Conboun

The capital of the kingdom moved several times. Each time the capital was moved, the city was completely transferred using elephants.

• Shuebo ( 1758 - 1765 )
• Ava (city) ( 1765 - 1783 , 1823 - 1841 )
• Amarapura ( Immortal City ) ( 1783 - 1823 , 1841 - 1860 )
• Mandalay ( 1860 - 1885 )

The beginning of the dynasty

In 1752, the Burmese empire of Taungu finally fell under the blows of the monastic state of the Revived Hantavadi . The last ruler of Burma was taken to the monk capital of Pegu , and the upper echelon of the Burmese elite obeyed the monk ruler.

Soon, however, the Burmese people rose to fight with monastic power. The governor of Moxobo County, Maun Aun Zeya, gathered a population of 46 villages under his control in a fortification built in Moxobo, burned the surrounding villages, filled up wells and streams, cut down trees and destroyed all plantings within a radius of ten kilometers, turning the vicinity of Moxobo into a desert where the enemy army could not find shelter and food. Aung Zey repelled the monks' attacks on Moxobo, after which peasants, artisans, soldiers and former officials from all over the country began to flock to him. In 1753, Aun Zeya proclaimed himself the ruler of Burma and adopted the throne name Alaunphaya , and Moxobo, renamed Shuebo , made the new capital. Then Alaunphaya defeated the monk governor Talaban near Shuebo and defeated the shans , depriving the monks of an ally in central Burma.

At the end of 1753, Alaunpkhaya took Ava , and in 1754 he moved south, having previously taken control of the Shan areas to the north of Ava and replenished troops with Shan units. In February 1755, he completely liberated the territory inhabited by the Burmese, and in 1757 he captured and destroyed the capital of the monks Pegu, thereby ending the struggle for the unification of Burma. In 1759, he crushed the monk uprising in the Irrawaddy delta, and made a victorious campaign in Manipur , putting this principality in vassal dependence on Burma.

In November 1759, Burmese troops landed on the island of Negre, six years before it was captured by the British, killed the English garrison and returned the island of Burma. The British East India Company was also forced to liquidate a trading post in the Basin and to interrupt official relations with Burma for many years.

In 1760, Alaunpkhaya undertook a campaign of conquest in Siam. However, during the siege of the capital of the country, Ayutthaya was wounded (or ill), began to retreat, and died on the way back.

Naudongji

The son of Anaunpaya Naudondji strengthened the position of central authority in a united Burma, suppressing numerous riots.

Sinbyushin

Another son of Anaunpaya - Sinbyushin , who took control of the throne in 1763 - conquered Siam in 1767. From the final defeat, Siam was saved by the onset of the Burmese-Chinese wars . Sinbyushin was forced to withdraw troops from Siam to protect Burma, which was used by the Siamese commander Pia Thaksin , who raised the people to the struggle for independence and liberated the central part of Siam from the Burmese.

After the conclusion of peace with Qing China and the suppression in 1773 with the extraordinary cruelty of a new uprising of monks, Sinbyushin again moved his armies against Siam in 1775. Information about the difficult situation of the army, located in Siam, prompted the monks in southern Burma to again oppose the Burmese authorities. After the brutal suppression of the uprising, thousands of monks fled to Siam and joined the Siamese struggle against Burma.

Shingu

After the death of Sinbyushin in 1776, his peace-loving son Singu was elevated to the throne. The new ruler recalled troops from Siam and plunged into palace and religious concerns. This led to the strengthening of the opposition, intending to seize its protege on the throne and again begin the campaigns of conquest, bringing military booty. Shingu was overthrown as a result of a palace coup.

Bodopaya

Bodopaya, another son of Anaunpaya, began new campaigns in Siam, in 1785 annexed Arakan to Burma and strengthened Burmese control over the Shan princedoms. But the war against Siam ended in the defeat of Burma, which at the end of the 18th century lost its sovereignty over the Lao regions, which recognized the power of the new King of Siam Rama I.

After the conquest of Arakan, many Arakanians, fleeing the assimilation policy of the Burmese authorities, fled to the sparsely populated border areas of Bengal, in the possession of the East India Company, where, with the consent of the British authorities, they settled in the Chittagong and Dhaka districts. Refugees began to use British territory as a base for invasions and predatory raids on Arakan, raising its population to rebellion against the power of the Burmese. Burma persistently demanded that the British authorities in Calcutta extradite the leaders of the rebellion for the crimes they committed during raids on Burmese territory. The British side began to use this interest of the Burmese state in resolving the Arakan issue as a factor of pressure.

Several embassies were sent to the Burmese court from the Governor General of British India. The result of the work of the mission of Michael Simes in 1795 was an agreement on the adoption of a British resident in Rangoon to monitor British trade, but failed to resolve the Arakan issue, which grew into a real border problem in relations between Great Britain and Burma.

In 1798, one of the most influential Arakan feudal lords - Nga Tan De - fled to Bengal with numerous adherents, and from there began to raid Arakan. Burmese troops under the command of Mach Bandula approached the border strip, threatening to cross into Bengal and capture Nga Tan De there. In 1802, Michael Simes was again sent to Burma and was able to briefly reduce tension in Anglo-Burmese relations. However, in 1811, Chinbyan - the son of Nga Tan De - gathered a significant army on British territory, crossed the border and stormed the Arakan capital Myau-U by storm. Proclaiming himself an independent ruler, he turned to the British for help. Burmese troops managed to drive Chinbyan out of Arakan, but until his death in 1815, he fought against the authorities of Burma, with the help of the British, making regular raids on its territory.

In 1817, Bodopaya intervened in feuds in the Ahom state in Assam. The Burmese army invaded this principality, and in 1821 the commander Maha Bandula elevated the Burmese protege to the Assamese throne.

Bajido

Badzhido ascended the throne in 1819. In the same year, the Burmese, accusing the Raja of Manipur of not being present at the coronation of Bajido, overthrew him and elevated the new Rajah to the throne of the Principality of Manipur. In 1824, the Burmese army invaded the Principality of Kachar, where the ousted Raja Manipur settled. The British detachment also moved to Kachar under the pretext of protecting his Raja from manipulators. Raja Kachara and the prince of neighboring Jainthia (also occupied by the Burmese) recognized themselves as vassals of the British East India Company. In March 1824, the first Anglo-Burmese war began .

The Burmese court, blinded by the transformation of Burma into the strongest state of Indochina, which successfully opposed China, defeated Siam, conquered the Shan and Indian principalities, failed to foresee the true extent of the impending danger. Having suffered defeats on two fronts, at the end of 1825 Badzhido was forced to begin peace negotiations. The Yandaba Treaty, concluded as a result, marked the beginning of the transformation of Burma into a British colony.

11,000 Europeans and Indian soldiers, led by Major General Archibald Campbell (Campbell) sailed up the Irrawaddy and took May 11, 1824 Rangoon harbor and soon thereafter a number of other populated areas; but the ground forces, which were supposed to move forward from Assam , suffered repeated defeats from Mach-Bandula , the brave leader of the Burmese.

A war-ravaged country was forced to pay a huge indemnity. The payment of its first half in the amount of 5 million rupees led to an explosion of mass discontent among the population, unable to bear the increase in the tax burden, and in the coming years it was necessary to raise money for the second half of the indemnity. Conflicts of Great Britain and Burma on the timing of the payment of indemnities and on the border problems of the north-west of the country caused discontent of the British authorities, who by the end of the 1820s decided to appoint their official representative at the Burmese court in Ava.

With the ever-expanding expansion of Great Britain, most of the ruling stratum of Burma, led by the ruler of Bajido, was at a loss; many believed in the accidental defeat of Burma in the war, listened to various prophecies about the imminent revival of the country, naively believed that the British themselves would return Tenasserim to it and destroy the residency. Another part of the metropolitan bureaucracy and major officials (led by May Nu - the wife of Bajido - and her relatives) believed that the best way to resolve this difficult situation was to expel the English resident and isolate Burma from the outside world. The most far-sighted Burmese dignitaries grouped around Prince Taravadi; they wanted to know about the situation in the world, were interested in the achievements of European science, and understood the need for changes in the country.

The limited reforms that began caused aggravation of the contradictions in the ruling class, resulting in an open conflict in 1837. Mintaji (brother Mai Nu), who had lent most of the money to the state to pay indemnities and actually headed the rent council with Badjido, tried to seize power in the country, but the peasant population of Burma and part of the army supported Prince Taravadi. On April 9, 1837, he announced the deposition of Bajido.

Taravadi

During the reign of Taravadi, measures to strengthen the country's defense capabilities were significantly expanded. The army was re-equipped with European weapons, European instructors began to train it, and the Rangoon strengthened. Immediately upon accession to the throne, Taravadi announced the non-recognition of the Yandaba Treaty and the British annexation of the provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim. He practically managed to disavow the activities of the British resident G. Burney, who was recalled in 1840, as a result of which the diplomatic relations of the parties were interrupted.

Pagan Min

In 1846, Pagan Ming became the ruler of Burma, during which a second Anglo-Burmese war took place in 1851-1852. On December 20, 1852, a declaration was signed on the annexation of South Burma and its accession to the British possessions in India.

Mindon

Mindon, who came to power in February 1853, a supporter of an early end to the war, did not recognize the annexation of half the country, and the British did not have to agree to an agreement, but only to the tacit recognition by both sides of the end of hostilities. However, the war continued in the form of a partisan movement, which the British managed to suppress no earlier than 1862.

Under Mindon, the majority of the ruling class already understood the need for a serious restructuring of the country's socio-political structure. In the 1860s, the distribution of land for service was stopped, and the princes and officials were transferred to a monthly salary. A clearer division was made into provinces, which turned them into truly territorial units with a unified staff of the provincial apparatus. Reform of the judicial system, tax reform, reform of the military system were carried out. In 1855, a powder manufacturing plant was opened in Amarapur, the raw materials for which were brought from the shan principalities; at the same time, a gun factory began to operate. Mindon tried to defend the food independence of Upper Burma and switch to rice self-sufficiency, but this could not be fully done, and rice still had to be imported from British Burma. To balance the budget, it was necessary to continue the policy of state monopolies on mineral raw materials, as well as establish export-import prices and introduce customs duties. In 1870, the first telegraph line was built linking Mandalay and Rangoon, and in 1874 the first newspaper in Burmese began to be published in the capital.

Mindon sought to establish good neighborly relations with the British authorities, and made many concessions to the British. Firmly, he adhered to only one thing: the non-recognition of the capture of Lower Burma. For a long time, he counted on establishing direct contacts with the Queen Victoria government in London, but the British sent all embassies from Burma to the Governor General of British India, thereby emphasizing that Burma is by no means a sovereign state. Trying to overcome this humiliating situation, hard perceived by the Burmese government, Mindon was the first of the Burmese rulers to send his ambassadors to Western countries.

At the end of 1873 - 1874, serious confusion arose over the borders of the forested area inhabited by the Karas, a warlike people who did not recognize British rule. In order to more accurately determine the border between Burma and Manipur , a state vassal to England, a geographical study of the disputed area was undertaken. After lengthy wrangling, the king finally yielded, and on 21 June 1875 a treaty was signed, drawn up in the spirit of English demands.

Thibo

Mindon died in October 1878, without appointing a successor for fear of provoking the struggle for the throne between his many sons. As a result of the intrigue surrounding the inheritance of power in Burma began even during his illness. As a result of the conspiracy, the weak-willed younger son Thibault was appointed heir to the throne. At the beginning of 1879, those relatives of Thibault were exterminated who did not manage to escape from the country and were dangerous as a potential candidate for the throne. About 80 people from the royal family and their close ones were killed, including 8 Mindon brothers, 31 of 48 of his sons and 9 of 62 daughters. As a result, the reform group of the Burmese elite virtually ceased to exist.

The mass executions of 1879 served as an excellent pretext for inciting British public opinion against Thibault and in favor of the annexation of Burma (or its transformation into a protectorate). In October 1879, the British almost broke off relations with Burma; they refused an immediate attack on Burma only because of difficulties in the Anglo-Afghan war and the fight against the Boers in South Africa. However, constant provocations against Thibault continued through the organization of speeches by applicants for the Burmese throne (among those who managed to escape to British territory during the 1878 coup).

Burma continued to demonstrate a desire to resolve relations with Britain and sent friendly missions, and also tried to establish equal relations with Russia, France and other European powers in order to oppose British expansion and defend its independence, but all was unsuccessful.

In October 1885, the Burmese High Council of Hludo imposed a fine on an English logging company for doubling the quota for exporting teak wood. The British saw this as an "infringement on the interests of British trade." The High Commissioner of British Burma presented an ultimatum, and after the refusal of the Burmese to agree to the elimination of the sovereignty of the country, the Third Anglo-Burmese War began . On December 2, 1885, Thibault formally abdicated, and on January 1, 1866, it was proclaimed that Burma was annexed and henceforth was part of the possessions of the Queen of England.

• Thant Myint-U, The Making of Modern Burma, ISBN 0-521-79914-7
• "History of the East" (in 6 volumes). T.IV “The East in modern times (late XVIII – early XX centuries)”, book 1 - Moscow: publishing house “Eastern Literature” RAS, 2004. ISBN 5-02-018387-3

• Buyins (kings) of Burma (Myanmar) (chronological table)