ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the encounter between the British-Indian Army, the Royal Navy and Indian Navy, and the Imperial forces of China. It explores the war between India and China in a period of significant transformation in the nineteenth century, examining the changes in the Army of the East India Company (EIC). The relative importance of technological developments and naval power, the state of the Chinese forces in the period, the combat operations and their impact, and the military-strategic thinking that underpinned the key decisions in these campaigns. Yet, whilst India's armed forces had been transformed by contact with the British, China's military remained relatively unchanged until the late nineteenth century. The Chinese Army of the mid-1800s was largely unchanged in its organization from the seventeenth century when the Manchus had overthrown the Ming Dynasty. The Anglo-Chinese wars of 1842-1860 brought the two Asian powers of China and India into direct confrontation.
