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Authors: Jesper Bengtsson
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almost perished from disease when it was confronted by the Burmese rainy season. Fifteen thousand soldiers died and the war cost the British five million pounds.
However, the British won the war, and thanks to this, they were able to take power over some of the most strategically important sections along Burmaâs coast. One of the deciding battles took place at Danubyu, roughly fifteen miles northwest of Rangoon. Up until then the Bamar had been the most victorious army, but at Danubyu the British succeeded in killing the Bamar supreme commander, General Bandula, a military genius who had personally drawn up the strategy during the war.
The Bamar court signed a peace treaty with the British (the Treaty of Yandabo) that provided advantageous trading terms for the British East India Company. Some years later, the British merchants started yet another war, and in just a few days Rangoon was also occupied, along with parts of the Irrawaddy Delta.
Now the British were in control of the entire coast and the fertile farming country in the south, and for all intents and purposes the power lay in the hands of the British East India Company. A trading company had been accorded the status of a colonial powerâeven though it had a symbiotic relationship with the English government.
What was left of the Bamar Kingdom became totally dependent on the goodwill of the British for its survival. However, the merchants of the British East India Company were still not satisfied. They wanted to construct a trade route between the Indian Ocean and China, and they were of the opinionthat the mountains of northern Burma provided the best alternative. The French were simultaneously expanding their sphere of interest in IndoChina, and the British grew nervous about the competition. In a letter to the governor-general of India in 1867, Englandâs foreign minister, Lord Cranborne, wrote,
It is of primary importance to allow no other European power to insert itself between British Burmah and China. Our influence in that country must be paramount. The country itself is of no great importance. But an easy communication with the multitudes who inhabit Western China is an object of national importance.
In the Bamar capital of Mandalay, King Thibaw later came to power via a complicated web of intrigues. In order to get rid of all conceivable competitors to the throne, he had had more than eighty of his closest relatives executed. Men, women, and children had been stuffed into white sacks and carted out to the palace courtyard where they all were clubbed to death by Thibawâs bodyguards. The British had been looking for a good moral excuse to occupy the northern parts of the country as well, and when this brutality continued they were provided with one. When they actually attacked in the autumn of 1885, the Bamar army had no means of defending itself against the well-armed, disciplined English troops, and the war was over in two weeks. Mandalay was captured and plundered and Thibaw was sent into exile on the eastern coast of India.
Just before the British attack, Thibaw had made Aung Sanâs relative U Min Yaung commander of the town of Myolulin, situated near Natmauk, Aung Sanâs own birthplace. When the British had overthrown Thibaw, they immediately destroyed the entire Bamar system of nobility and all the local rulers were ordered to swear loyalty to the occupying powers. U Min Yaung refused, however. He declared that he would rather die than give way to the British, and he gathered together a guerrilla army under his command. The British knew that he was a popular leader in central Burma, and they did all they could to get him on their side. When they did not succeed, they started a military operation to crush the opposition. After a time of playing cat and mouse with each other, U Min Yaung was captured and beheaded.
Even so, in practice it took over ten years for the colonial powers to gain control over Burma. The red-clad
However, the British won the war, and thanks to this, they were able to take power over some of the most strategically important sections along Burmaâs coast. One of the deciding battles took place at Danubyu, roughly fifteen miles northwest of Rangoon. Up until then the Bamar had been the most victorious army, but at Danubyu the British succeeded in killing the Bamar supreme commander, General Bandula, a military genius who had personally drawn up the strategy during the war.
The Bamar court signed a peace treaty with the British (the Treaty of Yandabo) that provided advantageous trading terms for the British East India Company. Some years later, the British merchants started yet another war, and in just a few days Rangoon was also occupied, along with parts of the Irrawaddy Delta.
Now the British were in control of the entire coast and the fertile farming country in the south, and for all intents and purposes the power lay in the hands of the British East India Company. A trading company had been accorded the status of a colonial powerâeven though it had a symbiotic relationship with the English government.
What was left of the Bamar Kingdom became totally dependent on the goodwill of the British for its survival. However, the merchants of the British East India Company were still not satisfied. They wanted to construct a trade route between the Indian Ocean and China, and they were of the opinionthat the mountains of northern Burma provided the best alternative. The French were simultaneously expanding their sphere of interest in IndoChina, and the British grew nervous about the competition. In a letter to the governor-general of India in 1867, Englandâs foreign minister, Lord Cranborne, wrote,
It is of primary importance to allow no other European power to insert itself between British Burmah and China. Our influence in that country must be paramount. The country itself is of no great importance. But an easy communication with the multitudes who inhabit Western China is an object of national importance.
In the Bamar capital of Mandalay, King Thibaw later came to power via a complicated web of intrigues. In order to get rid of all conceivable competitors to the throne, he had had more than eighty of his closest relatives executed. Men, women, and children had been stuffed into white sacks and carted out to the palace courtyard where they all were clubbed to death by Thibawâs bodyguards. The British had been looking for a good moral excuse to occupy the northern parts of the country as well, and when this brutality continued they were provided with one. When they actually attacked in the autumn of 1885, the Bamar army had no means of defending itself against the well-armed, disciplined English troops, and the war was over in two weeks. Mandalay was captured and plundered and Thibaw was sent into exile on the eastern coast of India.
Just before the British attack, Thibaw had made Aung Sanâs relative U Min Yaung commander of the town of Myolulin, situated near Natmauk, Aung Sanâs own birthplace. When the British had overthrown Thibaw, they immediately destroyed the entire Bamar system of nobility and all the local rulers were ordered to swear loyalty to the occupying powers. U Min Yaung refused, however. He declared that he would rather die than give way to the British, and he gathered together a guerrilla army under his command. The British knew that he was a popular leader in central Burma, and they did all they could to get him on their side. When they did not succeed, they started a military operation to crush the opposition. After a time of playing cat and mouse with each other, U Min Yaung was captured and beheaded.
Even so, in practice it took over ten years for the colonial powers to gain control over Burma. The red-clad
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