William Baffin again sails as pilot of…

Rajput troops fighting for the Mughals introduce to Assam the habit of taking opium, which the soldiers receive as a daily ration.

Mughal ruler Akbar the Great, ruler of northern India from 1556 to 1605, had initiated such innovative policies as religious liberalism (abolition of the jizya tax), inclusion of Hindus in the affairs of the empire, and political alliance/marriage with the Hindu Rajput caste; in his administration of the empire, he had also adopted some policies of Sher Shah Suri, such as the division of the empire into sarkars.

This has undoubtedly served to maintain the power and stability of the empire, as the fiercely proud Hindu populace had shown stiff resistance and no signs of meekly converting to the whims of Islamic conquest in its years in the Indian subcontinent.

Aurangzeb, who follows a more strict interpretation of Islam, discarded these policies.

Aurangzeb is to spend nearly his entire career seeking to expand his realm into the Deccan and south India, and Assam in the east, sapping the empire’s resources while provoking strong resistance from the Marathas, the Sikhs of Punjab, the Ahoms of Assam and some elements within the Hindu Rajputs.

The Battle of Saraighat is fought on April 9, 1671 between the Mughal empire (led by the Kachwaha king, Raja Ramsingh I), and the Ahom Kingdom (led by Lachit Borphukan) on the Brahmaputra river at Saraighat, now in Guwahati.

The Ahom army, although much weaker, defeats the Mughal army by brilliant uses of the terrain, clever diplomatic negotiations to buy time, guerrilla tactics, psychological warfare, military intelligence and by exploiting the sole weakness of the Mughal forces—its navy.

The Battle of Saraighat is the final battle in what is to be the last major attempt by the Mughals to extend their empire into Assam.

King Bodawpaya of Burma's Konbaung dynasty, faced with a powerful China and a resurgent Siam in the east, has acquired the western kingdoms of Arakan (1784), Manipur (1814) and Assam (1817), leading to a long ill-defined border with British India.

Europeans had begun to set up trading posts in the Irrawaddy delta region during this period.

Konbaung had tried to maintain its independence by balancing between the French and the British.

In the end it failed the British severing diplomatic relations in 1811, and the dynasty fighting and losing three wars against the British Empire, culminating in total annexation of Burma by the British.

The British decisively defeat the Burmese in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826).

Burma is forced to cede Arakan, Manipur, Assam, and Tenasserim, and pay a large indemnity of one million pounds.

The British, disturbed by Burmese control of Manipur and Assam, which threaten their own influence on the eastern borders of British India, support rebellions in the region.

By the medieval period, marriage alliances between royal families of the Manipur kingdom, Ahom (Assam) and Burma had become common.

Medieval era Manipur manuscripts discovered in the twentieth century, particularly the Puya, will provide evidence that Hindus from the Indian subcontinent were married to Manipur royalty at least by the fourteenth century.

In centuries thereafter, royal spouses have come also from what is now modern Assam, Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh, together with ancient Dravidian kingdoms and other regions.

Another manuscript suggests that Muslims arrived in Manipur in the seventeenth century, from what is now Bangladesh, during the reign of Meidingu Khagemba.

The socio-political turmoil and wars, particularly the persistent and devastating Manipur-Burma wars, affect the cultural and religious demography of Manipur.

The Raja of Manipur, Marjit Singh, who had been put on the Manipuri throne only six years earlier by the Burmese, had failed to attend Bagyidaw's coronation ceremony, or send an embassy bearing tributes, as all vassal kings had an obligation to do.

In October 1819, Bagyidaw sends an expeditionary force of twenty-five thousand soldiers and three thousand cavalry led by his favorite general Maha Bandula to reclaim Manipur.

Bandula reconquers Manipur but the raja escapes to neighboring Cachar, which is ruled by his brother Chourjit Singh.

The Singh brothers continue to raid Manipur using their bases from Cachar and Jaintia, which had been declared as British protectorates.

Bagyidaw is crowned as Emperor of Burma at the imperial capital of Innwa  following his grandfather's death on June 7.

Suddenly elevated to the position of Crown Prince at twenty-three by his grandfather King Bodawpaya in 1808, Bagyidaw ascends to the throne without opposition.

He thus inherits the second largest Burmese empire but also one that shares a long vaguely defined borders with British India.

Burmese forces occupy Shalpuri Island near Chittagong, which is claimed by the East India Company, on September 23, providing the casus belli for the First Anglo-Burmese War.

Burmese expansion into Manipur and Assam has created a long border between British India and the Burmese Empire.

The British, based in Calcutta, support rebels from Manipur, Assam and Arakan fleeing into British territory.

Calcutta had unilaterally declared Cachar and Jaintia British protectorates, and sent in troops.

Cross border raids into these newly acquired territories from British territories and spheres of influence vex the Burmese.

Convinced that war was inevitable, Burmese commander-in-chief, Maha Bandula, has become a main proponent of offensive policy against the British.

Bandula is part of the war party at Bagyidaw's court, which also includes Queen Me Nu and her brother, the Lord of Salin.

Bandula believes that a decisive victory will allow Ava to consolidate its gains in its new western empire in Arakan, Manipur, Assam, Cachar and Jaintia, as well as take over eastern Bengal.

Burma sends one of her top generals, Thado Thiri Maha Uzana, into Cachar and Jaintia to disperse the rebels in January 1824.

The British send in their own force to meet the Burmese in Cachar, a district of Assam, resulting in the first clashes between the two nations.

The first Anglo Burmese war formally breaks out on March 5, 1824, following border clashes in Arakan.

The British reason for the war is, in addition to expanding British Bengal's sphere of influence, the desire for new markets for British manufacturing.

The British are also anxious to deny the French the use of Burmese harbors and concerned about French influence at the Court of Ava, as the kingdom is still known to them.

British Ambassador Michael Symes's mission has been equipped to gain as much knowledge as possible of the country for future British plans, whereas previous envoys had been concerned principally with trade concessions.

Anglo–French rivalry had already played a role during Alaungpaya's endeavors to unify the kingdom.

The Burmese in these wars are advancing into smaller states not ruled by the British or the subject of expansionary goals by the British before the war began, and the British will be not so much preoccupied by the refugee problem initially as by the threat posed by the French, until further incidents force their hand.