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ABSTRACT
What Rudyard Kipling called the ‘campaign of lost footsteps’ was the longest campaign fought by the Victorian army. The conquest of Upper Burma, an area of 140,000 sq. miles with a population of four million, took only three weeks in November 1885 and was accomplished with minimum cost. However, the removal and deportation of the Burmese King and dismantling of all traditional authority dismantled led to growing resistance to British rule leading to an increasingly difficult guerrilla war. Though the Burmese guerrillas were characterised by the British as mere bandits or dacoits, many were former soldiers along with Buddhist monks. The extremely difficult nature of campaigning in the terrain and climate of Burma was not sufficiently appreciated by the War Office, who viewed the conflict as a ‘subaltern’s war’ and ‘police’ work. Intended regime change was also not accompanied by any consideration of the likely implications. Prolonged insurgency necessitated deploying a force far larger than originally intended; though order was finally secured by 1895, the campaign proved destructive of Burmese society while British recruitment of hill tribes into the police and armed forces sowed the seeds for future divisions.
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Notes
1. Webb, “Kipling and Burma”, 10–19.
2. Kipling, From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches.
3. Intelligence Branch, Army Headquarters, Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India. 144, 146.
4. Thant, The Making of Modern Burma, 5.
5. Browne, The Coming of the Great Queen, 171–2.
6. Myint-U, Making of Modern Burma, 170; and Ni Mi Myint, Burma’s Struggle against British Imperialism, 1885–95, 34.
7. British Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collection (hereafter APAC), IOR/L/MIL/17/19/31/1, H. E. Stanton, The Third Burmese War, 1885, 1886 and 1887, 52.
8. Hall, The Soul of a People, 66.
9. For an overview, see Roy, The Army in British India, 58–76.
10. For a popular, albeit outdated, survey of the military aspects of the first two wars, see Bruce, The Burma Wars, 1824–1886.
11. Myint-U, Making of Modern Burma, 106–7.
12. Stewart, The Pagoda War, 110–7; and Myint-U, Making of Modern Burma, 194–8.
13. Myint-U, Making of Modern Burma, 199–200.
14. Ibid, 202–7.
15. Wingfield, “Buddhism and Insurrection in Burma,” 345–67.
16. Myint, Burma’s Struggle, 65–6.
17. Ibid, 78.
18. Myint-U, Making of Modern Burma, 210–8; and Crosthwaite, The Pacification of Burma, 54.
19. Myint, Burma’s Struggle, 95–6.
20. Charney, “Armed Rural Folk Elements of Pre-colonial Warfare in the Artistic Representations,” 155–81.
21. First published in The Week’s News, 7 January 1888, and then in Departmental Ditties and Other Verses, 120–4.
22. Browne, Coming of Great Queen, 277.
23. National Army Museum (hereafter NAM), Roberts Mss, 7101-23-100-1, Roberts to Churchill, 28 February 1886.
24. Keck, “Involuntary Sightseeing: Soldiers as Travel Writers,” 389–407.
25. Myint, Burma’s Struggle, 218–21.
26. Hall, Soul of People, 61–4; and Crosthwaite, Pacification, 103–4.
27. “Mandalay in 1885–88,” 47–76, at 50.
28. Geary, Burma, After the Conquest, 45–6, 74.
29. Browne, Coming of Great Queen, 270–5.
30. Crosthwaite, Pacification, 103–4.
31. Slim, Defeat into Victory, 169.
32. Newland, The Image of War, 6–7.
33. Durand, The Life of Field, I, 326.
34. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/7/9182, Report on Operations, 31 March 1888 to 6 July 1889.
35. Stanton, Third Burmese War, 72–4.
36. Stewart, Pagoda War, 90.
37. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/17/19/31/3, and Bodé, The Third Burmese War, 37.
38. The National Archives (hereafter TNA), WO 334/95, Sick Reports.
39. Frontiers and Overseas Expeditions, 220–1.
40. Frontiers and Overseas Expeditions, 228.
41. Stanton, Third Burmese War, 32.
42. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/7/9181.
43. Browne, Coming of Great Queen, 192.
44. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 168.
45. Durand, Life of White, I, 326.
46. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 164–5, 178.
47. Nisbet, Burma Under British Rule – And Before, I, 111.
48. Crosthwaite, Pacification, 15.
49. APAC, White Mss, Eur Mss, F108/3, White to Chesney, 14 August 1886.
50. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 193.
51. Nisbet, Burma Under British Rule, I, 112–4, 126.
52. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 197.
53. Bodé, Third Burmese War, 16.
54. Ibid, 49–53.
55. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/7/9181, Report on Operations for the Suppression of Brigandage.
56. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 241.
57. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/7/9/180, Viceroy to India Office, 19 October 1887.
58. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 289.
59. Newnham Davis, Burmese War, Appendix I, iii-xvii.
60. APAC, White Mss, Eur Mss F108/3, White to Roberts, 19 June 1886.
61. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-90, White to Roberts, 9 July 1887.
62. Vibart, The Life of General Sir Harry Prendergast VC: The Happy Warrior, 278–80.
63. Stewart, Pagoda War, 118–31, 140–1, 164–70.
64. Geary, Burma, 234, 241–5, 267–8.
65. Stewart, Pagoda War, 130.
66. Ibid, 127–8.
67. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-12, Brownlow to Roberts, 28 January 1886.
68. Stewart, Pagoda War, 173.
69. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-12, Brownlow to Roberts, 22 August 1886.
70. TNA, Smith Mss, WO 110/5, Smith to Roberts, 5 November 1886.
71. Robson, Roberts in India, 1876–93 357–62.
72. Callwell, Small Wars, 141.
73. Ibid, 147–8.
74. Johnson, “General Roberts, the Occupation of Kabul, and the Problems of Transition,” 300–22.
75. See, for example, Royal Archives (hereafter RA), VIC/ADDE/1/11444, Cambridge to Roberts, 12 March 1886; VIC/ADDE/1/11467 Cambridge to Roberts, 16 Apl. 1886; and NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-100-1, Roberts to Cambridge, 14 Apl. 1886.
76. TNA, Smith Mss, WO 110/5, Cambridge to Roberts, 3 November 1886; Smith to the Queen, 3 November 1886; and NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-2, Arbuthnot to Roberts, 20 November 1886.
77. Hingkanonta, “The Police in Colonial Burma,” 12.
78. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/17/19/31/5, and Stanton, History of the Third Burmese War, 136–7.
79. Hingkanonta, “Police in Colonial Burma,” 46–88. From a large literature on ‘martial races’ theory, see Streets, Martial Races, 93–101, 132–42.
80. Taylor, “Colonial Forces in British Burma,” 195–209.
81. Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj, 13–16.
82. RA, VIC/ADDE/1/11627, Cambridge to Arbuthnot, 5 November 1886; VIC/ADDE/1/12677, Cambridge to Dormer, 20 November 1890.
83. White, A Civil Servant in Burma, 157–58.
84. APAC, Raikes Mss, Eur Mss B3291, Raikes Diary, Entries for 28 June 2013 Sept., and 29 October 1886; and 7 and 28 January 1887.
85. Myint, Burma’s Struggle, 82–5.
86. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/17/19/31/7, and N. Newnham Davis, History of the Third Burmese War, 1888–89, 77–8.
87. Crosthwaite, Pacification, 97–8.
88. Hingkanonta, “Police in Colonial Burma,” 181.
89. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/7/9180, Viceroy to India Office, 14 January 1887.
90. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/17/19/1/8; and Parsons, History of the Third Burmese War, 1889–90, 3.
91. Nisbet, Burma Under British Rule, I, 141.
92. Browne, Coming of Great Queen, 132–3; and Winrow, The British Army Regular Mounted Infantry, 1880–1913 does not cover Burma.
93. Stanton, Third Burmese War, 211–7; and “Notes on Cavalry employed in Upper Burma,” 29–38.
94. Durand, Life of White, I, 347.
95. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-99, Roberts to Lansdowne, 8 July 1890.
96. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/7/9199, India Council to India Office, 29 May 1894.
97. Stanton, Third Burmese War, 218–9.
98. Crosthwaite, Pacification, 81–2, 106.
99. Charney, A History of Modern Burma, 7.
100. Iwaki, “The Village System and Burmese Society,” 113–43.
101. Aung-Thwin, “The British “Pacification” of Burma,” 245–62.
102. Crosthwaite, Pacification, 105.
103. Myint, Burma’s Struggle, 62, 101.
104. Myint, Burma’s Struggle, 101–2; APAC, Sladen Mss, Eur Mss E290/52, Roberts to Sladen, 3 December 1887; and Winston, Four Years in Upper Burma, 69.
105. White, Civil Servant in Burma, 168.
106. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/17/19/31/9; and Parsons and Dunn, History of the Third Burmese War, 1890–91, 19.
107. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-100-2, Roberts to Harman, 26 July 1889.
108. APAC, White Mss, Eur Mss F108/3, White to Roberts, 11 May 1887.
109. Durand, Life of White, I, 352–4.
110. APAC, White Mss, Eur Mss F108/3, White to Chesney, 12 May 1887.
111. APAC, IOR/L/MOL/7/9189, Arbuthnot to AG, 30 May 1890.
112. APAC, Thirkell White Mss, Eur Mss E254/10(b), Note on State of Upper Burma, 14 July 1888.
113. White, Civil Servant, 221–2.
114. APAC, Scott Mss, Eur Mss F278/51, Diary of Expedition to the Shan States.
115. Myint-U, Making of Modern Burma, 216–7.
116. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 426.
117. Aung-Thwin, “British Pacification of Burma,” 252.
118. APAC, IOR/L/MIL/7/9182, Report on Mogaung Field Force, 19 Apl. 1889.
119. Pearn (ed.), Military Operations in Burma, 1890–92: Letters from Lt. J. K. Watson, KRRC, 10.
120. Crosthwaite, Pacification, 303–4.
121. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 330–2.
122. Ibid, 335.
123. Ibid, 320.
124. Pearn, Military Operations in Burma, 35.
125. Bourne (ed.), Soldier I Wish You Well, 49.
126. Ibid, 51.
127. Frontier and Overseas Expeditions, 355.
128. Nisbet, Burma Under British Rule, I, 149.
129. Kipling, “A Conference of the Powers,” Many Inventions, 33.
130. Jones, “The War of Lost Footsteps,” 36–40, at 40.
131. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-90, White to Roberts, 3 December 1888.
132. Burma 1885–7, Burma 1887–89, Chin-Lushae 1889–90, Burma 1889–92, Lushae 1889–92, Chin Hills 1892–93, Kachin Hills, 1892–93.
133. NAM, Cowell Mss, 2009-02-110-417, Roberts to Cowell, 5 August 1887; APAC, White Mss, Eur Mss F108/3, White to Roberts, 28 May 1887; Howard, Reminiscences, 1848–90, 299. and See also APAC, Lyttelton. letter book, Eur Mss F102/43, Lyttelton to Godley, 18 July 1887.
134. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-59, Pole-Carew to Roberts, 15 and 28 July 1887; 7101-23-100-1, Roberts to Pole-Carew, 5 August 1887.
135. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-98, Roberts to Dufferin, 30 July 1886.
136. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-103, Roberts to Brownlow, 16 January 1887.
137. John Crimmin, 1 January 1889; Ferdinand Le Quesne, 4 May 1889; Owen Lloyd, 6 January 1893.
138. NAM, Roberts Mss, 7101-23-2, Arbuthnot to Roberts, 26 July 1890.
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Ian F. W. Beckett
Professor Ian F. W. Beckett retired as Professor of Military History from the University of Kent in 2015. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is internationally known for his work on the First World war and on the history of the British army. He is a former editor of Small Wars and Insurgencies.