The strategic fortress city of Rabdentse, which served as the second capital of Sikkim for over a century, was eventually destroyed and abandoned following repeated invasions by which neighboring power in the late eighteenth century?

💡 Solution & Explanation

In the late eighteenth century, the Gorkha forces from Nepal launched massive military campaigns into Sikkim, capturing and destroying the capital of Rabdentse and annexing large western territories of the kingdom. The British East India Company arrived in the region only in the nineteenth century, while Ahom incursions were confined to the Brahmaputra valley. This Gorkha expansion prompted Sikkim to later seek British alliance for protection.