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Bhutan British Intrusion, 1772-1907
Under the Cooch Behari agreement with the British, a
British
expeditionary force drove the Bhutanese garrison out of
Cooch Behar
and invaded Bhutan in 1772-73. The druk desi
petitioned
Lhasa for assistance from the Panchen Lama, who was
serving as
regent for the youthful Dalai Lama. In correspondence with
the
British governor general of India, however, the Panchen
Lama
instead castigated the druk desi and invoked
Tibet's claim
of suzerainty over Bhutan.
Failing to receive help from Tibet, the druk
desi signed
a Treaty of Peace with the British East India Company on
April 25,
1774. Bhutan agreed to return to its pre-1730 boundaries,
paid a
symbolic tribute of five horses to Britain, and, among
other
concessions, allowed the British to harvest timber in
Bhutan.
Subsequent missions to Bhutan were made by the British in
1776,
1777, and 1783, and commerce was opened between British
India and
Bhutan and, for a short time, Tibet. In 1784 the British
turned
over to Bhutanese control Bengal Duars territory, where
boundaries
were poorly defined. As in its other foreign territories,
Bhutan
left administration of the Bengal Duars territory to local
officials and collected its revenues. Although major trade
and
political relations failed to develop between Bhutan and
Britain,
the British had replaced the Tibetans as the major
external threat.
Boundary disputes plagued Bhutanese-British relations.
To
reconcile their differences, Bhutan sent an emissary to
Calcutta in
1787, and the British sent missions to Thimphu in 1815 and
1838.
The 1815 mission was inconclusive. The 1838 mission
offered a
treaty providing for extradition of Bhutanese officials
responsible
for incursions into Assam, free and unrestricted commerce
between
India and Bhutan, and settlement of Bhutan's debt to the
British.
In an attempt to protect its independence, Bhutan rejected
the
British offer. Despite increasing internal disorder,
Bhutan had
maintained its control over a portion of the Assam Duars
more or
less since its reduction of Cooch Behar to a dependency in
the
1760s. After the British gained control of Lower Assam in
1826,
tension between the countries began to rise as Britain
exerted its
strength. Bhutanese payments of annual tribute to the
British for
the Assam Duars gradually fell into arrears, however. The
resulting
British demands for payment and military incursions into
Bhutan in
1834 and 1835 brought about defeat for Bhutan's forces and
a
temporary loss of territory.
The British proceeded in 1841 to annex the formerly
Bhutanesecontrolled Assam Duars, paying a compensation of 10,000
rupees a
year to Bhutan. In 1842 Bhutan gave up control to the
British of
some of the troublesome Bengal Duars territory it had
administered
since 1784.
Charges and countercharges of border incursions and
protection
of fugitives led to an unsuccessful Bhutanese mission to
Calcutta
in 1852. Among other demands, the mission sought increased
compensation for its former Duars territories, but instead
the
British deducted nearly 3,000 rupees from the annual
compensation
and demanded an apology for alleged plundering of
British-protected
lands by members of the mission. Following more incidents
and the
prospect of an anti-Bhutan rebellion in the Bengal Duars,
British
troops deployed to the frontier in the mid-1850s. The
Sepoy
Rebellion in India in 1857-58 and the demise of the
British East
India Company's rule prevented immediate British action.
Bhutanese
armed forces raided Sikkim and Cooch Behar in 1862,
seizing people,
property, and money. The British responded by withholding
all
compensation payments and demanding release of all
captives and
return of stolen property. Demands to the druk desi
went
unheeded, as he was alleged to be unaware of his frontier
officials' actions against Sikkim and Cooch Behar.
Britain sent a peace mission to Bhutan in early 1864,
in the
wake of the recent conclusion of a civil war there. The
dzongpon of Punakha--who had emerged
victorious--had broken
with the central government and set up a rival druk
desi
while the legitimate druk desi sought the
protection of the
ponlop of Paro and was later deposed. The British
mission
dealt alternately with the rival ponlop of Paro and
the
ponlop of Tongsa (the latter acted on behalf of the
druk
desi), but Bhutan rejected the peace and friendship
treaty it
offered. Britain declared war in November 1864. Bhutan had
no
regular army, and what forces existed were composed of
dzong
guards armed with matchlocks, bows and arrows, swords,
knives, and
catapults. Some of these dzong guards, carrying
shields and
wearing chainmail armor, engaged the well-equipped British
forces.
The Duar War (1864-65) lasted only five months and,
despite
some battlefield victories by Bhutanese forces, resulted
in
Bhutan's defeat, loss of part of its sovereign territory,
and
forced cession of formerly occupied territories. Under the
terms of
the Treaty of Sinchula, signed on November 11, 1865,
Bhutan ceded
territories in the Assam Duars and Bengal Duars, as well
as the
eighty-three-square-kilometer territory of Dewangiri in
southeastern Bhutan, in return for an annual subsidy of
50,000
rupees.
In the 1870s and 1880s, renewed competition among
regional
rivals--primarily the pro-British ponlop of Tongsa
and the
anti-British, pro-Tibetan ponlop of Paro--resulted
in the
ascendancy of Ugyen Wangchuck, the ponlop of
Tongsa. From
his power base in central Bhutan, Ugyen Wangchuck had
defeated his
political enemies and united the country following several
civil
wars and rebellions in 1882-85. His victory came at a time
of
crisis for the central government, however. British power
was
becoming more extensive to the south, and in the west
Tibet had
violated its border with Sikkim, incurring British
disfavor. After
1,000 years of close ties with Tibet, Bhutan faced the
threat of
British military power and was forced to make serious
geopolitical
decisions. The British, seeking to offset potential
Russian
advances in Lhasa, wanted to open trade relations with
Tibet. Ugyen
Wangchuck saw the opportunity to assist the British and in
1903-4
volunteered to accompany a British mission to Lhasa as a
mediator.
For his services in securing the Anglo-Tibetan Convention
of 1904,
Ugyen Wangchuck was knighted and thereafter continued to
accrue
greater power in Bhutan.
Data as of September 1991
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