page_title: Third Anglo-Burmese War
section_title: Annexation and resistance
hierarchical_section_title: Third Anglo-Burmese War / Annexation and resistance
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of King Thebaw's guards, Mandalay, 1885, 3rd Anglo-Burmese War Uploaded by Fowler&amp;fowler«Talk» 21:10, 2 November 2008 (UTC)
context_page_description: The Third Anglo-Burmese War, also known as the Third Burma War, was a conflict that took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance and insurgency continuing into 1887. It was the final of three wars fought in the 19th century between the Burmese and the British. The war saw the loss of sovereignty of an independent Burma under the Konbaung dynasty, whose rule had already been reduced to the territory known as Upper Burma, the region of Lower Burma having been annexed by the British in 1853, as a result of the Second Anglo-Burmese War.
  Following the war, Burma came under the rule of the British Raj as a province of India. In 1937, the British governed Burma as a separate colony. Burma was occupied by Japan and Thailand between 1942 and 1945; after World War II, Burma achieved independence as a republic in 1948.
context_section_description: Burma was annexed by the British on January 1, 1886. Critics of the war consider the timing of the annexation to be strong proof of what the British motives really were. But the annexation was only the beginning of an insurgency which would last until 1896.
  The final, and now completely successful, pacification of the country, under the direction of Sir Frederick (later Earl) Roberts, was only brought about by an extensive system of small military police protective posts scattered all over the country, and small lightly equipped columns moving out in response whenever a gathering of insurgents occurred. The British poured reinforcements into the country, and it was in this phase of the campaign, lasting several years that the most difficult and arduous work fell to the lot of the troops. The resistance was finally broken by meting out collective punishments on villages. Villages were burned and the property of villagers either confiscated or destroyed. The British policy of overwhelming reprisals against villages suspected of assisting the insurgency eventually brought the country under control.  British colonialism was triumphant.
  The British also extended their control into the tribal areas of the Kachin Hills and Chin Hills. These territories, only nominally ruled even by the Burmese kingdom, were taken over by the British. Also taken were disputed territories in northern Burma claimed by the Chinese government.
  No account of the Third Burmese War would be complete without a reference to the first (and perhaps for this reason, the most notable) land advance into the country. This was carried out in November 1885 from Toungoo, the British frontier post in the east of the country. A small column of all arms carried it out under Colonel W. P. Dicken, 3rd Madras Light Infantry, the first objective being Ningyan (Pyinmana). The operations were completely successful, in spite of a good deal of scattered resistance, and the force afterwards moved forward to Yamethin and Hlaingdet. As inland operations developed, the lack of mounted troops was badly felt, and several regiments of cavalry were brought over from India, while mounted infantry was raised locally. The British found that without mounted troops it was generally impossible to fight the Burmese successfully.
caption: Photograph of King Thibaw's guards, East Gate, Mandalay Palace, 28 November 1885. Photographer: Hooper, Willoughby Wallace (1835–1912).
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