The Anglo-Nepalese War and Treaty of Sugauli

From 1814 to 1816, the Kingdom of Nepal fought the British East India Company in the Anglo-Nepalese War (also called the Gurkha War). The conflict arose from border disputes as Nepal's expanding Gorkha empire clashed with British territorial ambitions in northern India. The Nepalese army, though vastly outgunned and outnumbered, fought with a ferocity that stunned the British. At the Battle of Nalapani (1814), 600 Nepalese defenders under Captain Balbhadra Kunwar held a small fort against 3,500 British troops for over a month. British casualties were so heavy that their commanders offered full military honors to the surviving defenders. The war ended with the Treaty of Sugauli (March 4, 1816), which forced Nepal to cede roughly one-third of its territory — including the Terai, Kumaon, Garhwal, and Sikkim — and accept a British Resident in Kathmandu. But the treaty also established Nepal's modern borders and, crucially, began the Gurkha recruitment tradition. So impressed were the British by Nepalese soldiers that they began enlisting Gurkhas into the East India Company's army — a tradition that continues to this day in both the British and Indian armies. The Gurkha motto, "Better to die than be a coward," became one of the most feared reputations in military history.