event_note History Timeline
1889
The Burmese dacoit leader Maung Hmone who surrendered to the British in 1889
This drawing from an 1889 issue of the Illustrated London News shows the dacoit leader Maung Hmone curiously dressed in English clothes. 1889 was more or less the last year of the British "pacification" of Upper Burma after it seized control of Mandalay. Some 40,000 British and Indian soldiers had been deployed to crush the multi-headed, at times chaotic, and often fierce resistance to British rule. Tens of thousands of Burmese lost their lives as a result of the fighting, forced displacement and the resulting near famine conditions in parts of the Irrawaddy valley. Maung Hmone's story is not known, but most dacoit leaders were myothugyis or others from noble or gentry backgrounds.