In the summer years of 1851, in Rangoon, British merchant ship captains of the Monarch and Champion were arrested and charged with murder and other offences by the Burmese Governor of Rangoon.

On 27th November, Commodore George R. Lambert of the H. M. Fox arrived in Rangoon. Exceeding Lord Dalhousie`s instructions, Lambert issued an ultimatum to the King of Ava. The King`s response was to replace the Governor of Rangoon and to investigate other charges proved acceptable to the British.

On 6 January 1852, for reasons of cultural practice, the new Governor of Rangoon declined to see British officers subordinate to Lambert. Lambert interpreted this act as an affront and proceeded to evacuate all British citizens living in Rangoon. By evening Lambert had imposed a blockade of Rangoon and the Bassein and Salween rivers. Thus was harbingered the Second Burma War.

On 18th February, Lord Dalhousie sent a letter to the King of Alva. The letter was in reality an ultimatum, which called for various apologies, payments of compensation, reception of a British Political Agent and the removal of the Governor of Rangoon. Atonement on these points was to be submitted by April 1, 1852.

In March, Lord Dalhousie organised an expeditionary force of 7000 men under the command of Major-General Sir Henry T. Godwin (1784-1853). The force arrived in Rangoon on April 2, 1852 and proceeded to capture Rangoon on April 14, Bassein on May 20, Prome on October 10 and Pegu on November 21. In all these actions, the British had casualties totalling 377.

On 16th November, Dalhousie sent a letter to the King of Ava informing him of the British annexation of Pegu. With the King`s lack of acknowledgment, on December 20, Lord Dalhousie formally announced the annexation of Pegu by proclamation. In the ongoing time period of 1852, Dalhousie appointed Major Arthur P. Phayre (1812-1885) as the first Commissioner of Pegu with the authority to establish revenue, post and police measures.

In the month of December, Dalhousie resolved the deadlock between Henry Lawrence and his brother John Lawrence at the Punjab Board of Administration, by reassigning Henry Lawrence as the Political Agent to the Governor-General of Rajputana. Subsequently, John Lawrence received appointment as the Chief Commissioner of Punjab in February 1853. Amongst all other things, Lord Dalhousie had, quite shrewdly annexed the territories of Burma under his manipulative administration, emerging victorious in the Second Burma War.

In 1853, the British East India Company signed a treaty with the Arab chiefs of the Persian Gulf agreeing to a long-lasting peace. In the event of an aggression committed at sea, the matter was to be referred to the Government of Bombay.