Burma / Myanmar: The Burmese Kinwun Mingi or 'Prime Minister' at the time of the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826). Anonymous East India Company portrait, 1826

The First Anglo-Burmese War ( 5 March 1824 – 24 February 1826) was the first of three wars fought between the British and Burmese Empire in the 19th century. The war, which began primarily over the control of northeastern India, ended in a decisive British victory, giving the British total control of Assam, Manipur, Cachar and Jaintia as well as Arakan Province and Tenasserim. The Burmese were also forced to pay an indemnity of one million pounds sterling, and sign a commercial treaty.

The war was the longest and most expensive war in British Indian history. Fifteen thousand European and Indian soldiers died, together with an unknown number of Burmese army and civilian casualties. The high cost of the campaign to the British, five million pounds sterling to 13 million pounds sterling (roughly 18.5 billion to 48 billion in 2006 US dollars), led to a severe economic crisis in British India in 1833.

For the Burmese, it was the beginning of the end of their independence. The Third Burmese Empire, for a brief moment the terror of British India, was crippled and no longer a threat to the eastern frontier of the British Raj. The Burmese would be crushed for years to come by repaying the large indemnity of one million pounds (then US$5 million), a large sum even in Europe of that time. The British would make two more wars against a much weakened Burma, and swallow up the entire country by 1885.

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