The First Anglo-Burmese War was the first of the Anglo-Burmese Wars fought between the British Empire and the Konbaung dynasty of Burma, fought from 1824 to 1826. The British conquered Assam, Manipur, and Arakan from the Burmese at a cost of 15,000 British and Indian soldiers and £400 million (£1.1 billion in 2019). The British would later go on to annex the entirety of Burma in 1885 following the Third Anglo-Burmese War.
History[]
In 1823, Burmese forces crossed the border into British-controlled India, capturing Assam. They were pursuing exiled rebels from the Burmese-held former kingdom of Arakan. Britain responded by declaring war on Burma on 24 February 1824. Assam was quickly retaken, and an Anglo-Indian force of 11,000 men was sent under General Archibald Campbell to attack the Burmese capital, Rangoon, by sea, using a steamboat in war for the first time. Rangoon was taken and the Burmese forces fled into the jungle. From there, commander Maha Bandula prepared to retake the capital and on 1 December stood before the city with 60,000 men, who were defeated two weeks later and forced to withdraw. Bandula was pursued and killed in April 1825 and the next month Campbell captured Prome, capital of Lower Burma. In February the following year the Burmese sued for peace and lost Arakan to the British East India Company. This was the first of three conflicts, after which Britain would hold hegemonic sway over the Bay of Bengal.