Burma

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A vast province of British India, lying E. of the Bay of Bengal, and bounded landward by Bengal, Tibet, China, and Siam; the country is mountainous, drained by the Irawadi, Salween, and Sittang Rivers, whose deltas are flat fertile plains; the heights on the Chinese frontier reach 15,000 ft; the climate varies with the elevation, but is mostly hot and trying; rice is the chief crop; the forests yield teak, gum, and bamboo; the mines, iron, copper, lead, silver, and rubies. Lower Burma is the coast-land from Bengal to Siam, cap. Rangoon, and was seized by Britain in 1826 and 1854. Upper Burma, cap. Mandalay, an empire nearly as large as Spain, was annexed in 1886.