Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
led his armies east, slowly fighting his way south to the Thai capital of
Ayutthaya
in 1766.
A fourteen-month siege ensued before the city finally fell. Kongbaung forces proceeded to
devastate what was then one of Asia's largest and most magnificent cities, taking thousands
of captives back to Myanmar.
Thaiforcessucceededinrecapturingmostoftheirlostterritoryoverthenextfewyears.Ay-
utthaya, however, never recovered, and the Thai capital was subsequently moved to a new
location, later to become known as Bangkok.
The return of the Chinese
Meanwhile, just as Konbaung forces were marching towards Ayutthaya, the Chinese
launched successive invasions of their own into northeastern Myanmar. The first two were
repulsed, but in late 1767 a Chinese army of fifty thousand defeated Konbaung forces at the
BattleofGoteikGorge
andmarchedsouthtowithin50kmofAva.Stretchedperilouslythin,
Hsinbyushin finally recalled his armies from Thailand, eventually beating off the Chinese at
the
Battle of Maymyo
in 1768 and repulsing yet another invasion the following year.
Hsinbyushin's achievement in simultaneously taking Ayutthaya while holding off the
Chinese is often considered one of the greatest strategic feats in Burmese history, although
the increasingly militarized nature of the Konbaung state and the cost of endless wars had its
inevitable effect. The now ever-present Chinese threat, a resurgent Thailand, endless rebel-
lions in Manipur and (in 1773) another Mon rebellion all conspired to cast a major shadow
over the king's achievements, as did the wanton destruction of Ayutthaya, the root of wide-
spread anti-Burmese sentiments which persist in Thailand right up to the present day.
Bodawpaya and the fall of Mrauk U
Hsinbyushin's successor,
King Singu (
aka Singu Min; ruled 1776-82), largely put an end to
his father's endless wars, ceding Chiang Mai province (which had by then been a Burmese
possession for most of the past two centuries) to Thailand in 1776. He was succeeded by his
uncle (and King Alaungpaya's fourth son),
Bodawpaya
(ruled 1782-1819), who moved the
capital to
Amarapura
and also commissioned the lunatic
Mingun Pagoda
,
which would have
been the world's largest stupa had it ever been finished. Bodawpaya launched two further
(unsuccessful) attacks against Thailand, although it was in the west that his forces had their
most notable success, particularly in 1784, when a Konbaung army captured the great city of
MraukU
-endingthegoldenageofArakan,andalsobringingKonbaungrulers,forthefirst
time, into direct contact with the British in neighbouring India.
The arrival of the British
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, European adventurers and traders had already
been sniffing around Myanmar for over two centuries. Portuguese mercenary
Filipe de Brito
e Nicote
had carved out his own personal fiefdom back in 1603 in the port of Thanlyin while
