First Anglo-Burmese War

The First Anglo-Burmese War, from 5 March 1824 to 24 February 1826, was the first of three wars fought between the British and Burmese empires in the nineteenth century. It began mainly over control of what is now Northeastern India and ended in a costly but decisive British victory. Britain gained Assam, Cachar, Manipur and Jaintia as well as Arakan and Tenasserim, and Burma agreed to pay an indemnity of one million pounds sterling and sign a commercial treaty. It was among the most expensive wars in British Indian history: about 15,000 British soldiers died, alongside an unknown number of Burmese military and civilian casualties, and the cost helped bring on an economic crisis that cost the East India Company its remaining privileges. For Burma it was described as the beginning of the end of its independence.