Second Anglo-Burmese War
The Second Anglo-Burmese War or the Second Burma War (Burmese: ဒုတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် မြန်မာ စစ် [dṵtḭja̰ ɪ́ɰ̃ɡəleɪʔ mjəmà sɪʔ]; 5 April 1852 – 20 January 1853) was the second of the three wars fought between the Burmese Empire and British Empire during the 19th century. The war resulted in a British victory with more Burmese territory being annexed to British India.
Background[edit]
In 1852, Commodore George Lambert was dispatched to Burma by Lord Dalhousie over a number of minor issues related to the Treaty of Yandabo between the countries. The Burmese immediately made concessions including the removal of a governor whom the Company made their casus 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 of Rangoon and seizing the King Pagan's royal ship and thus started the Second Anglo-Burmese War which ended in the Company annexing the province of Pegu and renaming it Lower Burma.[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 by Richard 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]
Aftermath[edit]
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 in Amarapura although it was then still called the Court of Ava, with Pagan Min (1846–1852) being overthrown by his half brother Mindon 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 a fait 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.