British Diplomacy And The Annexation Of Upper Burma

This book is a revealing study of British colonial policy in an important region of South-East Asia, i.e. , Burma. The period covered is 1840-1886. British territorial expansion and vigorous commercial thrust in Burma began with the two treaties concluded in 1826 at the end of the First Burmese War. As a result of commercial disputes and diplomatic wrang-lings the British Residency in Burma was withdrawn in 1840. The story is taken up at this point, and the political-cum-commercial ramifications of British policy are carefully analysed on the basis of unpublished primary sources. The Second Burmese War, the annexation of Pegu, the Phayre Mission, the re-establishment of the residency, the commercial treaties of 1862 and 1867, and the circumstances leading to the fall of Thibaw are studied in great detail. Subjects such as British penetration into the Karen region and unsuccessful British attempts to open a trade route to the Chinese province of Yunnan through Upper Burma have been treated here for the first time. The efforts of the Burmese Kings to open political and commercial relations, with European Powers, particularly France, and her policy of extending her control from her base in Indo-China, provide an interesting glimpse into Franco-British rivalry in South- East Asia. No previous historical work attached due importance to this aspect of British intrusion into Burma.

A magisterial history of resistance to the rising of the British empire As the call for a new understanding of our national history grows louder, Britain’s Empire turns the received imperial story on its head. Richard Gott recounts the long-overlooked narrative of resisters, revolutionaries and revolters who stood up to the might of the Empire. In a story of almost continuous colonialist violence, Britain’s crimes unspool from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the Indian Mutiny, spanning the globe from Ireland to Australia. Capturing events from the perspective of the colonised, Gott unearths the all-but-forgotten stories excluded from mainstream histories.

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This book explores the life and career of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1826–1902). Dufferin was a landowner in Ulster, an urbane diplomat, literary sensation, courtier, politician, colonial governor, collector, son, husband and father. The book draws on episodes from Dufferin’s career to link the landowning and aristocratic culture he was born into with his experience of governing across the British Empire, in Canada, Egypt, Syria and India. This book argues that there was a defined conception of aristocratic governance and purpose that infused the political and imperial world, and was based on two elements: the inheritance and management of a landed estate, and a well-defined sense of ‘rule by the best’. It identifies a particular kind of atmosphere of empire and aristocracy, one that was riven with tensions and angst, as those who saw themselves as the hereditary leaders of Britain and Ireland were challenged by a rising democracy and, in Ireland, by a powerful new definition of what Irishness was. It offers a new perspective on both empire and aristocracy in the nineteenth century, and will appeal to a broad scholarly audience and the wider public.

"Burma has often been portrayed as a timeless place, a country of egalitarian Buddhist villages, ruled successively by autocratic kings, British colonialists and, most recently, a military dictatorship. The Making of Modern Burma argues instead that many aspects of Burmese society today, from the borders of the state to the social structure of the countryside to the very notion of a Burmese or Burman identity, are largely the creations of the nineteenth century, a period of great change, away from the Ava-based polity of early modern times, and towards the 'British Burma' of the 1900s. The book provides a sophisticated and much-needed account of the period, and as such will be an important resource for policy-makers and students as a basis for understanding contemporary politics and the challenges of the modern state. It will also be read by historians interested in the British colonial expansion of the nineteenth century."--BOOK JACKET.