First published in 1901, this book provides a historical overview of the British colonization of Burma, including its political, social, and economic implications. Nisbet's work offers a critical perspective on British imperialism and its impact on the people and culture of Burma. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from Burma Under British Rule and Before, Vol. 1 of 2 Many books are now written about distant lands by those who have only a very slight acquaintance with them, and such usually form very pleasant reading. Burma has received a fair share of this sort of attention from casual visitors, but the present work is not one of these books written in lighter vein. It is intended to be a comprehensive treatise on one of the richest provinces of our Indian Empire, and it embodies knowledge and experience acquired there in a service extending over nearly twenty-five years. During that time great political, commercial, and social changes have taken place throughout Burma and among the Burmese, and the main objects of this book are to describe these, and to show how they have already affected and are bound still more to affect the land and the people. It tries to describe the latter as they were, I and as they now are. The historical sketch of Burma has been confined solely to what is necessary in order to understand the position of affairs at different times. The author feels that some explanation is needed for the appearance of these volumes. The work was undertaken for the simple reason that no comprehensive book has been published about Burma since it came entirely under British rule in 1886, although the record of the material progress achieved seems well worthy of being submitted to the public in some such convenient form. Matters affecting the life and habits of the Burmese have also been treated in a way which it is hoped may be of use to those going to spend the best years of their lives in Burma, and this is the reason why so many Burmese terms have been introduced and explained. An endeavour has at the same time been made to indicate various commercial openings for investment of capital, because the development of a rich Indian province ought surely to be worthy of consideration by British capitalists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Burma Under British Rule and Before, Vol. 2 In 1858, Cochin China was invaded by the French, and Saigon was taken in the following year, seven years after we had permanently acquired Rangoon; and in 1867, the whole of Cochin China came under French rule. In 1863, a Protectorate was established over Cambodia, proving the prelude to annexation in 1884. Hanoi was taken in 1873, and a Protectorate asserted over Tonquin, which was in turn followed by annexa tion. Annam became protected in 1874, and was ceded entirely by the franco-chinese treaty Of 1884. Hostilities breaking out again, Tonquin was annexed in 1885. These vast acquisitions, forming an empire larger than France, were, however, merely a base upon which to found schemes for further annexations towards the west and south. Having despoiled China sufficiently for the time being, French attention was next given to encroach ments on Siam as soon as military affairs in Tonquin permitted of this. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

From the preface: "Many books are now written about distant lands by those who have only a very slight acquaintance with them, and such usually form very pleasant reading. Burma has received a fair share of this sort of attention from casual visitors, but the present work is not one of these books written in lighter vein. It is intended to be a comprehensive treatise on one of the richest provinces of our Indian Empire, and it embodies knowledge and experience acquired there in a service extending over nearly twenty-five years. During that time great political, commercial, and social changes have taken place throughout Burma and among the Burmese, and the main objects of this book are to describe these, and to show how they have already affected and are bound still more to affect the land and the people. It tries to describe the latter as they were, and as they now are. The historical sketch of Burma has been confined solely to what is necessary in order to understand the position of affairs at different times. The author feels that some explanation is needed for the appearance of these volumes. The work was undertaken for the simple reason that no comprehensive book has been published about Burma since it came entirely under British rule in 1886, although the record of the material progress achieved seems well worthy of being submitted to the public in some such convenient form. Matters affecting the life and habits of the Burmese have also been treated in a way which it is hoped may be of use to those going to spend the best years of their lives in Burma, and this is the reason why so many Burmese terms have been introduced and explained. An endeavor has at the same time been made to indicate various commercial openings for investment of capital, because the development of a rich Indian province ought surely to be worthy of consideration by British capitalists. The plan of the book was sketched early in 1896, and several chapters of it were then written, but press of official work prevented its completion till the leisure of furlough from 1898-1900. In the meantime the official Gazetteer of Upper Burma has been published, which also deals with many of the matters here treated of. The two works, however, cannot in any way clash. The one is an official record, the other is an independent publication meant for such of the general public as may feel an interest in Burma or in its administration by the British. If there be any similarity between portions of the two books with regard to matters specially affecting Upper Burma, this can only be due to the fact that the actual historical data have been obtained from the same sources, because neither author has yet seen the work of the other."

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.