Second Anglo-Burmese War 1852-1853

The Second Anglo-Burmese War was provoked by the British, who wanted access to the teak forests in and around Pegu and also wanted to secure the gap in their coastline stretching from Calcutta to Singapore; it resulted in the British annexation of Pegu province, which they renamed Lower Burma. As the British became increasingly interested in the legendary trade with China through its back door--as well as in the teak, oil, and rubies of northern Myanmar--they waited for a suitable pretext to attack.

By the early 1840s, British policy-makers grew fearful that Ava, having crushed an uprising in the delta and having reorganised the army, would launch a surprise attack on British Moulmein. Tharrawaddy's sons were given military commands in the south in Rangoon, Bassein and Toungoo and the king himself in 1841 sailed down-river at the head of an enormous flotilla of war-boats to pay homage at the Shwedagon Pagoda. Tharrawaddy knew that the British were preoccupied in China and Afghanistan and had hoped that his saber-rattling would compel the British to negotiate the return of lost territory. But it seems he also knew that his armed forces were still no match for the East India Company and was careful not to be overly provocative.

After 25 years of peace, the British Indian government sent a naval officer, Commodore Lambert, to Rangoon to investigate British merchants' complaints of extortion. When Lambert seized a ship that belonged to the Burmese king, another war began.

By July 1852 the British had captured the ports of Lower Burma and had begun a march on the capital. Slowly but steadily the British-Indian forces occupied the central teak forests of Burma. The new king Mindon Min (ruled 1853-78) requested the dispersal of British forces. The British were unreceptive but were hesitant to advance farther northward; with both sides at an impasse, the fighting simply ceased. The British now occupied all Lower Burma but without formal recognition of the Burmese court.

British seizure of a ship belonging to the Burmese king helped provoke another war (the British hoped to secure an all-land route between their colonies in India and Singapore. Rangoon and Pegu in southern Burma were taken by British-Indian forces. A revolt in Rangoon led to the ouster of the Burmese king Pagan Min (d. 1880) by his brother Mindon Min (1814-1878), who accepted British annexation of southern Burma.

Pagan's rule was not to last long. Once secure in power he entrusted many of the day-to-day affairs of state to one of his Privy Councellors... His government, however, was directed towards managing relations with the British, in particular the large and vocal business community in Rangoon, where an unbending Burmese administration combined with profit-hungry British traders and ambitious missionaries to create a volatile atmosphere. Pagan's officials raised port charges, increased shipping regulations, opened incoming mail and restricted the movement of Burmese women, all measures which led the expatriates to call for a tough British response.

Calcutta was indeed frustrated that the Court of Ava, after such a resounding military defeat, had not adopted a more subservient attitude. Once the Company's hands were freed from other far-flung engagements, the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, began actively to consider a new war, one which would impress upon the Burmese the need to recognise British superiority.

In December 1851, the governor of Rangoon fined the captains and crews of two British ships 1,000 rupees for reported customs violations. Lord Dalhousie immediately dispatched two vessels of the Royal Navy with an ultimatum that the Burmese government rescind the fine and that the governor be immediately removed. The surprised Pagan and his ministers, fully aware of the consequences of a new war, accepted the terms. Nevertheless, the British naval officer in command at Rangoon, Commodore Lampert, went ahead and blockaded the coastline. Though Dalhousie reprimanded Lampert for his actions, Calcutta decided hostilities were inevitable and sent a new ultimatum, demanding 1 million rupees to cover the cost of having had to prepare for war. Without waiting for a reply, joint British naval and ground forces quickly seized Rangoon, Bassein and Martaban.

Burmese forces were commanded by the Myoza of Tabayin, a son of the great general Thado Maha Bandula and a career military man, who had served as a colonel of the Marabin Artillery and as captain of the Eastern Gate. But thirty years of advances in military technology and planning on the British side, and little innovation on the Burmese side, meant that the king's forces could offer only a limited defence. In April 1852, the Myoza of Tabayin himself was killed in the defence of Rangoon, and Pegu was taken in November despite a spirited resistance. In December, Dalhousie declared the newly occupied territory as a new province of British Burma. Two months later, a palace coup overthrew Pagan. His half-brother Mindon, leading a peace party, became the new king and Burmese forces were withdrawn northwards of the annexation line.

References

Making of Modern Burma, 22-3; Dictionary of Wars, 15; EB: Anglo-Burmese Wars; Myanmar.

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