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The battle of Prome was a land-based battle between the Kingdom of Burma and the British Empire that took place near the city of Prome, modern day Pyay, in 1825 as part of the First Anglo-Burmese War. It was the last-ditch effort by the Burmese to drive out the British from Lower Burma. The poorly equipped Burmese army despite the advantage in numbers suffered a defeat. The British army's subsequent march toward north threatened Ava, which led to peace negotiation by the Kingdom of Burma. Following the defeat at Danubyu and the death of General Maha Bandula, King Bagyidaw ordered the general Maha Ne Myo to capture Prome with an army. With superiority in number, the Burmese army divided into three divisions and positioned themselves around Prome in Simbaik, Napadi hills, and the western shore of Irrawaddy river. The Burmese army harassed the British position in outlying regions around Prome by leading small raids but did not commit to an attack on Prome itself. The British army, led by Gen. Archibald Campbell, composed of several regiments of Royal Foot infantry and Madras Native infantry and artillery. On 1 December 1825, General Campbell initiated an attack on the left division led by Maha Ne Myo, while distracting the centre division with a cannon barrage. The left division was stormed with a bayonet charge led by Lt. General Willoughby Cotton and a follow up attack by General Campbell caused a complete rout of the left division of the Burmese army. The British army attacked the center division on the Napadi hills the following day, and due to the bravery of the Native infantry, drove the Burmese troops from the hills. An attack on the right division, situated on the western shore of Irrawaddy river, caused a general retreat of the Burmese army. ==Background== After defeating the Burmese army and their commander-in-chief Maha Bandula at Danubyu in April 1825, the British consolidated their gains in Lower Burma (up to Prome), Arakan and Tenasserim coast as well as in Assam and Manipur. Initial peace negotiations were commenced in September 1825 at Ngagyaungbinzeik, 20 miles north of Prome.〔Phayre, p. 253〕 The British demanded that the Burmese recognize "the independence of Manipur" and "desist from interference with Assam and Cachar", "cede Rakhine and its dependencies", receive a British Resident at the Court of Ava, and pay an indemnity of two million pounds sterling. Yangon, and Taninthayi would be held until the indemnity was paid.〔Myint-U, pp. 122–124〕 The Court of Ava had not expected, and were unwilling to accept, the full dismemberment of their western empire and the crushing penalty demanded. But with the army severely depleted, the Burmese envoy, the lord of Kawlin, replied that his government: # Would give up any claim to Assam and Manipur # Objected to the British choice for the future Manipuri raja # Would cede the Tenasserim coast but not Arakan. The British were unimpressed: "The question is not how much you will cede to us but how much we shall return to you".〔 The negotiations broke down, and the Burmese decided to fight on despite the fact that the army was severely short of experienced men and arms. (The army's most experienced men had already perished in the previous year. The Burmese lost about 23,000 men in the Battle of Rangoon (May–December 1824) alone.) Over the rainy season of 1825 (June–October), they had raised more men, and the entire Burmese defences now consisted of 30,000 soldiers.〔 However, most the new conscripts were "ill-trained and ill-equipped".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Prome」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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