On 5th March 1824, Britain declared war on Burma.

This was to be the first of a series of wars between the Empires of Britain and Burma. The war had a huge cost in lives (military and civilian) and financially.

The British Empire in its aggressive expansionism won and extracted from Burma reparations of £1million and a trade treaty. The war raged until February 1826 from which Burma never really recovered. This was the first of three wars between the two states in the early 19th Century.

By 1885 Britain controlled the whole of the region.