| Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1535–1541) | |||||||||
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| Part of Wars of Toungoo Empire | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Toungoo Kingdom | Hanthawaddy Kingdom Prome Kingdom Confederation of Shan States |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Tabinshwehti Bayinnaung Smim Payu |
Takayutpi Binnya Law Binnya Kyan Saw Binnya Narapati of Prome Minkhaung of Prome Thohanbwa |
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| Units involved | |||||||||
Royal Burmese Army including:
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Hanthawaddy Army including Portuguese mercenaries (1535–1539)
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 1538–1539 vs. Pegu: 7000[1] 1540–1541 vs. Martaban: 13,000[2] |
1538–1539 (Pegu): 12,000[1] 1540–1541 (Martaban): unknown strength; seven Portuguese warships |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| High | Extremely high (most of Martaban's residents killed)[3] | ||||||||
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The Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1535–1541) (Burmese: တောင်ငူ–ဟံသာဝတီ စစ် (၁၅၃၅–၁၅၄၁)) was a military conflict between Toungoo Kingdom, and the Hanthawaddy Kingdom and its allies the Prome Kingdom and the Confederation of Shan States that took place in present-day Lower Burma (Myanmar) from 1535 to 1541. In a series of improbable events, the upstart Burmese-speaking kingdom defeated Mon-speaking Hanthawaddy, the most prosperous and powerful of all post-Pagan kingdoms before the war.[4] In the following years, Toungoo used the newly acquired kingdom's wealth and manpower to reunify the various petty states that had existed since the fall of Pagan Empire in 1287.
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Since its founding in 1280, Toungoo, located in remote, hard-to-reach corner east of the Pegu Yoma range, had always been a troublesome province for its overlord. During the Ava period, its governors and viceroys raised multiple rebellions (1427–1428, 1437–1442, 1451–1458 and 1468–1470), each time with clandestine or open help from Hanthawaddy, which wanted to keep Ava unstable.
Ironically, Toungoo would repay by attacking Hanthawaddy itself. As early as 1492, Toungoo, then still a vassal of Ava, raided Hanthawaddy's territory, taking advantage of the larger kingdom's succession crisis. But Hanthawaddy's new king Binnya Ran II retaliated by laying siege to Toungoo itself. Though Toungoo barely survived the siege, Mingyinyo, viceroy of Toungoo, would not make war against the larger neighbor for the remainder of his life.[5] After he declared independence from Ava in 1510, Mingyinyo largely stayed out of the fighting raging between Ava and the Confederation of Shan States. When Ava fell to the combined forces of the Confederation and Prome in 1527, many people fled to Toungoo, the only region in Upper Burma at peace.[5][6]
In 1530, Mingyinyo's son Tabinshwehti came to power. Toungoo's stability continued to attract manpower from the surrounding regions, especially after 1533 when the Confederation sacked its erstwhile ally Prome. The tiny Toungoo was now the only ethnic Burman-led kingdom, and one surrounded by much larger kingdoms. Fortunately for Toungoo, the Confederation was distracted by internal leadership disputes, and Hanthawaddy, then the most powerful kingdom of all post-Pagan kingdoms, was weakly led. Tabinshwehti decided not to wait until the larger kingdoms' attention turned to him.
Tabinshwehti and his deputy Bayinnaung selected Hanthawaddy as their first target because its king Takayutpi was a weak leader who did not command respect of his vassals. Takayutpi's brother-in-law Saw Binnya practically ruled Martaban region like a sovereign, and scarcely acknowledged the high king at Pegu (Bago). Takayutpi in turned made an alliance with the Prome Kingdom, a vassal of Confederation of Shan States.
The war began in early 1535 when a landlocked Toungoo led by Tabinshwehti and his deputy Bayinnaung, tried to break out of its increasingly narrow zone by launching a preemptive war against a weakly led Hanthawaddy. In the beginning, Toungoo's maneuvers amounted to a mere raids of Hanthawaddy territory, and its initial dry-season raids in 1535, 1535–1536, 1536–1537 and 1537–1538 all failed against Pegu's fortified defenses aided by foreign mercenaries and firearms. In each campaign, Toungoo armies had only 6000 to 7000 men, a few hundred cavalry and a few dozen war elephants and did not yet have access to foreign troops and firearms.[7]
Unlike his father Binnya Ran II, King Takayutpi of Hanthawaddy could not organize any retaliatory action. His supposed subordinates in the Irrawaddy delta and Martaban did not send any help. Nonetheless, Pegu's defenses were ably led by two leading ministers of the court, Binnya Law and Binnya Kyan.
Toungoo used a stratagem to create a split in the Hanthawaddy camp, providing misinformation about the loyalty of the ministers. Surprisingly, Takayutpi foolishly believed Toungoo's misinformation, and executed the ministers who had been his tutors since childhood and were absolutely devoted to him.[8] Then when Toungoo launched another invasion, with 7000 troops, Takayutpi was helpless, and decided to evacuate his capital rather than fight. Toungoo forces Pegu without firing a shot in January 1539.
The most telling part of the state of disarray of the once powerful kingdom was that Takayutpi and his armies chose to retreat to Prome, another kingdom, rather than to its own territory of Martaban. Takayutpi simply did not trust Saw Binnya of Martaban. The course of retreat was through the Irrawaddy delta. The direct route from Pegu to Prome, though much shorter, involved crossing the Bago Yoma range, and was not practical for large armies. Takayutpi divided the retreating Hanthawaddy forces into two. Five divisions of the army marched by land. Takayutpi and the remaining troops sailed by river in 700 boats.[9]
At Pegu, Tabinshwehti and his deputy Bayinnaung well understood that they had gained Pegu only through a ruse, and that Hanthawaddy's military had not been defeated yet. Their top priority was to meet and defeat the Hanthawaddy army before they got inside the fortified walls of Prome. They knew that a large body of enemy inside walls with better leadership would pose a major problem for their tenuous hold on Lower Burma. Tabinshwehti sent Bayinnaung with a small army to chase the retreating army while he sailed up to Prome with his flotilla of war boats to chase Takayutpi's flotilla.[8]
Bayinnaung's light troops caught up with the main Hanthawaddy armies led by Gen. Binnya Dala and Gen. Minye Aung Naing near Naungyo in the Irrawaddy delta. Bayinnaung nonetheless defeated the numerically superior and better armed force. Only a small portion of the Hanthawaddy forces made it to Prome. A decimated Hanthawaddy was no longer in a position to retake the lost territories from Toungoo.[8][10]
After Pegu's improbable fall, the Shan Confederation, which ruled the former Ava Kingdom, finally took notice. When Toungoo's armies later attacked its vassal Prome, the Confederation sent in troops and broke the siege. Toungoo retreated but soon gained the allegiance of many Mon lords, and manpower after Hanthawaddy's king Takayutpi died a few months later.
Toungoo now held two out of three major regions in Lower Burma (the delta, Pegu) but not Martaban. Tabinshwehti sent an ultimatum but Saw Binnya refused. He had fortified the wealthy port, and enlisted Portuguese mercenaries, firearms and warships. Its high walls were armed with Portuguese cannon and a fleet of seven Portuguese warships guarded the harbor.
In November 1540, 13,000-strong Toungoo land and naval forces attacked the city. The wealthy port's strong Portuguese-led defenses kept besiegers at bay for seven months. Finally in May 1541, Toungoo naval units attacked the seven Portuguese warships anchored in the harbor behind in several fire-rafts. Three of the ships sailed out to the sea, and the remaining were either burned or captured. Smim Payu then sent in scaffold rafts, crammed with troops, alongside the walls. The stormers soon won a foothold.[11]
The city fell. The sack raged for three days. Tabinshwehti ordered a whole scale execution of the viceroy, his family, and all the "gallant" defenders for they had refused his prior offer of amnesty. The mass execution had its desired effect. The governors of Moulmein (Mawlaymyaing) and southern territories (present-day Mon State), abutting then Siamese frontier submitted.[12]
The war then morphed into Toungoo's campaigns against Prome, Ava and the Confederation of Shan States. Toungoo would go on to capture Prome in 1542, Ava in 1555 and the Shan States in 1557.