Anglo-Burmese wars

Anglo-Burmese wars

With China being a much bigger force to the east, and Siam gaining more ground in the south-east, King Bodawpaya (the fourth son of Alaungpaya), decided west was the best option to increase the size of his empire. Several invasions were successful during his lifetime – conquering Arakan, Manipur and Assam, which now gave them a border with British India. In 1819, King Bagyidaw, (Bodawpaya’s grandson and next on the throne) was faced with several rebellions in Manipur, instigated by the British who protected the Indian territories of the border. This led to a series of three Anglo-Burmese Wars between 1824 and 1886. Each resulted in further control of Burma by the British Empire, which ended in the annexation of Upper Burma and the entire country becoming a province of India under the control of the British Raj.

Despite a constant resistance during this time, Burma would not see independence again for over 60 years until after WWII.

World War II – Japanese Occupation & Communist uprising
The chaos of the Second World War opened up several unexpected options to the Burmese people. Some believed that helping the British could be exchanged for increased control of their country again, while others wanted to avoid the war altogether. Aung San, co-founder of the Communist Party of Burma and others in a movement known as Thakins, were part of the latter. Aung San became a key figure in Burma’s future, working with several groups including politically active monks and Ba Maw’s Poor Man’s Party, the Freedom Bloc, and eventually the Burma Independence Army (BIA). The BIA was set up in anticipation of the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942 and formed a temporary government in some areas. The Japanese decided that having a political uprising in Burma would be beneficial to them, so alongside Ba Maw and Aung San, worked to create the Burma Defence Army (BDA) out of the BIA, with promises of independence after the war. It became apparent to the BDA and Aung San that independence was never really going to happen, and Ba Maw had been deceived.

This led to negotiations with several Communist & Socialist leaders to create the Anti-Fascist Organisation in August 1944, which identified fascism as the main enemy and called for the Allies and British cooperation for temporary support to rebel against the Japanese.

The alliance resulted in the Japanese being routed out of Burma by May 1945, and the forces were disarmed following the Kandy conference in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) in September 1945.

During the Japanese occupation, 170,000 – 250,000 civilians died.