[12] Pinya's successor Ava (Inwa) regained Toungoo in 1367 but gubernatorial assassinations continued: 1375, 1376 and 1383, at times with Ava's own permission. But Ava was not yet a spent force. [3] The Burmese monkhood in Upper Burma was also subject to more effective personnel and financial regulations. An energetic leader and effective military commander, he made Toungoo the most powerful state in Southeast Asia and extended his borders from Laos to Ayutthaya. "[1] In 1555, Upper Burma fell to the southern forces. [note 21] Even in Lower Burma, where Theravada Buddhist practices had become more orthodox since the 1480s, "monastic practices were deficient by later standards, and spirit propitiation was a dominant local concern. Bayinnaung then pushed up the Irrawaddy in an effort to join Upper Burma and Lower Burma for the first time since Pagan. On the other hand, able kings such as Maha Thammarachathirat (r. 1569–90) of Siam and Thado Minsaw of Ava (r. 1555–84) kept their kingdoms peaceful for the High King they were loyal to: Bayinnaung. In the 1550s, the Muslim merchants at Pegu erected what appears to have been their first mosque. [118], In the Chao Phraya valley, literacy in Siamese, not to mention Pali, were strictly the domain of the elite. Toungoo, town, south-central Myanmar (Burma). They paid no taxes. [6][7] In traditional Burmese historiography, however, the period is known as either the "Toungoo–Hanthawaddy Period" (.mw-parser-output .script-myanmar{font-family:Pyidaungsu,"Myanmar Text",Myanmar3,Myanmar2,Myanmar1,Padauk,"Noto Sans Myanmar",mm3web,TharLon,"Masterpiece Uni Sans",Parabaik,Yunghkio,Thanlwin,"Win Uni Innwa","MyMyanmar Unicode","WinUni Innwa"}တောင်ငူ–ဟံသာဝတီ ခေတ်), or simply the "Toungoo Period" (တောင်ငူ ခေတ်). By 1622, a branch of the fallen house (known retrospectively as the Restored Toungoo Dynasty or Nyaungyan Dynasty) had succeeded in reconstituting a major portion of the First Toungoo Empire, except for Siam, Lan Xang and Manipur. [2] The First Toungoo Empire was "a victim of its own success." [39][132] The prosperous life at the capital, however, was probably not replicated at the countryside. He quickly brought law and order to the region, which attracted refugees from other parts of Central and Upper Burma. At its peak, Toungoo "exercised suzerainty from Manipur to the Cambodian marches and from the borders of Arakan to Yunnan" and was "probably the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia." The crown completely replaced the hereditary chieftainships with appointed governorships in the entire Irrawaddy valley and greatly reduced the hereditary rights of Shan chiefs. Bamar authority collapsed and the Mon loosely established themselves around Mottama (Martaban). They never solved the sheer logistical issues of transporting and feeding large numbers of troops for sustained periods of time. In the Irrawaddy valley, the system of near-universal village monasteries and male education characteristic of later centuries was not fully yet developed. Based on Sun Laichen's analysis of Chinese sources, exports to Yunnan of Burmese raw cotton by c. 1600 had reached 1000 tonnes annually. Get directions, maps, and traffic for Taungoo, . By this time, the geopolitical situation in Southeast Asia had changed dramatically. The foreign merchants and mercenaries brought their Islam and Roman Catholicism. 1590–1605). Its main legacies were political and cultural consolidations in both western and central mainland Southeast Asia. [note 1], Furthermore, in international usage, the terms "Toungoo Dynasty/Empire" cover both "First Toungoo Dynasty/Empire" and "Restored Toungoo Dynasty/Empire". With help from the Portuguese, Mzila eventually gained power in 1861 and ruled until 1884. Two of the states were succeeded by ambitious and able rulers: Tabinshwehti (r. 1530–50) at Toungoo, and Min Bin (r. 1531–54) at Mrauk-U (Arakan). [49] Prome and Ava fought for central Burma in 1596–97. Several vassal rulers immediately declared independence, forcing Tabinshwehti's chosen successor Bayinnaung (r. 1550–81) to reunify the kingdom in the next two years. Though he managed to defeat the Ava rebellion in 1584, the king never did establish firm control over Upper Burma and the surrounding Shan states. Bayinnaung's persistence in sending troops year after year cost an untold number of lives, which at one point caused his senior advisers to murmur loudly. [11], The narrow valley at the southern edge of the dry zone was not easily accessible from Central or Upper Burma; the best access to the region was from the south, via the Sittaung. (His best troop levels were never more than a third of his father's.) [25] The Toungoo kings retained the traditional three-province structure of the old Hanthawaddy Kingdom;[41] Bayinnaung later annexed the Siamese Province of Mergui into the core administration for its maritime revenues. Toungoo's “relentlessly ambitious leaders” repeatedly tested Ava's resolve by staging assassinations (in 1440, 1452, and 1459)[15] and rebellions (in 1426–40, 1452–59 and 1468–70) at times with Pegu's help. (Lieberman 1984: 18): No large-scale censuses of any kind were conducted. [131] The crown appointed officials at Mergui, a former Siamese dependency, to supervise lucrative trade between Siam and India. [note 2], The earliest known record of administration of the region dates to the late Pagan period. (Than Tun Vol. [23] In the meantime, Nyo focused on strengthening the economy and the stability of his kingdom. Toungoo came of age in a period when the arrival of European firearms and an increase in Indian Ocean commerce enabled lowland polities to project power into interior states. It was a disaster: Toungoo barely survived the 1495–96 counterattack by King Binnya Ran II (r. 1492–1526). Check flight prices and hotel availability for your visit. In 1544, Tabinshwehti was crowned as king of all Burma at the ancient capital of Bagan. Scholarship does not accept the claims of control; the states were at least what Pegu considered within its sphere of influence. [65], An enduring legacy of the First Toungoo Dynasty was the introduction of a more orthodox version of Theravada Buddhism (Mahavihara school of Ceylon) to Upper Burma and the Shan States. Surrounding the core region were the tributary kingdoms. 2 2006: 295) when the governor of Tenasserim built a gate at the new Pegu city. [98], To be sure, the ethnic definitions were loose categorisations. Some of the pagodas are still to be seen, and in later ages the Burmese would point to them as proof of their claim to rule those countries still. What subsequently became known as Siamese language, culture and ethnicity were their more or less exclusive preserve. [85] Several Toungoo leaders of the era, including Tabinshwehti, Bayinnaung, Nanda, Thado Minsaw, Minye Thihathu, Thado Dhamma Yaza III and Natshinnaung, first took the field in their teenage years. His more celebrated successor Bayinnaung then greatly expanded the empire, conquering much of mainland Southeast Asia by 1565. (Lieberman 1984: 21–22): In 1581, a regional census of the 16 leading townships of Lower Burma showed a combined population of less than 28,000 households (~200,000 people). [97] The entrepôt of Ayutthaya hosted significant communities of Bengalis, Arabs and Persians. According to scholarship, at the peak of the empire, the imperial army could perhaps raise about 100,000 troops,[79] and the largest initial troop level for a single campaign was about 70,000. One key result was that patron-client structures often preempted ethnic identity, giving rise to frequent political alliances across ethnic lines. With the coming of European traders, Burma was once again an important trading centre, and Tabinshwehti moved his capital to Bago due to its strategic position for commerce. [24], The period between 1526 and 1533 saw power change hands in all of the major states of Burma. Cotton was Burma's principal export commodity to China, and drove domestic handicraft industry. The new dynasty did not overextend itself by trying to take over Siam or Lan Xang. Shan raids on Upper Burma, which bred bitter anti-Shan diatribes, offer the most dramatic example. [48], The Toungoo Empire was “in theory and fact, a poly-ethnic political formation.”[7] The Toungoo kings largely employed then prevailing Southeast Asian administrative model of solar polities in which the high king ruled the core while semi-independent tributaries, autonomous viceroys, and governors actually controlled day-to-day administration and manpower. In 1534, Toungoo forces began annual raids into Hanthawaddy territory. [2][42], King Nanda (r. 1581–99) never gained the full support of his father's chosen vassal rulers. Their more martial culture and battlefield successes gave the Toungoo command an increasingly greater field experience, which their rival commands in the region simply could not match. [18] Nyo turned out to be an able leader. It decisively defeated the alliance's raids in 1504–05 and in 1507–08. [69] The adoption of Burmese customary law and the Burmese calendar in Siam began in his reign. The Toungoo Empire would cheer merrily, for the Cakkavatti was to inflict a devastating defeat upon the Indians and their Muslim Emperor, shaming him as the Cakkavatti had been shamed at Kolabira. [102] The same phenomenon was also prevalent in states as diverse as Vietnam, Russia and France during this period. At its peak, Toungoo Empire was the largest and strongest empire as well as one of the richest empires in Southeast Asia, in addition to including Manipur, Chinese Shan States, Siam and The prevailing terms used by most international scholars are the "First Toungoo Dynasty";[3] the "First Toungoo Empire";[4][5] and/or the "Second Burmese Empire". Located on the right bank of the Sittang River, it was founded as Ketumadi in 1510 by King Minkyinyo and was capital of the Toungoo dynasty until 1540, when the seat of government was moved to Pegu (Bago), 125 miles (200 km) south. Historically it unified most of modern Burma, conquered or made subject of much of the rest of Indochina, and became a major regional power. From 1576 onwards, he declared a large sphere of influence in westerly lands—trans-Manipur states, Arakan and Ceylon. Toungoo artillery corps never acquired massive siege guns of Europe but they "used Portuguese cannon to good effect by mounting them on high mounds or towers, and then shooting down into besieged towns". [17], In 1485, Min Sithu became the eleventh ruler of Toungoo to be assassinated in office. In the western mainland, even the so-called major ethnic groups—such as Burmans, Mons, Shans—were themselves divided into rival centres, with distinctive local traditions and in many cases different dialects. Victor B. Lieberman, "Burmese Administrative Cycles: Anarchy and Conquest, c. 1580–1760", Princeton University Press, 1984. I have ruled for thirteen years but how I am Cakkavatti if I am only King of Burma? Pegu reestablished some semblance of control over Lan Xang only in 1575[32] and Mohnyin and Mogaung in 1576. In the western mainland, the three principal irrigated regions were all located in Upper Burma: Kyaukse, Minbu and Mu valley—as had been the case since the 13th century. [1] But even at its peak, the vaunted Toungoo military had trouble dealing with guerrilla warfare, and faced severe logistic issues in suppressing rebellions in remote hill states. Its trade and secular administrative reforms built a prosperous economy for more than 80 years. [106] The tradition of cross-ethnic patron-client relationships continued to thrive, albeit at smaller scales, in mainland Southeast Asia down to the 19th century.