First Toungoo Empire

Name of the period The polity is known by a number of names. The prevailing terms used by most international scholars are the "First Toungoo Dynasty"; the "First Toungoo Empire"; and/or the "Second Burmese Empire". In traditional Burmese historiography, however, the period is known as either the "Toungoo–Hanthawaddy Period" (), or simply the "Toungoo Period" (). Furthermore, in international usage, the terms "Toungoo Dynasty/Empire" cover both "First Toungoo Dynasty/Empire" and "Restored Toungoo Dynasty/Empire". Traditional Burmese historiography treats the Restored Toungoo Dynasty/Empire period as a separate era called the Nyaungyan period (). Place names This article, for the most part, uses prevailing academic names for place names, not the current official English transliterations in use in Myanmar since 1989. For example, the official English spelling of the city after which the dynasty is named since 1989 has been "Taungoo", replacing the older spelling of Toungoo; likewise, the older spellings such as Ava, Pegu, Martaban are now Innwa, Bago and Mottama; and so on. However, the changes have not been adopted in international publications on Burmese history. ==History==

Principality of Toungoo The earliest known record of administration of the region dates to the late Pagan period. In 1191, King Sithu II (r. 1174–1211) appointed Ananda Thuriya governor of Kanba Myint. In 1279, two great-grandsons of Ananda Thuriya—Thawun Gyi and Thawun Nge—founded a new settlement of 370 households, about 40 km farther south. It was named Toungoo (Taungoo) (, "Hill's Spur") because of its location by the hills in the narrow Sittaung river valley between the Bago Yoma range and southern Shan Hills. 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. Its hard-to-reach location would shape much of its early history. In the 14th century, the settlement grew to be the principal city of the frontier region, which remained a lawless place. Toungoo's first rebellion of 1317–18 failed but its nominal overlord Pinya had little control over it. Usurpers routinely seized office by assassinating the governor—in 1325, 1344 and 1347—without incurring any reprisals by Pinya. In 1358, Toungoo outright revolted. Pinya's successor Ava (Inwa) regained Toungoo in 1367 but gubernatorial assassinations continued: 1375, 1376 and 1383, at times with Ava's own permission. Only in 1399 could Ava impose tighter control. By then, Toungoo, along with Prome (Pyay), had received waves of Burmese-speaking migrants, driven out of Upper Burma by the successive Shan raids in the second half of the 14th century, and both southern vassal states had emerged as new centres of economic activity as well as of Burman (Bamar) culture. Toungoo's growth continued especially after the Forty Years' War (1385–1424) left Ava exhausted. From 1425 onwards, Ava regularly faced rebellions whenever a new king came to power, who then had to restore order, often by war. Toungoo's “relentlessly ambitious leaders” repeatedly tested Ava's resolve by staging assassinations (in 1440, 1452, and 1459) and rebellions (in 1426–40, 1452–59 and 1468–70) at times with Pegu's help. Start of Toungoo dynasty In 1470, King Thihathura of Ava (r. 1468–80) appointed Sithu Kyawhtin, the general who put down the latest Toungoo rebellion, viceroy-general of the restive province. A distant member of the Ava royalty, Sithu Kyawhtin remained loyal to Thihathura's successor Minkhaung II (r. 1480–1501), who was greeted with a wave of rebellions by lords of Yamethin (1480), Salin (1481) and Prome (1482). Sithu Kyawhtin died in action at Yamethin in 1481, and was succeeded by his son Min Sithu. In 1485, Min Sithu became the eleventh ruler of Toungoo to be assassinated in office. The assassin was none other than his nephew Mingyi Nyo (r. 1510–30). It would be yet another rebellion except that Nyo won Minkhaung's acquiescence by offering his full support to the embattled king. Nyo turned out to be an able leader. He quickly brought law and order to the region, which attracted refugees from other parts of Central and Upper Burma. Using increased manpower, he sponsored a series of elaborate reclamation and irrigation projects to compensate for the Sittaung valley's modest agriculture. He then, without Ava's permission, raided Hanthawaddy territory, during the southern kingdom's succession crisis. It was a disaster: Toungoo barely survived the 1495–96 counterattack by King Binnya Ran II (r. 1492–1526). At Ava, Minkhaung ignored Nyo's transgressions for he needed Nyo's support against Yamethin. Break from Ava Toungoo's inevitable break with Ava came soon after the death of Minkhaung II in 1501. The new king Narapati II (r. 1501–27) was greeted with a new round of rebellions. By 1502, Mingyi Nyo had already decided to break away despite Narapati's desperate attempt to retain his loyalty by granting the all-important Kyaukse granary. In 1503, Nyo's forces began surreptitiously aiding ongoing rebellions in the south. In 1504, he openly entered into an alliance with Prome with the intention of taking over all of Central Burma. But Ava was not yet a spent force. It decisively defeated the alliance's raids in 1504–05 and in 1507–08. The setbacks forced Mingyi Nyo to recalibrate his ambitions. He formally declared independence from Ava in 1510 but also withdrew from participating in the internecine warfare. Ava could not and did not take any action. It was facing an existential threat in the ongoing war with the Confederation of Shan States, and would ultimately fall in 1527. In the meantime, Nyo focused on strengthening the economy and the stability of his kingdom. His policy of non-interference attracted refugees to the only region in Upper Burma at peace. By his death in 1530, Mingyi Nyo had successfully turned Toungoo into a small but strong regional power. History shows that the former vassal was about to "overawe the metropole". Rise '' The period between 1526 and 1533 saw power change hands in all of the major states of Burma. Three of the states were succeeded by weak rulers: Taka Yut Pi (r. 1526–39) at Hanthawaddy; Bayin Htwe (r. 1527–32) and Narapati (r. 1532–39) at Prome; and Thohanbwa (r. 1533–42) at Ava (Confederation). 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). Though Arakan would become a power in its own right, its geographic isolation meant it would remain a marginal player in mainland affairs. This left the tiny Toungoo, which would bring war to much of mainland Southeast Asia till the end of the century. Tabinshwehti and his court decided to take advantage of the lull, and break out of their increasingly narrow realm by attacking Hanthawaddy, the larger and wealthier but disunited kingdom to the south. In 1534, Toungoo forces began annual raids into Hanthawaddy territory. They finally broke through in 1538, capturing Pegu (Bago) and the Irrawaddy delta. In 1539, Tabinshwehti moved the capital to Pegu where it would remain until the end of the century. By incorporating Portuguese mercenaries, firearms and military tactics as well as experienced former Hanthawaddy military commanders to the Toungoo armed forces, the upstart kingdom seized up to Pagan (Bagan) from the Confederation by 1545. The campaigns against Arakan (1545–47) and Siam (1547–49), however, fell short. In both campaigns, Toungoo forces won all major open battles but could not overcome the heavily fortified defences of Mrauk-U and Ayutthaya. Despite the setbacks, Tabinshwehti had founded the most powerful polity in Burma since the fall of Pagan in 1287. The king attempted to forge a "Mon–Burman synthesis" by actively courting the support of ethnic Mons of Lower Burma, many of whom were appointed to the highest positions in his government and armed forces. Expansion in Yangon But the nascent empire fell apart right after Tabinshwehti was assassinated in 1550. Several vassal rulers immediately declared independence, forcing Tabinshwehti's chosen successor Bayinnaung (r. 1550–81) to reunify the kingdom in the next two years. Bayinnaung then pushed up the Irrawaddy in an effort to join Upper Burma and Lower Burma for the first time since Pagan. Victory in the north "promised to strengthen control over interior gems and bullion, and to supply additional levies." In 1555, Upper Burma fell to the southern forces. Over the next decade, a series of “breathtaking campaigns” reduced Manipur and the entire Tai-Shan world to tributary status: cis-Salween Shan states (1557), Lan Na (1558), Manipur (1560), Keng Tung (1562), the Chinese Shan States (1563), Siam (1564) and Lan Xang (1565). Leveraging the manpower of much of the western and central mainland, he managed to defeat the Siamese rebellion with great difficulty in 1569. Yet defeating the guerrilla resistance at the remote hill states—Mohnyin and Mogaung in the extreme north also revolted in 1571—proved far more difficult. Toungoo armies suffered heavy casualties from disease and starvation in their fruitless annual campaigns in search of elusive bands of rebels. Pegu reestablished some semblance of control over Lan Xang only in 1575 and Mohnyin and Mogaung in 1576. No sooner than the Tai-Shan world finally became quiet, the king turned his attention to Portuguese Goa and the advancing Mughal Empire in the west. In response to competing requests by the Ceylonese kingdoms of Kotte and Kandy for military aid, he finally sent an elite army in 1576 to Kotte, which he considered a protectorate, ostensibly to protect Theravada Buddhism on the island from the Portuguese threat. Goa considered it was technically at war with Pegu although no war ever broke out. and what the Portuguese regarded as "the most powerful monarchy in Asia except that of China". The king standardized laws, calendars, weights and measurements, and Buddhist religious practices throughout the land. But he introduced administrative reforms only at the margins. The "absurdly overextended" empire was largely held together by his personal relationships with the vassal rulers, who were loyal to him and not to Toungoo Burma. Decline and fall In the tradition of the prevailing Southeast Asian administrative model, every new high king had to establish his authority with the vassals all over again. This was already a difficult task when vassals were situated in the same geographic region but nearly impossible with faraway lands, given inherent difficulties in bringing serious warfare to those lands. He feared that acknowledging Ayutthaya's independence would invite yet more Tai rebellions, some perhaps closer to home. Nanda launched five major punitive campaigns against Siam between 1584 and 1593, all of which failed disastrously. With each Siamese victory, other vassals grew more inclined to throw off allegiance and more reluctant to contribute military forces. By the late 1580s and early 1590s, Pegu had to lean ever more heavily on the already modest population of Lower Burma for the debilitating war effort. Able men all over Lower Burma fled military service to become monks, debt slaves, private retainers, or refugees in nearby kingdoms. As more cultivators fled, rice prices in Lower Burma reached unheard of levels. The empire's precipitous collapse ensued. Siam seized the entire Tenasserim coast in 1595, and the rest of the vassals had broken away—de jure or de facto—by 1597. The breakaway state of Toungoo and the western kingdom of Arakan jointly invaded Lower Burma in 1598, and captured Pegu in 1599. The allies thoroughly looted, and burned down the imperial capital, “one of the wonders of Asia”, in 1600. Aftermath Even before the fall of Pegu, the breakaway states of the empire had been engaged in a series of “confused, many-sided wars” since the mid-1590s. Prome attacked Toungoo in 1595. Prome and Ava fought for central Burma in 1596–97. Prome and Toungoo later agreed to attack Ava in 1597 but Toungoo broke off the alliance and attacked Prome in 1597. In the central mainland, Lan Xang and Lan Na went to war in 1595–96 and again in 1598–1603. Siam supported a Chiang Rai rebellion against Lan Na (Chiang Mai) in 1599. By 1601, Lan Na was divided into three spheres: Chiang Mai, Siam-backed Chiang Rai, Lan Xang-backed Nan. Chiang Mai defeated the Siam-backed rebellion in Chiang Rai in 1602 only to submit to Ayutthaya later that year. Chiang Mai retook Nan from Lan Xang in 1603. The Portuguese garrison at Syriam switched allegiance from Arakan to Goa in 1603. Siamese vassal Martaban then entered into an alliance with Portuguese Syriam. Ava conquered Prome (1608), Toungoo (1610), Portuguese Syriam (1613), Siamese Martaban and Tavoy (1613), and Lan Na (1614). Still, in contrast to 250 years of political fragmentation that followed Pagan's collapse, this interregnum proved brief. As ephemeral as the overextended Toungoo Empire was, the underlying forces that underpinned its rise were not. 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. The new dynasty did not overextend itself by trying to take over Siam or Lan Xang. This was a more “realistic and organic” polity that would last until the mid-18th century. The new dynasty proceeded to create a political and legal system whose basic features would continue under the Konbaung dynasty (1752–1885) well into the 19th century. ==Government==

The Toungoo Empire was “in theory and fact, a poly-ethnic political formation.” The system did not work well even for mid-size kingdoms like Ava and Siam. Now, because of the sheer size of the empire, the system was even more decentralised and stretched thinner still. At any rate, it was the only system the Toungoo kings knew, and they "had no choice but to retain it." Administrative Divisions Core Region The dynasty's original home was the Toungoo region, with the capital at Toungoo. But from 1539 onward, the High King, styled as “King of Kings”, moved the capital to Pegu (Bago), and governed only what used to be the Hanthawaddy Kingdom. This was the first time in Burmese history that a capital, which had the authority over the entire Irrawaddy basin, was located near the coast. The provinces and their constituent divisions were ruled by vassal rulers, who lived off apanage grants and local taxes. The core region's bureaucracy was a continuation of the old Hanthawaddy court. Most local governors as well as most officials and ministers at the Pegu court—e.g., Saw Lagun Ein, Smim Payu, Binnya Dala, Binnya Law, Daw Binnya, Binnya Kyan Htaw—were most probably ethnic Mons. The word used by European visitors to describe a court official was semini, Italian translation of smim, Mon for lord. Kingdoms Surrounding the core region were the tributary kingdoms. The vassal rulers were still styled as kings, and were allowed to retain full royal regalia. They were required to send tributes to the crown but they generally had a freehand in the rest of the administration. Pegu generally did not get involved in local administration; its remit was national. The court launched standardisation drives to unify laws, weights and measurements, calendars, and Buddhist reforms throughout the empire. But the centuries-old disputes never went away. They resurfaced as soon as Pegu's authority waned, and resulted in the confused, multi-party wars of 1590s and 1600s. The Pegu court did not possess a centrally run bureaucracy, as Restored Toungoo and Konbaung dynasties would attempt, to administer the vassal states. Unlike in later periods, Pegu even at the height of the empire maintained no permanent military garrisons, or representatives in the vassal states to keep an eye on the local ruler in the peacetime. As a result, the High King heavily depended on the vassal king to be both loyal and able. Ineffective vassal rulers, who did not command respect from their local sub-vassal rulers, such as those in Lan Xang and in Upper Burma after 1584, only brought constant trouble for the crown. 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. The downside was that the able rulers were also the most likely to revolt when the High King was not Bayinnaung; and they did. Princely states A rank below the vassal kingdoms were the princely states, ruled by sawbwas (chiefs, princes). Except for Manipur, they were all Shan states that ringed the upper Irrawaddy valley (i.e. the Kingdom of Ava) from the Kalay State in the northwest to the Mong Pai State in the southeast. Manipur was not a Shan state, and its ruler styled himself raja (king). Nevertheless, Pegu classified the raja a "sawbwa", and treated Manipur as another princely state, albeit a major one. Two other major states were Kengtung and Mogaung, whose rulers retained the full royal regalia. For administrative purposes, the court grouped the states into provinces (taing (တိုင်း)). During Bayinnaung's reign, Ava served as the intermediary between Pegu and the hill states. But in Nanda's reign, the court became concerned by the overly close relationship between Thado Minsaw and the sawbwas. From 1584 onwards except for 1587–93, Nanda pursued a policy of devolution in the upcountry in which Ava's role was essentially eliminated. The direct rule did not work as evidenced by the near total absence of contribution from the Shan states and Manipur towards Pegu's war effort in Siam. Bayinnaung considered control of the Shan states of utmost strategic importance for his hold of the upcountry. Raids by nearby highland Shan states had been an overhanging concern for successive lowland regimes since the 14th century. The most feared were Mohnyin and Mogaung, the twin Shan states, which led most of the raids. Bayinnaung introduced a key administrative reform, which turned out to be his most important and most enduring of his legacies. The king permitted the sawbwas to retain their feudal rights over their subjects. The office of the sawbwa remained hereditary. But the incumbent sawbwa could now be removed by the king for gross misconduct although the king's choice of successor was limited to members of the ''sawbwa's own family. The key innovation was that he required sons of his vassal rulers to reside in the palace as pages, who served a dual purpose: they were hostages for good conduct of their fathers and they received valuable training in Burmese court life. His Shan policy was followed by all Burmese kings right up to the final fall of the kingdom to the British in 1885. Bayinnaung promoted the new law throughout the empire so far as it was compatible with customs and practices of local society. He also standardised the weights and measurements such as the cubit, tical, basket throughout the realm. The ahmudan'' were a class of people, who were exempt from most personal taxes in exchange for regular or military service of the crown. The quotas were fixed until the 17th century, when Restored Toungoo kings instituted variable quotas to take advantage of demographic fluctuations. The earliest extant record of organisation of the Royal Burmese Army dates only from 1605 but the organizational structure of the earlier First Toungoo era is likely to be similar, if not essentially the same. A 1605 royal order decreed that each regiment shall consist of 1000 foot soldiers under 100 company leaders called akyat (), 10 battalion commanders called ahsaw () and 1 commander called ake (), and all must be equipped with weapons including guns and cannon. A typical 17th-century regiment was armed with 10 cannon, 100 guns and 300 bows. The ability to raise more conscripts depended greatly on the High King's grip over his vassals. Bayinnaung required newly conquered states to provide their quota of manpower for the next campaign. According to scholarship, at the peak of the empire, the imperial army could perhaps raise about 100,000 troops, and the largest initial troop level for a single campaign was about 70,000. A major weakness of the system was that the vast majority of the potential levy hailed from outside the capital region. In 1581, only 21% of residents within a 200-km radius of Pegu were ahmudans (whereas in 1650 in the Restored Toungoo period, over 40% of the ahmudans were within 200 km of the capital Ava). It meant that the High King of the First Toungoo period needed to rely far more on his vassal rulers to raise the troops. The weakness was brutally exposed when the High King was not Bayinnaung. Nanda's troops most probably never totalled more than 25,000. The first special musket and artillery units, made up mostly of Portuguese and Indian Ocean (mostly Muslim) mercenaries, were formed in the late 1530s. But artillery units continued to be manned by foreign mercenaries throughout the 16th century. 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". Toungoo was a product of Upper Burma's ceaseless wars of the prior centuries. In the age of rampant gubernatorial revolts, any rulers hoping to rule a kingdom needed to take command of the army. All senior princes of the House of Toungoo received a military style education since childhood, and were expected to take the field in person. 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. This kind of martial tradition simply did not exist in "far larger, more secure" kingdoms like Siam. The conqueror king was fortunate that a charismatic guerrilla leader like King Setthathirath of Lan Xang (r. 1548–72) was assassinated by a local rival. After Bayinnaung, Lower Burma lost the manpower advantage over a far more populous Siam. Ayutthaya's larger, well-equipped armies not only repulsed Nanda's undermanned invasions but also ended up seizing the Tenasserim coast in the process. Legacy The First Toungoo dynasty's military organisation and strategy were adapted by its two main successor states: Restored Toungoo and Siam. Restored Toungoo kings used the First Toungoo's formula of greater military experience, modern firearms and (comparatively greater) manpower to partially restore the empire in the following two decades. Likewise, Siam's military service system, phrai luang, was reorganised, modelled after the ahmudan system in the 1570s—indeed to fulfill Bayinnaung's demands for conscripts. Likewise, the First Toungoo dynasty's military strategy and tactics were likely adopted by Siam's new generation of leadership, Naresuan and Ekathotsarot, who grew up in Pegu, and were most probably exposed to Toungoo military strategy. By 1600, Siam had not only regained the Tenasserim coast from Burma but also expanded deeper into Cambodia. After 1614, an equilibrium of sorts prevailed between the two successor states. Neither state extended in any direction to a point her supply lines were more extended than those of her nearest rival. ==Culture and society==

Demography Size of population Estimates of the population of the empire point to over 6 million. In 1600, the most populous region of the erstwhile empire was Siam (2.5 million), followed by Upper Burma (1.5 million), the Shan high lands (1 million) and Lower Burma (0.5 million)—for a total of at least 5.5 million. Estimates for Lan Na, Lan Xang and Manipur are not known. The size of the population of the empire before the devastating wars of 1584–99 was probably over 6 million. The population of the Pegu capital region, according to a 1581 census, was only about 200,000. Similarly, in the central mainland, nascent politico-ethnic identities of Tai Yuans in Lan Na; Laotians in Lan Xang, and the Siamese in Siam had emerged. Alongside the main politico-ethnicities were several smaller ethnic minority groups. In predominantly Mon-speaking Lower Burma, a sizeable number of Burmans, Karens, and Shans (as well as a host of Europeans, Jews, Armenians, Persians, etc. at key ports) came to settle in this period. Several deportees from the conquered states as far away as Lan Xang were settled in Lower Burma. In Upper Burma, Shans, Kadus, Karens, Chins and other minorities still occupied dry zone fringes. The Shan states had Chins, Kachins, Was, Palaungs, Karennis, etc. Over in the central mainland, several linguistically distinct Tai groups coexisted alongside sizeable numbers of Mons, Khmers, and a host of hill minorities. The entrepôt of Ayutthaya hosted significant communities of Bengalis, Arabs and Persians. To be sure, the ethnic definitions were loose categorisations. Overarching politico-ethnic identities were still in their early stages of development. 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. The same was true for smaller minorities still—indeed, terms like Kachins, Karens, and Chins are exonyms given by Burmans that summarily group several different groups. In the central mainland, the main Siamese, Lao and Yuan ethnicities were still in an embryonic stage, and a chiefly elite concept. Effects of fluid ethnic identities Weak or embryonic ethnic identities had broad geopolitical implications. One key result was that patron-client structures often preempted ethnic identity, giving rise to frequent political alliances across ethnic lines. The same phenomenon was also prevalent in states as diverse as Vietnam, Russia and France during this period. Not surprisingly, all armies and courts of the era consisted of significant minority ethnicities. Frequent cross-ethnic defections "bore no particular stigma." States large and small readily shifted alliances with little regard to ethnic loyalties. This is not to say that neither wars nor population movements had little effect. In the Irrawaddy valley, for example, north-to-south migrations "pitted newcomers against established populations and encouraged stereotyping both as an emotional response to an alien presence and as a (perhaps unconscious) strategy of group mobilization. Shan raids on Upper Burma, which bred bitter anti-Shan diatribes, offer the most dramatic example." But the weak link between ethnicity and political loyalty meant patron-client relationships remained the single most important factor in state building. One figure who successfully exploited this at the grandest scale was Bayinnaung. The emperor formed patron-client relationships based on universal Buddhist cultural concepts—alongside the threat of massive military reprisals—to hold the empire. He presented himself as cakkavatti, or World Ruler, par excellence, and formed personal relationships based on the concepts of thissa (allegiance) and kyezu (obligation). The tradition of cross-ethnic patron-client relationships continued to thrive, albeit at smaller scales, in mainland Southeast Asia down to the 19th century. Social classes The First Toungoo society in the Irrawaddy valley followed Pagan and Ava precedents. The majority of the people belonged to one of four broad group of commoners (hsin-ye-tha, lit. “people of poverty”). A similar system was in place in Siam. In both sectors of the empire, the society was deeply stratified: the division between the elite and the commoners was stark. In the Irrawaddy valley, min males on balance were more likely to study for long periods in monasteries, to be knowledgeable in Pali, even Sanskrit; to wear Indian and Chinese textiles, to be familiar with foreign conventions than their hsin-ye-tha counterparts. Because scribal talent remained rare, the cost of Tipitika transcriptions as late as 1509 may not have been much lower than in the 13th century. Low literacy rates notwithstanding, this period saw the continued growth of Burmese literature both in terms of quantity and genres—a trend that began in the Ava period (1364–1555). Chiefly through the efforts of monks and aristocrats, a new generation of chronicles, law codes, and poetry were written in vernacular Burmese, or in addition to Pali. Some of the chronicles such as Razadarit Ayedawbon and Hanthawaddy Hsinbyushin Ayedawbon have survived to this day. A new form of poetry, called yadu, first pioneered in the Ava period, flourished. Indeed, some of the most well-known yadu poets such as Shin Htwe Hla, Yaza Thara, Nawaday, Hsinbyushin Medaw, and Natshinnaung hailed from this period. In the Chao Phraya valley, literacy in Siamese, not to mention Pali, were strictly the domain of the elite. Monastic education for the commoners (phrai) remained "quite a luxury.". The Siamese language (central Thai), a mixture of a more northerly Tai dialect with Khmerized Tai from the Ayutthaya area, was coalescing. The Siamese script too underwent several modifications before achieving its final form by about 1600. The state of religious practices in western and central mainland Southeast Asia before the rise of the empire was highly fragmented. In general, the lowland areas were largely—nominally—Theravada Buddhist, and highland regions were a mix of Theravada Buddhist and animist to strictly animist. Even in predominantly Buddhist lowland Upper Burma, down to the 16th century, animal sacrifices were still regularly performed and distilled liquored was consumed in Buddhist-sanctioned events (often attended by Buddhist abbots and the royalty). 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." Many of Bayinnaung's reforms were continued by his successors of the Restored Toungoo Dynasty. The Forest dweller sect virtually disappeared. Over time, Theravada practices became more regionally uniform, the hill regions were drawn into closer contact with the basin in the 17th and 18th centuries. Other practices Various animist practices remained alive and well, not just hill regions but even in the lowlands. Bayinnaung's attempts to rid of animist nat worship from Buddhism failed. The descendants of Muslim and Catholic mercenaries continued to fill the ranks of the army's elite artillery units. ==Economy==

Agriculture, and maritime trade dominated the economy of the empire. Maritime trade was most prevalent in Lower Burma and southern Siam. Agriculture was dominant in Upper Burma and surrounding highlands. The Ayutthaya region also had a strong agriculture-based economy. Agriculture 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. Lower Burma's agriculture was not well developed—less than 10% of the acreage of the mid-1930s in the British colonial period was under cultivation in the 16th century. Upper Burma had about 730,000 hectares (1.8 million acres) under cultivation c. 1600, divided even between rice and dry crops. In addition to rice, New World peanuts, tobacco and maize were grown. Cotton became the major crop in dry zone areas ill-suited for rice, as in Meiktila, Yamethin and Myingyan districts. Cotton was Burma's principal export commodity to China, and drove domestic handicraft industry. In return, Pegu imported Chinese manufactures and spices from Malacca and Sumatra, and Indian textiles from the Indian states; and indeed highly sought after state-of-the-art firearms from the Portuguese. Pegu established maritime links with the Ottoman Empire by 1545. The crown closely supervised trade, and collected duties on any trade that touched the coasts of Lower Burma and Siam. At Pegu, overseas trade was in the hands of eight brokers appointed by the king. Their fee was two percent. The crown appointed officials at Mergui, a former Siamese dependency, to supervise lucrative trade between Siam and India. His majesty's government was actively involved in the import-export business. The crown exported luxury products (musk, gold, gems) obtained through the tribute quotas from the interior states. Bayinnaung built a fleet of oceangoing vessels in the 1570s to undertake voyages on behalf of the crown. Currency The Toungoo empire had no official coinage. According to European company records, non-barter trade was chiefly conducted in lumps of copper-lead alloys called ganza (, ) to the 1560s. But New World silver began arriving via the Spanish Philippines and India in the last centuries of the 16th century, and silver gradually overtook ganza, which an "inordinately bulky medium", and became the standard medium of exchange by the early 17th century. The greater availability of silver greatly aided commercial expansion throughout the empire. Conditions Maritime trade wealth sustained Pegu's military might, enabling Pegu to pay for Portuguese firearms and mercenaries. By the mid-1590s, constant warfare left Lower Burma severely depopulated and rice prices at unheard of levels. ==Legacy==

The First Toungoo Empire left no monumental architecture as the Pagan Empire did. The grandeur of Pegu was forever lost, and is known only from contemporary European accounts. Unlike the Ava period, few literary innovations came out. Its main legacies were political and cultural consolidations in both western and central mainland Southeast Asia. The empire marked the end of the period of petty kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia. Not only did the dynasty successfully reunify the Irrawaddy valley for the first time since the late 13th century but it also absorbed the surrounding highlands into the lowland orbit for good. 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. Another key legacy was the 17th-century administrative reforms that addressed the empire's numerous shortcomings. In both Restored Toungoo Burma and Siam, monarchs worked to reduce the power of viceroys and governors. Similarities between Burmese and Siamese reforms “reflected, in part, independent responses to similar challenges” but they also suggest “a degree of squint-eyed mutual borrowing.” In both sectors, the crown reduced or stopped the appointment of senior princes to provincial towns, and obliged them to reside at the capital in special palaces where they could more easily be monitored. The actual administrators of the provinces went to commoner officials with no claims to the throne. The memories of the First Toungoo Empire still loom large not just in Myanmar but also in Thailand and Laos. In Myanmar, Tabinshwehti's and Bayinnaung's exploits are widely recounted in schoolbooks. According to Myint-U, Bayinnaung is the favourite king of the present-day Burmese generals, who often see themselves "as fighting the same enemies and in the same places... their soldiers slugging their way through the same thick jungle, preparing to torch a town or press-gang villagers. The past closer, more comparable, a way to justify present action. His statues are there because the ordeal of welding a nation together by force is not just history." On the opposite side of the same token, warrior kings Naresuan of Ayutthaya and Setthathirath of Lan Xang remain the most celebrated kings in Thailand and Laos respectively—Naresuan for returning Siam to independence and Setthathirath for his pesky resistance to the empire. ==See also==