Late Konbaung Myanmar and the English Wars (1824-1885AD)

Myanmar's last dynasty was also its most expansive, reaching into today's Northeast India as well as across what is now Laos and Thailand. Over the late 18th and 19th centuries, its royal court created much of the art and architecture that are considered "traditional" today. In the east, the saopha chieftains of Shan State ruled an array of principalities with growing ties to the Irrawaddy valley as well as to China's Yunnan province.

Over the middle decades of the 19th century, however, a series of disastrous wars against the British India Empire led to the kingdom's collapse. A desperate attempt to reform and modernise in the face of imperial aggression failed and the country was eventually colonized by the British.

This section draws together last traditions from the Konbaung period as well as stories and individuals from its little-remembered reformist era and Burma's transition to colonial rule.