| Second Anglo-Burmese War ဒုတိယအင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာစစ် | |||||||||
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| Part ofAnglo-Burmese Wars | |||||||||
.jpg) .png) Royal Burmese troops who were fighting in the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852 (top) The territories in Lower Burma that were annexed into Bengal Presidency in 1853 (bottom) | |||||||||
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 Burma | |||||||||
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TheSecond Anglo-Burmese War or theSecond Burma War (Burmese:ဒုတိယအင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာစစ်[dṵtḭja̰ɪ́ɰ̃ɡəleɪʔmjəmàsɪʔ]; 5 April 1852 – 20 January 1853) was the second of thethree wars fought between theBurmese Empire andBritish Empire during the 19th century. The war resulted in a British victory with more Burmese territory being annexed toBritish India.
In 1852, CommodoreGeorge Lambert was dispatched to Burma byLord Dalhousie over a number of minor issues related to theTreaty of Yandabo between the countries. The Burmese immediately made concessions including the removal of a governor whom the Company made theircasus belli. Lambert, described by Dalhousie in a private letter as the "combustible commodore",[1] eventually provoked a naval confrontation in extremely questionable circumstances by blockading the port ofRangoon and seizing the King Pagan's royal ship thus leading to the war.[2]
The nature of the dispute was misrepresented to Parliament, and Parliament played a role in further "suppressing" the facts released to the public, but most of the facts were established by comparative reading of these conflicting accounts in what was originally an anonymous pamphlet,How Wars are Got Up In India; this account byRichard Cobden remains almost the sole contemporaneous evidence as to who actually made the decision to invade and annex Burma.[3]
Richard Cobden made a scathing attack on Dalhousie for despatching a naval commodore to negotiate (gunboat diplomacy) and for raising the initial demand for compensation of £1000 to 100 times that amount, £100,000. He also criticised Dalhousie for choosing Lambert over Colonel Archibald Bogle, the British Commissioner of Tenasserim, who was much more experienced in Burmese social and diplomatic affairs. Dalhousie denied that Lambert was the cause of the eruption of hostilities.[1]
The first substantial blow of the Second Anglo-Burmese War was struck by the Company on 5 April 1852, when the port ofMartaban was taken.Rangoon was occupied on 12 April, and then theShwedagon Pagoda was bombarded by artillery[4] and taken on 14 April; after heavy fighting, the Burmese army retired northwards.Bassein was seized on 19 May, and Pegu was taken on 3 June, after some sharp fighting round theShwemawdaw Pagoda. During the rainy season the approval of theBritish East India Company's court of directors and of theBritish government was obtained as to the annexation of the lower portion of theIrrawaddy River Valley, includingProme.[5] After the fighting had concluded, several Burmese pagodas throughout the Empire were sacked.[6]
Lord Dalhousie visited Rangoon in July and August, and discussed the whole situation with the civil, military and naval authorities.[5] He decided that dictating terms to the Court ofAva by marching to the capital was not how the war should be conducted unless complete annexation of the kingdom was contemplated and this was deemed unachievable in both military and economic terms for the time being.[1] As a consequence,Major-General Godwin occupied Prome on 9 October, encountering only slight resistance from the Burmese forces under the command of Lord Dabayin, son of Gen.Maha Bandula, who was killed in theFirst Anglo-Burmese War, though bitterly so, as the Major-General resented having to deal with the Royal Navy under the command of Lambert, a mere commodore, after the death of Rear AdmiralCharles Austen, the brother of the writerJane Austen.[1] Early in December Lord Dalhousie informed King Pagan that the province of Pegu would henceforth form part of the Company dominions.[5]
The proclamation of annexation was issued on 20 January 1853, and thus the Second Anglo-Burmese War was brought to an end without any treaty being signed.[5] The war resulted in a revolution inAmarapura although it was then still called the Court ofAva, with Pagan Min (1846–1852) being overthrown by his half brotherMindon Min (1853–1878). Mindon immediately sued for peace but the two Italian priests he sent to negotiate found the British 50 miles (80 km) farther north at Myedè with a rich belt of the Ningyan teak forests already staked out within their territory and presented as afait accompli.[1] No treaty was ever signed although trade resumed between Company Burma and the Kingdom of Ava until fresh hostilities broke out in 1885–1886.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Burmese Wars".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 847.
