family, and even claimed to attack the British mainland and make the Crown Prince the governor of all of Britain. Such a letter made the English all laugh, how many dishes to drink like this? The Qing Dynasty was arrogant and arrogant, and it was a world power and East Asia, and its economy had long been the world's first. Which onion do you count in Myanmar?
In terms of weapons and equipment, morale, training, and organizational discipline, the lobster soldiers who fight all over the world are simply not comparable to the poor people of the country and the poor people, and the half-hanging Burmese army that lacks pay and silver. At that time, the British Army was equipped with a sufficient number of high-quality guns, with the most advanced gunboats and landing craft of the time, as well as India and Bangladesh, which were able to provide relatively sufficient food and military supplies. The Burmese army, on the other hand, had only some old-fashioned rifles and improvised sailing ships.
Despite the large gap in the army, Britain made sufficient strategic and logistical arrangements for the war. The British governor in India sent 11,500 Madras Syrians, mainly colonial troops, to assemble in the Andaman Islands with the naval fleet and march north to attack the Burmese capital of Yangon. At the same time, British envoys and naval captains in Burma have lived in Myanmar for a long time, collected a large amount of domestic intelligence in Myanmar, and are almost familiar with Myanmar's national conditions, military conditions and troop movements. Before the war, the governor of British India also spent a lot of effort to incite anti-Burmese sentiment against the Burmese and the Assam and Manipo regions for his own use.
In 1823, King Bajidaf of Burma ordered his generals to seize Menga from the military state
So what advantage does Myanmar have over the UK? The answer is no. Although Burma has a moral advantage as a defender, the Burmese king has long been separated from the people, which has made the people at the bottom of Myanmar very resentful of the royal court, and the British have also successfully incited anti-Burmese sentiments of various ethnic groups, which has greatly reduced the enthusiasm of the Burmese people to resist the British. Although the Burmese army was also mostly veterans of the battlefield, the morale of the British was not high.
The British first chose to pretend to attack the western front, attracting Bandura's army to rescue Assam. Then, taking advantage of the emptiness of the southern front, the more than 10,000 colonial troops were concentrated against the river and went straight down to the cities of Yangon and Bago. When Bandura's 60,000 troops came to the rescue, the British army, which was waiting for work, hung the Burmese army with absolute superiority, exchanged more than 5,000 Burmese troops for less than 400 people, killed General Bandura, and occupied areas such as Mani Po, Alakan and Mawlamyine. However, the British army itself was not adapted to the tropical mountainous terrain and climate of Burma, and many people were damaged by non-combat attrition.
Above_ During the Anglo-Burmese War, the British crossed the forest
In February 1826, the British army advanced into the capital Ava. The Burmese government and the opposition were terrified, and only then did they understand that the British were as fierce as tigers and wolves and were forced to sign the Treaty of Yang Dapo.
It was agreed that Myanmar would not interfere in the affairs of the principalities of Assam, Kachar and Dezainti, and that Rakhine State and Tanah Sarin would be ceded to The British in the southern part of the Salween River (around Swa, Temlao and Mawlamyine), paying compensation of £1 million (Rs 10 million) in four installments, accepting the Permanent Governor of Britain, signing the Burmese-British Treaty of Commerce, allowing British ships to sail freely in Burmese ports, and Burma receiving British representatives stationed in Burma. People on both sides could trade freely, and the safety of persons and property should be guaranteed, so as to ensure that Britain continued to increase its infiltration into Burma.
The British Navy entered the burmese port of Yangon in May 1824
A plate of loose sand can only be a dish on the lips of others
In general, the Treaty of Yang Dapo was relatively good compared to the unequal treaties that followed. Because the British also lost a lot in this war, there was an economic crisis in the British Indian region, and it was temporarily unable to launch a new invasion. Britain's demand for The release of 1,000 prisoners of Mani Po and Assam in Burma was rejected, and king Meng's demand that the British return Mani Po and Mawlamyine be rejected by the British, only to return the Kabau Valley only later.
The war has imbued Burma with anti-British sentiment. In 1837, the newly enthroned Burmese king Meng Keng decided not to recognize or deny the Treaty of Yang Dapo, and strengthened the policy of closing the country to the outside world, severing diplomatic relations with Britain, and the British envoys in the capital Ava were forced to evacuate. At this time, the British were attacking Afghanistan and preparing to launch the Opium War against the Qing Dynasty, so plans to go to war with Burma were temporarily shelved.
Just as the Qing Dynasty needed two Opium Wars to wake up and launch a foreign affairs campaign, Burma was beaten only once and still felt that it was on a high level, unwilling to send envoys to British India, and regarded British envoys as its vassals. During the Bagan man period after Mongkeng, Burma further tightened its control over trade, clashing with the free trade pursued by the British, while brutally exploiting and oppressing the people internally. At the same time, Burma tried to "defeat the yi" and conclude a secret political treaty with France, which gave Britain the excuse to start war again.
Above_ Min Dong, brother of King Bagan Min
In 1852, the British governor in India, Dai Hoxu, used the pretext of burma's arrest of two British merchants to order George Limba to lead 6 warships to blockade the port of Rangoon, demanding that Burma apologize and compensate for the money, or else attack. Burma paid £1,000 in compensation as demanded by the British and removed the mayor of Yangon. However, the British had been planning for the invasion for a long time, and instead of withdrawing their troops, they blockaded the ports of Rangoon, Madama and Boson, seized the Burmese government vessel "Yenan Indah", and raised the demanded compensation to 1 million rupees, limiting the Burmese government to reply before April 1, 1852.
This is obviously the British deliberately looking for fault, but the Burmese king Baganman has been indulging in alcohol and ignoring government affairs, and naturally cannot mobilize the Burmese army to resist the British army in a unified way. The British bombarded the port of Madaban on 5 April, followed by the reinforcement army of 20,000 men of the "Avsk" reinforcement army, mainly Indian and Bangladeshi soldiers, along the Irrawaddy River, and captured Yangon, Maduhachi and Bago, during which they encountered only stubborn resistance from the Burmese army of Jiuwentai, with more than 100 casualties. After the rainy season in Burma, the British army entered the humble and the Burmese army surrendered. However, this time, the British army's goal was only to occupy the Burmese region, so the British returned the troops here.
As a result of this battle, the area of Lower Burma south of Mandalay, including Bago, Arakan and Tanah Sarin, was all owned by British India. The new Burmese king Mantong was forced to adopt some reform measures, learn advanced Western technology and knowledge, promote foreign trade and build modern enterprises, develop relations with France, Italy and other Western countries, and promote the Burmese version of the "foreign affairs movement", but unfortunately achieved little. By the 1880s, France had turned Vietnam and Cambodia into its own protectorates, threatening British colonial interests in Burma. In order to avoid the French interfering, the governor of British India decided to completely eat the Burmese Gongpung Dynasty.
In 1884, the Qing Dynasty had learned that British India was preparing to attack the vassal state of Burma. At this time, although the late Qing government was in a fierce foreign affairs movement and fought against France in the Sino-French War for Vietnam, it still did not dare to have a direct conflict with the British, so it was ready to send someone to persuade Burma to surrender to the British, and gave away a little brother in vain. Taking advantage of the Sino-French war and the scramble for the island of Madagascar, Britain sent a note to the French government accusing it of secretly signing an agreement with Burma. France, in order to cope with the Sino-French war and exchange British concessions on Madagascar, chose to sell its teammates, deny the alliance and recall the ambassador to Burma. This move is tantamount to sentencing Myanmar to death.
Above: British commanders survey Burmese casualties in November 1885
After the French evacuated Burma, the British had no more scruples. On November 14, 1885, the British declared war on Burma under the pretext of the Mumbai Burma Trading Company's logging of teak. The Shan and Delen tribes in Burma did not care about the life or death of the Gongpung Dynasty, and watched the British army enter the Upper Burma region. This time, Burma could no longer organize a decent resistance, so the British army invaded the capital Mandalay city at a cost of less than ten casualties, exiled the Burmese king of Tin Robe and his queen to Tenagiri in the West Indies, and the Gongpung Dynasty was officially destroyed by the British army.
In June 1886, the Qing Dynasty and the British held a meeting on Burma, and the Prime Minister for State Affairs, Yi Xi, signed the "Burma Clause of the Sino-British Conference" with the British Minister O'Gna, and The British sovereignty over Burma was recognized by the Qing Dynasty, and the British allowed Burma to still pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty. The declining late Qing Dynasty had just ceded Vietnam to France, and now had to cede Burma to Britain, and only Siam was spared colonization.
After the British conquest of Burma, Burma was incorporated into British India. The Burmese people launched a number of anti-British uprisings, but they were suppressed. Burma did not become independent until the dissolution of the British Indian colony in 1948. It can be seen from this that if a country does not exert all its strength and unite in the face of national peril, it will split and fight among itself, and it will be completely predictable that it will fail.
Author: Iron Rider As Wind Correction/Editor: Lilith
Resources:
[1] History of Burma, He Shengda
[2] The Anglo-Burmese War and the Colonization of Burma, Li Xia
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author