History
The delta was historically populated by the Mon. Politically, the Burman kingdoms in farther north the Irrawaddy river had controlled the delta area since mid-11th century for the most part with few exceptions. The control of the fertile area reverted back to Bago-based Mon kingdoms in the 13th to 15th centuries (1287–1539) and briefly in 18th century (1747–1757).
The delta was also where the British first got toe-hold of Burma. The British seized Haingyi Kyun or Negrais Island in 1753, after the Mon resisted their request to establish a trading post. The Burmese king Alaungpaya ceded the island to the British in 1757 but retook the island in 1759 by force when the king felt he had been betrayed by the British in his war against the Mon. The battle of Danubyu in 1825 in the delta was the last major stand by the Burmese against the advancing British forces in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826). The delta was seized by the British in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852 and became part of British Burma.
The British colonial administration drained the marshes and swamps that dominated the area, and built dykes and embankments starting from 1861 for rice cultivation as the Burmans began to migrate south into British Burma in search of greener pastures. There now exist 1,300 km of major embankments in the delta to protect 600,000 hectares of paddyland.
Read more about this topic: Irrawaddy Delta
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