Pagan Kingdom

This article is about the specific polity Pagan Kingdom and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.

If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics

Was the first Burmese kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Myanmar. It fragmented into several successor states.

Establishment

December 849: Foundation of the Pagan Kingdom.

Chronology

Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation

1. Conquests of Anawrahta

Expansion during the rule of Anawrahta in the Pagan Kingdom.

January 1051: Rise of the Pagan Empire.

January 1051: Fall of Kingdom of Tagaung c. 1050s.

May 1057: The Pagan Kingdom conquered the Thaton Kingdom in 1057.

January 1071: In December 1044, a Pagan prince named Anawrahta came to power. Over the next three decades, he turned this small principality into the First Burmese Empire. By the 1070s, Pagan had emerged as the main Theravada Buddhism stronghold.

2. Mongol invasions and conquests

Were a series of military campaigny by the Mongols that created the largest contiguous Empire in history, the Mongol Empire, which controlled most of Eurasia.

2.1.Mongol invasions of Burma

Were two major military campaigns of the Mongols in Burma.

2.1.1.First Mongol invasion of Burma

Were a series of military conflicts between Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty, a division of the Mongol Empire, and the Pagan Empire took place between 1277 and 1287.

January 1280: Ngasaunggyan was conquered by the Pagan Kingdom.

December 1283: In 1283, the Burmese city of Ngasaunggyan was besieged by the Yuan Dynasty forces led by Kublai Khan. The Burmese defenders, led by King Narathihapate, held out for over two months before the fort finally fell to the Yuan forces. This event marked a significant victory for the Yuan Dynasty in their expansion into Southeast Asia.

December 1283: Kaungsin, a fortress in modern-day Myanmar, fell to the Yuan Dynasty in 1283.

February 1284: Yuan conquest of Tagaung.

May 1284: The Chinese found the heat of the searing Irrawaddy valley excessive, and evacuated Tagaung, allowing the Burmese to return to the city.

December 1284: The Mongol army, led by Kublai Khan, renewed their offensive and retook Tagaung in 1284. Tagaung was a city in Myanmar that was previously under the control of the Yuan Dynasty. This victory was part of the Mongol Empire's expansion into Southeast Asia.

January 1285: In 1285, the Yuan Dynasty forces, led by Kublai Khan's general, defeated a Burmese stand south of Tagaung, near Hanlin. This victory solidified the Yuan Dynasty's control over the region and expanded their territory further into Burma.

July 1287: The king of the pagan kingdom wanted to submit fully to the Yuan Empire but the kingdom collapsed and the mongols were only able to integrate the occupied northern part in their empire. On 1 July 1287, the king was captured en route and assassinated.

3. Further events (Unrelated to Any War)

January 1045: By Anawrahta's accession in 1044, Pagan had grown into a small principality, about 320 kilometres north to south and about 130 kilometres from east to west, comprising roughly the present districts of Mandalay, Meiktila, Myingyan, Kyaukse, Yamethin, Magwe, Sagaing, and the riverine portions of Minbu and Pakkoku.

January 1088: The Khmer influences on Lavo began to wane as a result of the growing influence of the emerging Burmese kingdom of Pagan. In 1087 Kyansittha of Pagan invaded Lavo, but King Narai of Lavo was able to repel the Burmese invasion and Lavo, emerging relatively stronger from the encounter, was thus spared from either Khmer or Burmese hegemony. King Narai moved the capital to Ayodhaya and Lavo was then able to exert pressure on Suvarnabhumi to the west and slowly to take its cities.

January 1151: Under Suryavarman II, in power from 1113 to 1150: in the east the Khmer Empire annexed several provinces of Champā, in the south the Khmer invested the Malay Peninsula.

January 1201: Wuntho state was founded before 1200.

January 1212: The Pagan Kingdom expanded to the Salween river in the east.

January 1212: Sithu II formally founded the Palace Guards in 1174, the first extant record of a standing army, and pursued an expansionist policy. Over his 27-year reign, Pagan's influence reached further south to the Strait of Malacca.

January 1212: The Pagan Kingdom expanded into current Chinese territory farther north.

January 1216: According to Tai chronicles the kingdom was founded in 1215.

January 1239: Mongmit, formerly part of Hsenwi State, was founded in 1238.

January 1244: The state of Kengtung was founded in 1243 by a prince named Mang Kun.

January 1286: Martaban again revolted in 1285. This time, Pagan could not do anything to retake Martaban because it was facing an existential threat from the north.