Alaungpaya
Alaungpaya was the founder and first emperor of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma. By the time of his death from illness during his campaign in Siam, this former chief of a small village in Upper Burma had unified Burma, subdued Manipur, conquered Lan Na and launched successful attacks against the French and British East India companies who had given help to the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom. He added settlements around Dagon, and called the enlarged town Yangon.
He is considered one of the three greatest monarchs of Burma alongside Anawrahta and Bayinnaung for unifying Burma for the third time in Burmese history.
Background
The future king was born Aung Zeya at Moksobo, a village of a few hundred households in the Mu River Valley about northwest of Ava on 24 August 1714 to Min Nyo San and his wife Saw Nyein Oo. He was the second son of a lineage of gentry families that had administered the Mu Valley for generations. His father was a hereditary chief of Moksobo and his uncle, Kyawswa Htin, better known as Sitha Mingyi, was the lord of the Mu Valley District. Alaungpaya claimed descent from kings Mohnyin Thado, Narapati I and Thihathura of Ava, and ultimately the Pagan royal line. He came from a large family and was related by blood and by marriage to many other gentry families throughout the valley. In 1730, Alaungpaya married his first cousin Yun San, daughter of chief of a neighboring village, Siboktara. They went on to have six sons and three surviving daughters.Chief of Moksobo and deputy chief of Mu valley
Aung Zeya grew up during a period in which the authority of Taungoo Dynasty was in rapid decline. The "palace kings" at Ava had been unable to defend against the Manipuri raids that had been ransacking increasingly deeper parts of Upper Burma since 1724. Ava had failed to recover southern Lanna, which had revolted in 1727, and did nothing to prevent the annexation of northern Shan States by the Manchu Qing dynasty in the 1730s.The Mu Valley was directly on the path of Manipuri raids year after year. Although Burma was far larger than Manipur, Ava had been unable to defeat the raids or organize a punitive expedition to Manipur itself. The people watched helplessly as the raiders torched villages, ransacked pagodas, and took away captives.
It was during these troubled times in the absence of royal authority that men like Aung Zeya came forward. He assumed his father's responsibilities as chief of his village in his early twenties. A tall man for the times,, the solidly built, sunburnt Aung Zeya displayed his natural ability to lead men and was viewed as a leader by his gentry peers throughout the valley. They began to take matters into their own hands to defend against the raids.
The sickly regime at Ava was wary of any potential rivals. In 1736, Taungoo Yaza, commander-in-chief of the army of Ava, summoned Aung Zeya to Ava to check if the village headman was a potential threat to the regime. Satisfied that the 22-year-old had no designs on the throne, Taungoo Yaza on behalf of the king bestowed the title Bala Nanda Kyaw to Aung Zeya. Aung Zeya became deputy to his uncle the lord of Mu Valley, and the administrative officer kyegaing, responsible for tax collection and for the preservation of order.
Founding of Konbaung Dynasty
The authority of Ava continued to decline in the following years. In 1740, the Mon of Lower Burma broke away and founded the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom with the capital at Bago. Ava's feeble attempts to recover the south failed to make a dent. Low-grade warfare between Ava and Bago went on until late in 1751, when Bago launched its final assault, invading Upper Burma in full force. By early 1752, Hanthawaddy forces, aided by the French East India Company-supplied firearms and Dutch and Portuguese mercenaries, had reached the gates of Ava. The heir-apparent of Hanthawaddy, Upayaza, summoned all administrative officers in Upper Burma to submit. Some chose to cooperate, but others, like Aung Zeya, chose to resist.Aung Zeya persuaded 46 villages in the Mu Valley to join him in resistance. He found a ready audience in "an exceptionally proud group of men and women" of Upper Burma who longed to redress the numerous humiliations that their once proud kingdom had suffered. On 29 February 1752, as the Hanthawaddy forces were about to breach the outer walls of Ava, Aung Zeya proclaimed himself king with the royal style of Alaungpaya and founded the Konbaung Dynasty. His full royal style was Thiri Pawara Wizaya Nanda Zahta Maha Dhamma Yazadiyaza Alaung Mintayagyi.
Not everyone was convinced, however. After Ava fell on 23 March 1752, Alaungpaya's own father, Nyo San, urged him to submit. He pointed out that although Alaungpaya had scores of enthusiastic men, they only had a few muskets, and that their little stockade did not stand a chance against a well-equipped Hanthawaddy army that had just sacked a heavily fortified Ava. Alaungpaya was undeterred, saying: "When fighting for your country, it matters little whether there are few or many. What does matter is that your comrades have true hearts and strong arms." He prepared the defenses by stockading his village, now renamed Shwebo, and building a moat around it. He had the jungle outside the stockade cleared, the ponds destroyed and the wells filled.
Reunification of Burma (1752–1759)
Upper Burma (1752–1754)
Konbaung was only one among many other resistance forces that had independently sprung up across a panicked Upper Burma. Fortunately for the resistance forces, the Hanthawaddy command mistakenly equated their capture of Ava with the victory over Upper Burma, and withdrew two-thirds of the invasion force back to Bago, leaving just a third for what they considered a mop-up operation.At first, the strategy seemed to work. Hanthawaddy forces established outposts as far north as present-day northern Sagaing Region and found allies in the Gwe Shan people of Madaya in present-day northern Mandalay Region.
Nonetheless, Alaungpaya's forces wiped out the first two Hanthawaddy detachments sent to secure his allegiance. Next, they survived the month-long siege by the Hanthawaddy army of several thousand led by General Talaban himself and drove out the invaders in a rout. The news spread. Soon, Alaungpaya was mustering a proper army from across the Mu Valley and beyond, using his family connections and appointing his fellow gentry leaders as his key lieutenants. Success drew fresh recruits everyday from many regions across Upper Burma. Most other resistance forces as well as officers from the disbanded Palace Guards had joined him with such arms as they retained. By October 1752, he had emerged the primary challenger to Hanthawaddy and driven out all Hanthawaddy outposts north of Ava as well as their allies, the Gwe Shan. A dozen legends gathered around his name. Men felt that when he led them they could not fail.
Despite repeated setbacks, Bago still did not send in reinforcements even as Alaungpaya consolidated his gains throughout Upper Burma. On 3 January 1754, Konbaung forces retook Ava. Alaungpaya now received homage from the nearer Shan States as far north as Momeik.
In March 1754, Hanthawaddy finally sent its entire army, laying siege to Ava and advancing up to Kyaukmyaung a few miles from Shwebo. Alaungpaya personally led the Konbaung counterattack and drove out the southern armies by May.
Lower Burma (1755–1757)
The conflict increasingly turned into an ethnic conflict between the Bamar north and the Mon south. The Hanthawaddy leadership escalated "self-defeating" policies of persecuting southern Bamars. They also executed the captive king of Taungoo in October 1754. Alaungpaya was only happy to exploit the situation, encouraging remaining Bamar troops to come over to him. Many did.Swelled by levies from throughout Upper Burma, including Shan, Kachin, and Kuki contingents, he launched a massive invasion of Lower Burma in a blitzkrieg in January 1755. By May, his armies had conquered the entire Irrawaddy Delta and captured Dagon, which he renamed Yangon. However, his advance came to a sudden halt at the French-defended main port city of Thanlyin, which repelled several Konbaung charges.
Alaungpaya sought an alliance with the East India Company and also sought out more arms, but no alliance or arms materialized. Konbaung forces finally took the city after a 14-month siege in July 1756, ending the French intervention in the war. The Konbaung forces then overcame determined but vastly outnumbered Hanthawaddy defenses, and sacked Bago in May 1757. The 17-year-old kingdom was finished.
Afterwards, Chiang Mai and other states in present-day northwest Thailand, which had been in revolt since 1727, promptly sent in tribute. In the south too, the governors of Mottama and Dawei also sent tribute.