¹ Excepting anti-imperialist “Marxist” or “nationalist” historians and other revisionist scholars who will be considered below.

² As quoted in Koebner, R. and Schmidt, H.D., Imperialism: The Story and Significance of a Political Word, 1840–1960 (Cambridge 1964), p. 210.Google Scholar For similar beliefs expressed by Jules Ferry, see Brunschwig, H., Mythes et Réaltiés de L'Imperialisme Colonial Francais, 1871—1914 (Paris, 1960), pp. 74–5.Google Scholar

³ See, for example, Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (London, 1965; 1st ed. 1922), pp. 5–6, 612–19Google Scholaret passim; Cromer as quoted in Marlowe's, JohnCromer in Egypt (New York, 1970), pp. 279–85Google Scholar; and Garnier as quoted in Osborne, M., The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia (Ithaca, New York, 1969), p. 40.Google Scholar

⁴ See Roberts, P.E., India under Wellesley (Gorakpur, 1961; 1st ed. 1929), pp. 131, 136Google Scholaret passim; and Bearce, G.D., British Attitudes Towards India, 1784–1858 (Oxford, 1961), pp. 34–78.Google Scholar Even administrators like Mountstuart Elphinstone and Thomas Munro, who displayed considerable ambivalence toward Indian elites and institutions, concluded that the populace as a whole was better off under British rule. See Ballhatchet, Kenneth, Social Policy and Social Change in Western India 1817–1830 (London, 1957), pp. 30–42, 248–51Google Scholaret passim; and Griffiths, P., The British Impact on India (London, 1952), pp. 245–6.Google Scholar

⁵ For examples, see Osborne, French Presence, pp. 93–8; Sen, K.C., Lectures in India (London, 1901), pp. 322–6Google Scholar; and selections from Naoroji's, D. numerous Essays, Speeches, Addresses, and Writings … (Bombay, 1887).Google Scholar

⁶ See especially volumes one and two of Mill's, James multi-volumed History of British India, 1756–83 (London, 1840)Google Scholar; and Cunningham, James, A History of the Sikhs (New Delhi, 1966; 1st ed. 1848), pp. 247–9Google Scholar and his preface to the second edition, 1849.

⁷ Kimberley to Gladstone, 10 Sept. 1873, quoted by Cowan, C.D. in Nineteenth-Century Malaya (London, 1961), p. 169.Google Scholar

⁸ Allahabad, 1966 (1st ed. 1853), p. 50. For expressions of similar views with reference to other areas see Keltie, J.S., The Partition of Africa, Revised ed. (Philadelphia, 1906) pp. 47, 60–1, 68, 75, 126 et passimGoogle Scholar; and Rousset, Camille, La Conquete d'Alger (Paris, 1880), pp. 1–3et passim.Google Scholar

⁹ See, for example, Le Thanh Khoi's treatment of the Nguyen nobility and bureaucracy in Le Vietnam: histoire et civilisation (Paris, 1955), pp. 322, 354–65 et passim.Google Scholar

¹⁰ One of the best discussions of these unfortunate trends may be found in Smail's, John R.W. article “On the Possibility of an Autonomous History of Indonesia,” Journal of Southeast Asian History 2/2 (1961), pp. 80–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹ This tendency was criticized as early as 1953 by L.J. Ragatz in his article, “Must We Rewrite the History of Imperialism?” Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand, Vol. 6, pp. 90–8. M.D. Lewis noted a decade later that little serious attention had been given to the problem. See “One Hundred Million Frenchmen: The Assimilation Theory in French Colonial Policy,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 4/2 (1962), p. 149.Google Scholar With the exceptions noted below, the problem remains much neglected.

¹² See, for examples, Marsh, Z. and Kingsnorth, G.W., An Introduction to the History of East Africa 3rd. ed., (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 115–7, 131–4, 183 et passimGoogle Scholar; L.S.S. O'Malley, (ed.), Modern India and the West (London, 1941), especially pp. 13–43Google Scholar which set the tone on the “before and after” question for a whole generation of British, American and Indian historians; and Miller, H., The Story of Malaysia (London, 1965), pp. 99 and 125 et passim.Google Scholar The most recent and forceful restatement of the “before and after” theme may be found in Gann, L.H. and Duignan, Peter, The Burden of Empire (New York, 1967).Google Scholar

¹³ Good examples of this pattern may be found in the texts and general surveys of Percival Spear. See India: A Modern History (Ann Arbon, Michigan, 1961), pp. 172–81.Google Scholar

¹⁴ (Muncie, Indiana, 1965), p. 2.

¹⁵ Tordoff, , Ashanti under the Prempehs, 1888–1935 (London, 1965)Google Scholar; Kiwanuka, , “Bunyoro and the British: A Reappraisal of the causes for the Decline and Fall of an African Kingdom,” Journal of African History 9/4 (1968), pp. 603–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Igbafe, , “The Fall of Benin: A Reassessment,” Journal of African History 11/3(1970), pp. 385–400CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Graham, , “The Slave Trade, Depopulation and Human Sacrifice in Benin History,” Cahiers D'etudes Africaines 5/2 (1965), pp. 317–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶ A notable exception to this generalization is Kumar's, RavinderWestern India in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1968).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Important exceptions include Kumar, ibid; and Mason, Michael, “Population Density and ‘Slave Raiding’—the Case of the Middle Belt of Nigeria,” Journal of African History 10/4 (1969), pp. 551–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also the comment on Mason's article by Gleave, M.B. and Prothero, R.M. and a reply by Mason, in the Journal of African History 12/2 (1971), pp. 319–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In studies of sub-Saharan Africa, trading patterns have also been given serious consideration. Non-historians have made perhaps the greatest contribution to our understanding of non-political aspects of the pre-colonial situation. See for example, DeGregori's, T.R.Technology and the Economic Development of the Tropical African Frontier (London, 1969) especially pp. 83–181.Google Scholar

¹⁸ References to Lower Burma in this article do not include Arakan and Tenasserim which are usually grouped with the Irrawaddy delta under that designation.

¹⁹ Following current usage the term Burman refers specifically to the majority ethnic and linguistic group of Modern Burma. The term Burmese denotes all of the groups which presently comprise the population of Burma including the Burmans, Mons or Talaings, Chins, Shans, Karen and Kachins. The Burmans, whose traditional heartland was the Dry Zone of Upper Burma, conquered Lower Burma in the 1750's after defeating the Mons who comprised the dominant ethnic group in the region.

²⁰ The Konbaung dynasty (1752–1885) was the last and most powerful produced by the Burman people.

²¹ As quoted in Woodman, Dorothy, The Making of Burma (London, 1962), p. 75.Google Scholar

²² Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava in the Year 1827 (London, 1928), pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

²³ Letter from Dalhousie to Arthur Phayre, the first Chief Commissioner of the Province of Burma, 4 December, 1857, Govt. of India, Political and Foreign Proceedings, Range 203, Vol. 13, No. 255.

²⁴ See the Govt. of India, Political and Foreign Proceedings, Range 201, Vol. 21, No. 165 and Vol. 63, No. 160; Foreign Proceedings (Revenue), Range 205, Vol. 39, No. 12; and the Report on the Administration of the Province of Pegu (hereafter RAP) for 1855–6. paragraph 267.

²⁵ Spearman, H.R., The British Burma Gazetteer (Rangoon, 1880), I, 443.Google Scholar

²⁶ Cady, , A History of Modern Burma (Ithaca, 1958), 69Google Scholar; and Furnivall, , An Introduction to the Political Economy of Burma (Rangoon, 1957), p. 41.Google Scholar

²⁷ The Rice Industry of Burma 1852–1940 (Singapore, 1968), p. 3.Google Scholar

²⁸ Francis Buchanan, Extracts and Observations Respecting the Dominions of Ava …, India Office Archives, MSS European, D. 106, p. 31; and Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 5–6.

²⁹ Pearn, B.R., History of Rangoon (Rangoon, 1939), pp. 30 & 37.Google Scholar

³⁰ Symes, Michael, An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava … in 1795 (London, Debrett, ed., 1800), II, 157–9Google Scholar; and Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 11–12.

³¹ Henzada District Gazetteer (Rangoon, 1915), p. 58.Google Scholar

³² Balbi, Gasparo, “His Voyage to Pegu, and Observations There, Gathered out of His Italian Relation,” in Purchas, Samuel, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrims (Glasgow, 1905), X, 151–2.Google Scholar

³³ Symes, Account of Ava, II, 15–16; Sangermano, V.The Burmese Empire (London, 1893), p. 101Google Scholar; and Furnivall, J.S., “Some Historical Documents” in the Journal of the Burma Research Society 8/1(1918), pp. 43 & 47Google Scholar and 9/1(1919), p. 41.

³⁴ The regions around the towns of Prome and Toungoo, which were independent kingdoms in this period, were also fairly densely populated. Unlike the lower delta, however, the population of these areas was predominantly Burman.

³⁵ Duarte Barbosa, who wrote in the second decade of the sixteenth century, claimed on the basis of second hand evidence that the area around Pegu was well cultivated. See Dames, M.L., The Book of Duarte Barbosa (London, 1921), II, 153.Google Scholar Andrew Boves related that Martaban had been well cultivated prior to the last decades of the sixteenth century. See “Indian Observations Gathered out of the Letters of Nicholas Pimenta, Visitor of the Jesuites in India, and many others of that Societies” in Purchas, Pilgrims, Vol. X, pp. 215–16. Ludvico de Varthema also reported that there was a “great abundance” of grain in the region around Pegu. See Temple, R.C., The Itinerary of Ludvico de Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508 (London, 1928), p. 81.Google Scholar

³⁶ Suma Oriental (London, 1944), I, 98.Google Scholar

³⁷ India at the Death of Akbar (London, 1920), pp. 235–7.Google Scholar

³⁸ Suma Oriental, loc. cit.

³⁹ Frederick, , “Voyages and Travels in India” in Keer, Robert, A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels (Edinburgh, 1812), p. 197Google Scholar; and Fitch, “A Voyage Perform'd by Mr. Ralph Fitch, Merchant of London …” in John Harris (ed.), Navigantium Atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca (London, 1705), p. 212.

⁴⁰ J.H. von Linschoten, Voyage to the East Indies (New York, n.d.), II, 88–9; and M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz, , Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago between 1500 and About 1650 (The Hague), 1962, pp. 69–71.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Wales, H.G., Ancient Siamese Government and Administration, (London, 1934), p. 64.Google Scholar For an account of the Mon migrations see Halliday, R., The Talaings (Rangoon, 1917), pp. 1 & 14–15.Google Scholar

⁴² D.G.E. Hall has also seen the late sixteenth century and not the Konbaung period as the time when Lower Burma was most seriously devastated and depopulated. See A History of South-East Asia (London, 1964), pp. 362 & 736.Google Scholar

⁴³ Ibid., p. 736.

⁴⁴ Furnivall, Political Economy, p. 41.

⁴⁵ Symes, Account of Ava, I, 323 and II, 112–13; and Buchanan, Extracts, p. 31.

⁴⁶ Journal of a Resident in the Burmhan Empire and More Particularly at the Court of Amorapoorah (London, 1821), pp. 10–11 & 21.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Gouger, , A Personal Narrative of Two Years Imprisonment in Burma (London, 1864), p. 17Google Scholar; and Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 5–6. Gouger passed through Lower Burma before and Crawfurd after the first Anglo-Burman war.

⁴⁸ Maw, , Memoir of Early Operations of the Burmese War (London, 1832), p. 82Google Scholar; and Malcolm, , Travels in South-eastern Asia …and a Full Account of the Burman Empire (Boston, 1840), I, 84.Google Scholar Maw arrived after the outbreak of the war.

⁴⁹ Maw, Memoir, pp. 82–5; and Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 11–12.

⁵⁰ Two Years in Ava (London, 1827), pp. 29 & 237.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Gyi, U Tin, Report on the Original Settlement Operations in The Labutta Township of the Myaungmya District 1924–5 (Rangoon, 1926), p. 3Google Scholar; H. Maw, Memoir, p. 82; and a map appended to Havelock's, HenryMemoir of Three Campaigns … in Ava (Serampore, 1828).Google Scholar

⁵² Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 6, 421 & 448; Symes, Account of Ava, II, 15–16; and RAP, 1854–5, paragraph 26.

⁵³ India Office Records, Map Department, Topographical Map of British Burma, Pegu Division, April 1862.

⁵⁴ Furnivall, J.S. points out in Colonial Policy and Practice (New York, 1956), p. 59Google Scholar, that there was little economic growth in Lower Burma until after 1861, when pacification was finally completed. Therefore, the ten year interval does not seriously affect the map's value as an indicator of conditions in Konbaung times.

⁵⁵ See the Fitzroy Map and H. Cox, Journal, pp. 31 & 426–8; J. Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 7, 22, 31, 39 & 334; H. Malcolm, Travels, Vol. I, pp. 86 & 90; M. Symes, Account of Am, Vol. II, pp. 18–19, 27–9, 96–9, 154, 159, 165–6 & 168; and Vol. III, p. 250; H.L. Maw, Memoir, p. 83; and RAP (1860–1), p. 27; and (1856–7), Appendix F.

⁵⁶ RAP (1856–7), Appendix F.

⁵⁷ Although a far larger portion of the cultivated area was actually measured in 1856–7 than in earlier years, indigenous Burman and Mon officials did most of the counting for revenue purposes. They felt little loyalty to the British, were unfamiliar with British revenue concepts and methods, and profited greatly from underreporting and pocketing the difference between revenue collected and that actually turned over to the new regime. See, for example, Govt. of India, Political and Foreign Proceedings, Range 201, Vol. 63, 8 Aug. 1856, nu. 160; and Matthews, H., Report on Settlement Operations in the Bassein and Thongwa Districts 1888–9 (Rangoon, 1890), p. 23.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Report on the Administration of Burma 1871–2 (hereafter RAB), Appendix cix; and Govt. of Burma, Season and Crop Report, 1935–6, Acreage Use Tables.

⁵⁹ Robert Gordon, The Irrawaddy River (1885), p. 5.

⁶⁰ Sangermano, Burmese Empire, p. 101; and Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 11–12.

⁶¹ History of Burma, London, 1967, 236.Google Scholar See also J. Cady, Modern Burma, p. 69; and Hall, D.G.E., Burma (London, 1950), p. 156.Google Scholar

⁶² For Symes, see the Account of Ava, II, 166–7. For Burman immigration see the District Gazetteers for Bassein, Henzada and Insein, pp. 25, 18 and 43 respectively.

⁶³ Furnivall, “Historical Documents” 6/3, pp. 218–9; 8/1, pp. 40, 43, 46 & 49; and 9/1, p. 41.

⁶⁴ M. Symes, Account of Ava, II, 166–7; and H. Gouger, Narrative, pp. 19–20.

⁶⁵ See the Comparative prices quoted by Howard Malcolm, Travels, I, 75. Wheat, for example, sold for eight times more than rice.

⁶⁶ B. Pearn, Rangoon, p. 67 and J. Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 428–9 & 439–41.

⁶⁷ M. Symes, Account of Ava, I, 353–4 and II, 60–2, 189–90 et passim.

⁶⁸ Wai, U Tun, Currency and Credit in Burma (Bombay, 1953), 1.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Report on Settlement Operations in the Myaungmya District 1916–19 (Rangoon, 1920), p. 19.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Boyd, M.F., Malariology (Philadelphia, 1949), I, 316, 433 & 619, and II, p. 815.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Settlement Reports — Henzada (1900–01), p.2; Pegu (1900–01), 2; Tharrawaddy (1901–2), p. 3; and Pegu (1911–13), p. 4.

⁷² There were no systematic counts of the population in Lower Burma in the Konbaung period. A comparison of John Crawfurd's estimate in 1826 and British counts in the early 1850's, however, indicates that there were approximately nine hundred thousand to one million inhabitants in the decades prior to 1852. See Crawfurd, Journal, p. 464 and RAP, 1855–6, paragraph 234.

⁷³ G. Harvey, History, pp. 235, 241 et passim; Andrus, J.R., Burmese Economic Life (Stanford, 1948), p. 13Google Scholar; and Cheng Siok-hwa, Burma Rice Industry, p. 3.

⁷⁴ Discussion based on Kaul, B.N., Some Aspects of the Population Problem in Burma (Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of London, 1930), pp. 24 & 34–9.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Cheng, Burma Rice Industry, p. 3; and Hall, South-East Asia, p. 388.

⁷⁶ Colonial Policy, pp. 59–60.

⁷⁷ R. Halliday, Talaings, pp. 16–17; and Burma Census, 1881, Pt. 1, p. 64.

⁷⁸ RAP, 1856–7, Appendix W.

⁷⁹ Phayre, Arthur, Memorandum on the Sparseness of Population in British Burmah (Rangoon, 1862), pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ RAP, 1855–6, paragraph 236; and Govt. of India, Political and Foreign Proceedings, Range 201, Vol. 25, 13 July 1855, No. 95, “Report by Lt. Williams on the Survey of Pegu.”

⁸¹ Ginsburg, Norton, Atlas of Economic Development (Chicago, 1961), p. 66.Google Scholar

⁸² A. Phayre, Memorandum, pp. 7–8.

⁸³ Ross, Ronald, A Summary of Facts Regarding Malaria (London, 1930), p. 5.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ M. Boyd, Malariology, II, 815.

⁸⁵ Geertz, Clifford, Agricultural Involution (Berkeley, 1966), p. 45Google Scholar; and Gourou, Pierre, L'utilisation du Sol en Indochine Francaise (Paris, 1940), pp. 140 & 165–77.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ June and Manning Nash, “Marriage, Family and Population Growth in Upper Burma,” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 19/3(1963), pp. 257–66.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Often these narratives seem to serve as a vehicle by which would-be writers of fiction express themselves through historical scholarship. C.V. Wedgwood has been one of the few historians to admit to and analyze the latent literary drives that motivate many historians. See her delightful exchange with Mehta, Ved in his The Fly in the Fly Bottle (Baltimore, 1965), pp. 164–8.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ On the beginnings of a re-evaluation of the European impact on African or Asian societies see the fine conclusion to Curtin's, PhilipThe Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison, Wisconsin, 1970), pp. 265–73Google Scholar; Fage, J.D., “Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History,” Journal of African History 10/3(1969), pp. 393–404CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Touval, Sadia, “Treaties, Borders, and the Partition of Africa,” Journal of African History 7/2(1966), pp. 279–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kiwanuka, op. cit.; and Mason, op. cit.