Burmese-Siamese War

1. Burmese-Siamese War War of the second fall of Ayutthaya (1765-67)

2. History of war • the second military conflict between the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) and the Ban PhluLuang Dynasty of Siam (Thailand), and the war that ended the four-century-old Siamese kingdom.Nonetheless, the Burmese were soon forced to give up their hard-won gains when the Chinese invasions of their homeland forced a complete withdrawal by the end of 1767. A new Siamese dynasty, to which the current Thai monarchy traces its origins, emerged to reunify Siam by 1770. • This war was the continuation of the war of 1759–1760. The casus belli of this war were also the control of the Tenasserim coast and its trade, and the Siamese support for the rebels in the Burmese border regions.Thewar began in August 1765 when a 20,000-strong northern Burmese army invaded northern Siam, and was joined in by three southern armies of over 20,000 in October, in a pincer movement on Ayutthaya. By late January 1766, the Burmese armies had overcome numerically superior but poorly coordinated Siamese defences, and converged before the Siamese capital. • The siege of Ayutthaya began during the first Chinese invasion of Burma. The Siamese believed that if they could hold out until the rainy season, the seasonal flooding of the Ayutthayan central plain would force a retreat. But King Hsinbyushin of Burma believed that the Chinese war was a minor border dispute, and decided to continue the siege. During the rainy season of 1766 (June–October), the battle moved to the waters of the flooded plain but failed to change the status quo.When the dry season came, the Chinese launched a much larger invasion but Hsinbyushin still refused to recall the troops. In March 1767, King Ekkathat of Siam offered to become a tributary but the Burmese demanded an unconditional surrender.On 7 April 1767, the Burmese sacked the starving city for the second time in history, committing atrocities that have left a major black mark on Burmese-Thai relations to the present day. Thousands of Siamese captives were relocated to Burma. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese%E2%80%93Siamese_War_(1765%E2%80%9367)

3. Status of war • In 1768, a year after the sack of Ayutthaya by the Burmese, General Taksin took back Thon Buri and, by right of conquest, made it the capital of the Thonburi Kingdom with himself king until 6 April 1782. Rama I, as newly enthroned king, decided to move the capital to across the river, where stakes driven into the soil of Bangkok for the City Pillar at 6:45 a.m. on 21 April 1782, marked the official founding of the new capital.ThonBuri remained an independent town and province, until it was merged into Bangkok in 1971. Thon Buri stayed less developed than the other side of the river. Many of the traditional small waterways, Khlongs, still exist there, while they are nearly gone from the other side of the river.