Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Konbaung dynasty
Scarcely had the Taungoo dynasty been erased from the face of Myanmar when the last of
Myanmar'sthreegreatpre-colonialempiresappearedintheshapeofthe
Konbaungdynasty
- which would eventually go on to wield control of the second-largest empire in Burmese
history. The dynasty was founded in Shwebo, northwest of Mandalay, in 1752 by one Aung
Zeya, a village chief who refused to accept the authority of the new Restored Hanthawaddy
rulers in Ava. His initial territory was small - just 46 villages - but Aung Zeya had himself
crowned nonetheless, taking the name
King Alaungpaya
(ruled 1752-60). Three attempts
by Hanthawaddy forces to capture Shwebo were repulsed and growing numbers of recruits
arrived to fight for Alaungpaya's anti-Hanthawaddy cause. By early 1754 he had acquired
sufficientforcestorecaptureAvaandtodriveoutallHanthawaddyforcesfromnorthernMy-
anmar.
The conflict had by now acquired an increasingly ethnic dimension: a possibly decisive
battle between the Mon south and the Bamar north. Hanthawaddy persecution of Bamar liv-
inginMonlandsplayeddirectlyintoAlaungpaya'shands,andin1755hestrucksouth,taking
control of the Ayeyarwady all the way down to the small town of Dagon, which he renamed
Yangon
- only to be brought to a halt by French forces defending the port city of Thanly-
in. A fourteen-month siege ensued before the city finally capitulated, after which Konbaung
forces marched to Bago, capturing and sacking the city in 1757, signalling the demise of the
Hanthawaddy dynasty - and, indeed, the end of the very last independent Mon kingdom in
Myanmar, a blow from which the Mon people, culture and language have yet to recover.
Following the capture of Bago, various territories including Chiang Mai and other Thai
provinces that had once formed part of the Taungoo Empire sent tribute to Alaungpaya, as
did the governor of Mottama in the south. Konbaung forces also recaptured former Taun-
goo territory in the northern Shan and eastern Kachin states taken by the Qing dynasty in the
1730s,whileManipurwasoverrunin1756.ScarcelyhadAlaungpayafinishedfightinginthe
north, however, when a Mon rebellion broke out in the south, with Thai backing. In 1759
Alaungpaya led an army of forty thousand men into southern Myanmar before heading east,
eventuallyreachingandlayingsiegetotheThaicapitalatAyutthayainApril1760.Justafew
days into the siege, however, Alaungpaya suddenly fell ill and died, and Konbaung forces
retreated back into Myanmar.
Ayutthaya again
The brief reign of Alaungpaya's son and successor
Naungdawgyi
(ruled 1760-63) was
plagued by further rebellions - in Ava, Taungoo, Mottama and Chiang Mai - and it was left
to his younger brother, the formidable
Hsinbyushin
(ruled 1763-76), to complete Alaung-
paya's expansionist work. Having moved the Konbaung capital to a newly rebuilt Ava in
1765, Hsinbyushin conquered the Lao kingdoms of Vientiane and Luang Prabang and then
