Duar War

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict = Duar War
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date = 1864-1865
place = The Bengal Duars
territory = Bhutan ceded parts of the Assam Duars, Bengal Duars, and Dewangiri to Britain
result = British victory
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combatant1 = flagicon|United Kingdom United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
combatant2 = flagicon|Bhutan‎ Bhutan
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The Duar War was a war fought between British India and Bhutan in 1864–1865.

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 fort, known at the time as Dewangiri, at Deothang was dismantled by the British during 1865. The British initially suffered a humiliating defeat at Deothang and when they recaptured Dewangiri they destroyed much to attempt to compensate.

The Duar War (1864–1865) 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. ["1865." The People's Chronology. Ed. Jason M. Everett. Thomson Gale, 2006. eNotes.com. 2006. 12 May, 2007 ]

References