Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War
Years: 1752 - 1757
The Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War is the war fought between the Konbaung Dynasty and the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom of Burma (Myanmar) from 1752 to 1757.
The war is the last of several wars between the Burmese-speaking north and the Mon-speaking south that end the Mon people's centuries-long dominance of the south.
The war begins in April 1752 as independent resistance movements against Hanthawaddy armies which had just toppled the Toungoo Dynasty.
Alaungpaya, who founded the Konbaung Dynasty, quickly emerges as the main resistance leader, and by taking advantage of Hanthawaddy's low troop levels, goes on to conquer all of Upper Burma by the end of 1753.
Hanthawaddy belatedly launches a full invasion in 1754 but it falters.
The war increasingly turns ethnic in character between the Burman (Bamar) north and the Mon south.
Konbaung forces invade Lower Burma in January 1755, capturing the Irrawaddy delta and Dagon (Yangon) by May.
The French defend the port city of Syriam (Thanlyin) , which holds out for another fourteen months but eventually falls in July 1756, ending French involvement in the war.
The fall of the sixteen-year-old southern kingdom soon follows in May 1757 when its capital Pegu (Bago) is sacked.
Disorganized Mon resistance falsl back to the Tenasserim peninsula (present day Mon State and Taninthayi Region) in the next few years with Siamese help but is driven out by 1765 when Konbaung armies capture the peninsula from the Siamese.The war proves decisive.
Ethnic Burman families from the north begin settling in the delta after the war.
By the early nineteeth century, assimilation and intermarriage will have reduced the Mon population to a small minority.
