Pagan’s dominance of the region came to a halt in 1286 AD when a seemingly inconsequential group of armed Mongols launched an attack that ended in the collapse of the once-thriving empire. Soon after, the former kingdom splintered into minor polities, and the region fell into a period of various wars between ethnic factions and the Mongol invaders. The kingdom’s fragmentation brought official independence to Arakan, although it should be noted that under the Pagan empire the area still remained largely self-sustaining. As contention and minor armed conflicts in both Bengal and Burma continued, Arakan became a vast mix of ethnicities and religions (Ibrahim, 2016). Despite the warring period, by the mid-14th century, the Kingdom of Ava commanded the territory and once again unified separate entities into a singular Burmese state, and once again Buddhism flourished on a wide scale under the court of Ava. Ava was not the only kingdom establishing itself during this time, however. In 1430 the last Arakan dynasty was formed in Mrauk-U. Arakan was governed by the Mrauk-U kingdom until the late 18th century when it was reabsorbed by the last Bamar dynasty (Topich & Leitich, 2013). By the 1750s, the Konbaung dynasty began its reign as the last of the Bamar empire. Under Konbaung rule, Burma came to be a regional power. By the late 18th century, the Konbaung dynasty was strengthened after successful wars with Siam. This led rulers to turn their attention to the western area of Arakan. The impetus for this mobilization lay in a desire to ensure Buddhist purity in the area and a reduction of ties to the Islamic states of to the west. It was the Konbaung occupation of Arakan that ultimately triggered tensions between Burma and British India (Tahir, 1963). These tensions steadily grew stronger 2