Arakan was ceded to the East India Company's administration by the Treaty of Yandabo signed after the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1826.

The division was a coastal strip of land running along the eastern seaboard of the Bay of Bengal, from the Naf River estuary, on the borders of Chittagong, to Cape Negrais.

Farther to the south, owing to the nearness of the range which bounds Arakan on the east, the rivers are of but little importance.

These are the Talak and the Aeng, navigable by boats; and the Sandoway, the Taungup and the Gwa streams, the latter of which alone has any importance, owing to its mouth forming a good port of call or haven for vessels of from 9 to 10 ft. draught.

There are several passes over the Arakan Mountains, the easiest being that called the Aeng route, leading from the village of that name into Upper Burma.

[2] The Northern Arakan Hill Tracts district is under a superintendent, who was usually a member of the Imperial Police, with headquarters at Paletwa.

Like the rest of Burma, the Burman Arakanese were concentrated in villages and tribal shifting cultivation zones; while Indians dominated urban areas.

Two Arakanese Indians were elected under the Burmese native category to the constituent assembly, including M. A. Gaffar and Sultan Ahmed.

[7] Akyab became one of the leading rice exporting ports in the world, hosting ship fleets from Europe and China.

[8] As Arakan was mostly accessible by sea,[9] its ports depended on ferry and cargo shipping with Chittagong, Narayanganj, Dacca, Calcutta, Moulmein, Rangoon, Singapore, Penang, Madras and Syriam.