Burmese Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There have been multiple Burmese Kingdoms, including
- 1. Pyu Kingdom (100BC - 840AD)
- 2. Mon Kingdom [9th - 11th, 13th - 16, 18th]
- 3. Bagan Dynasty [849-1287] First Burmese Empire
- 4. Toungoo Dynasty [1486-1752] Second Burmese Empire
- 5. Konbaug Dynasty [1753-1885] Third and Last Burmese Empire
- 6. British Rule [1824 - 1948]
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[edit] 1. Pyu kingdoms [100BC- 840AD](Myanmar)
Between the 1st century BC and the 9th century AD, speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages known as the Pyu were established. In 97 and 121 AD, Roman embassies to China chose the overland route through Myanmar for their journey. The Pyu, however, provided an alternative route down the Irrawaddy to Shri Ksetra and then by sea westward to India and eastward to insular Southeast Asia.
Chinese historical records noted that the Pyu claimed sovereignty over 18 kingdoms. The same Chinese records emphasized the humane nature of the Pyu government and the elegance and grace of Pyu life. In the 7th century the Pyu shifted their capital northward to Halingji in the dry zone, leaving Shri Ksetra as a secondary centre to oversee trade in the south.
[edit] 2. Mon kingdom [9th - 11th, 13th - 16, 18th](Myanmar, Thailand)
The Mon people migrated southward from western China and settled in the Chao Phraya River basin (of southern Thailand) around the 6th century AD. After the Mon moved westward into the Irrawaddy River delta of southern Myanmar in the ensuing centuries, they acquired Theravada Buddhism, their state religion, they adopted the Indian Pali script. By 825 they had firmly established themselves in southern and southeastern Myanmar and founded the cities of Bago(Pegu)and Thaton. About the same period, southward-migrating Burmans took over lands in central Myanmar and established the kingdom of Bagan. In 1057, Bagan defeated the Mon kingdom, capturing the Mon capital of Thaton and carrying off 30,000 Mon captives to Bagan. After the fall of Bagan to the invading Mongols in 1287, the Mon, under Wareru, regained their independence and captured Martaban and Bago, thus virtually controlling their previously held territory. The next 200 years witnessed incessant warfare between the Mon and the Burmans, but the Mon managed to retain their independence until 1539, The Burmans triumphed permanently over the Mon when their leader Alaungpaya razed Bago in 1757. Many of the Mon were killed, while others fled to Thailand. The Mon are still centred in southeastern Myanmar.
[edit] 3.Bagan kingdom [849-1287](Myanmar)
Between about 500 and 950, people of the Burmese ethnic group had been infiltrating from the north into the central region of Myanmar which was occupied by Pyu people that had come under the influence of Mahayana Buddhism from Bihar and Bengal. By the mid-9th century, Bagan had emerged as the capital of a powerful kingdom that would unify Myanmar and would inaugurate the Burman domination of the country that has continued to the present day. During the 8th and 9th Burman established Bagan as their capital city in 849. Under King Anawrahta (reigned 1044-77), the ethnic Burmans finally conquered the other peoples of the region, including the Mon.
In 1287 Bagan was overrun by the Mongols during their wide-ranging conquests, and it never recovered its predominant position.
[edit] 4. Toungoo dynasty [1486-1752](Myanmar)
King Minkyinyo (1486-1531) of Toungoo is considered the founder of the dynasty which conquered the Mohnyin Shan peoples in northern Myanmar. Consolidating his power in Toungoo, far up the Sittang River, Tabinshwehti pushed southward, overrunning the Irrawaddy delta region and crushing the Mon capital of Bago(Pegu). In 1544, Tabinshwehti was crowned as king of all Myanmar at the ancient capital of Bagan. He then began assembling an army for an attack on coastal Arakan to the west. The Myanmar forces were defeated at Arakan but Tabinshwehti led his retreating army eastward to Ayutthaya where he was defeated again by rebellious Thai forces. A period of unrest and rebellions among other conquered peoples followed and Tabinshwehti was assassinated in 1551.
Tabinshwehti's brother-in-law, Bayinnaung, ascended the throne in 1551 and reigned 30 years. An energetic leader and effective military commander, he made Toungoo Myanmar the most powerful state in Southeast Asia. Myanmar moved to Laos and extended down to Ayutthaya, near Bangkok. Thailand remained under Myanmar domination for 15 years.
Bayinnaung was poised to deliver a final, decisive assault on the kingdom of Arakan when he died in 1581. His successors were forced to quell rebellions in other parts of the kingdom, and the victory over Arakan was never achieved. Instead, the Myanmar empire gradually disintegrated. The Toungoo dynasty survived for another century and a half, until the death of Mahadammayaza in 1752, but never again ruled all of Myanmar.
[edit] 5. Konbaung Dynasty (1753-1885 Myanmar)
The Third Burmese Empire The Mon conquest of Ava was short-lived. The Southerners were Alaungpaya, a local official of Shwebo conquered the Mons, Alaungpaya attacked Ayutthaya kingdom. He was fatally wounded in the process, in 1760. But in his few short years as King of Burma, he had founded the Konbaung Dynasty. The capital - which was first at Shwebo - shifted between Ava (1765-1783, 1823-1837) and Amarapura (1783-1823, 1837-1857) before moving to Mandalay in 1857. Alaungpaya's second son, Hsinbyushin, came to the throne after a short reign by his elder brother, Naungdawgyi (1760-1763). He continued his father's expansionist policy and finally took Ayutthaya in 1767, after 7 years of fighting. The Chinese - they invaded 4 times between 1765 and 1769 but were repulsed on each occasion. In 1769 King Hsinbyushin forced them to make peace and the 2 sides signed a treaty.
Europeans began to set up trading posts in the Irrawaddy delta region at this time. The British decided enough was enough and diplomatic relations were severed in 1811.
Bodawpaya, Alaungpaya's 5th son, came to the throne in [1782 - 1819] at the age of 75 and was succeeded by King Bagyidaw. The Maharajah of Manipur (a princely state in the W hills to the S of Nagaland) who previously paid tribute to the Burmese crown, did not attend Bagyidaw's coronation. This resulted in the subsequent expedition that took the Burmese into British India.
The British took Rangoon in 1824 at first Anglo-Burmese War.
1837 King Bagyidaw's brother, Tharrawaddy, seized the throne and had the queen, her brother, Bagyidaw's only son, his family and ministers all executed. He made no attempt to improve relations with Britain.
Pagan Min, who became king in 1846. He executed thousands - some history books say as many as 6,000 - of his wealthier and more influential subjects on trumped-up charges. During his reign, relations with the British became increasingly strained. In 1852, the Second Anglo-Burmese War broke out. Pagan Min was succeeded by his younger brother, the progressive Mindon Min.
A new king 'Lord White Elephant' moved the capital to Amarapura and then to his new city of Mandalay. The move was designed to fulfill a prophesy of the Buddha that a great city would one day be built on the site. King Mindon attempted to bring Burma into greater contact with the outside world. King Mindon hosted the Fifth Great Buddhist Synod in 1872 at Mandalay. In these ways he gained the respect of the British and the admiration of his own people.
King Mindon died before he could name a successor, and Thibaw, a lesser prince, was manoeuvred onto the throne by one of King Mindon's queens and her daughter, Supayalat. (In his poem The Road to Mandalay, Rudyard Kipling remarks that the British soldiers referred to her as 'Soup-plate'.) In true Burmese style, the new King Thibaw proceeded, under Supayalat's direction, to massacre all likely contenders to the throne. British had invaded Upper Burma in 1886 they took Mandalay and imposed colonial rule throughout Burma. Third Anglo-Burmese War end Konbaung Dynestry and British rule started the whole Burma.
[edit] 6. British period [1824-1948](Myanmar)
The First Anglo-Burmese War arose from friction between Arakan in western Burma and British-held Chittagong to the north. After Burma's defeat of the kingdom of Arakan in 1784-85, In 1823, Burmese forces again crossed the frontier and the British responded with a large seaborne expedition that took Rangoon (1824) without a fight. In Danuphyu, south of Ava the Burmese general Bandula was killed and his armies routed. The 1926 Treaty of Yandabo formally ended the First Anglo-Burmese War. British-led Indian troops having suffered more than 15,000 fatalities.
After 25 years of peace, the British and Burmese fighting started and simply ceased. The British now occupied all Lower Burma.
King Mindon tried to readjust to the thrust of imperialism. He enacted administrative reforms and made Burma more receptive to foreign interests. But British started Third Anglo-Burmese War which lasted less than two weeks during November 1885.
The Myanmar armed resistance continued for several years. This belief seemed to be confirmed when the British commander called upon the High Court of Justice to continue to function. The British finally decided, however, not only to annex all of northern Myanmar as a colony but also to make the whole country a province of India. Rangoon became the capital of the province, after having been the capital of British Lower Burma.
