Why did China conquer Burma in ancient times and open up the outlet to the Indian Ocean?
China only borders one ocean, and that is the Pacific Ocean. If Chinese ships want to import oil from the Persian Gulf, they must detour through the Strait of Malacca. However, the Strait of Malacca is controlled by other countries, which puts my country's oil security at great risk. This got us thinking. Yunnan in China is only 470 kilometers away from the Indian Ocean, separated by Myanmar. Why didn’t China include Burma in its territory and open up the Indian Ocean in ancient times?
1. The development of the Han Dynasty
We must first understand the development process of ancient China in the southwest before we can know how China approached the Indian Ocean step by step. In ancient times, the southwest region was an impenetrable land of high mountains, deep valleys, and dense forests. During the pre-Qin period, people did not know the existence of the "Southwestern Barbarians", let alone the existence of the Indian Ocean. Even the Qin Dynasty, with its great martial arts, failed to reach the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.
During the Western Han Dynasty, the temptation from India finally gave Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty the ambition to open up the southwest. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian went on a mission to the Western Regions and saw the products of Shu in Daxia (Bactria). After asking, he learned that these products were transferred from Shendu (India). Zhang Qian told Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty about this, so Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty tried to open up transportation to India and sent Wang Ranyu, Bai Shichang, Lu Yueren and others as envoys to the southwestern Yi to find a way to India.
However, the Han Dynasty envoys stopped in Dian Kingdom. Due to the complex terrain of the Hengduan Mountain area, dense virgin forests, and numerous venomous snakes and beasts, the envoys could no longer cross. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the southwest frontier advanced to central Yunnan and failed to advance further. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ailao State (today's Baoshan) surrendered and Yongchang County was established. The territory of the Han Dynasty advanced to the western Yunnan area.
The Yongchang County of the Han Dynasty was the furthest advance of the Han Dynasty in the southwest. After that, the Shu Han, the Jin Dynasty, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties all had no power to develop, and it was not easy to maintain this situation. In the Tang Dynasty, a large-scale indigenous people emerged in the southwestern region, and regimes such as the Nanzhao Kingdom and the Luoshi Ghost Kingdom emerged. The Tang Dynasty's power advanced to the Jinsha River area. In the world of 800 years, China has not only not moved forward, but has retreated.
Second, the Yuan Dynasty conquered Myanmar
After the founding of Nanzhao, it expanded on a large scale in the southwest, and its territory advanced in the southwest to the Mandalay region of Myanmar. After the demise of the Nanzhao Kingdom, the Dali Kingdom basically inherited its territory, but overall there was a certain shrinkage. The southwest of Dali reaches Jiangtou City (Jiesha) in Myanmar, which can be said to be relatively close to the Indian Ocean. In 1253 AD, the Dali Kingdom was conquered by the Great Mongolia, and in 1270 the Yunnan Province was established. After that, the Yuan Dynasty continued to expand to the southwest based on Nanzhao and Dali.
Myanmar at that time was the Bagan dynasty. Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, sent an envoy to Bagan to demand its surrender. But the messenger never came back. In 1277, Myanmar sent troops to attack Yingjiang and Jinji in Yunnan. Therefore, the Yuan Dynasty decided to destroy the Bagan Dynasty. At that time, the Yuan Dynasty's army stationed in Yunnan advanced to Jiangtou City, but was unable to continue due to the hot weather. In 1280, Kublai Khan launched another war. By 1283, both Jiangtou City and Taigong City were captured, and 12 tribes in northern Myanmar surrendered. In 1285, the King of Bagan formally surrendered and submitted to the Yuan Dynasty.
After this expedition, Myanmar was actually torn apart, and the dynasty existed in name only. The Yuan Dynasty set up a large number of institutions in Myanmar, such as Tulutai Highway, Yunyuan Road, Menglian Road, Menglai Road, and Mubang Road, and established the Central Myanmar Province (1286-1290) to govern it. This means that Myanmar is included in China's territory for the first time in history, and it is also the last time. During the reign of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, various ministries in Myanmar began to be abolished and replaced by chieftain institutions. The chieftains set up in Myanmar during the Yuan Dynasty included Bangya, Yunyuan, Mengguang, Mubang, Menglian, Menglai, Tongxi, Mengbing, Mengguang, etc.
Third, the Ming Dynasty’s comprehensive retreat in Burma
China during the Yuan Dynasty was so close to the Indian Ocean. If future generations can inherit the cause of the Yuan Dynasty and implement "reform the land and return it to the people" in Myanmar, then China's southwest will be on the verge of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty did not inherit the Yuan Dynasty's cause, and its territory shrank by 10 million square kilometers based on the Yuan Dynasty.
In 1382, 30 armies of the Ming Dynasty eliminated the remaining forces of the Liang Kingdom in Yunnan and the Dali Kingdom, and established the Yunnan Chief Envoy and Yunnan Dusi, stationed with 200,000 troops. Yunnan during the Ming Dynasty can be divided into two parts. One part is the area under actual control, called "Neiyi"; the other part is the Myanmar area that nominally inherited the Yuan Dynasty. It has no actual control, no soldiers are stationed, and no soldiers are dispatched. Those who hold half-official positions are called "wai barbarians".
The "foreign barbarian" chieftains canonized during the Zhu Yuanzhang period included Burmese, Cheche, Laos, and 804 Xuanweisi, and 5 chieftains were Mubang, Mengyang, Mengding, Dahou, and Nandian. Mansion. During the Yongle period, five Tufus were abolished and the Mengyangyiwei Division, Mubang Xuanwei Division, Nandian Xuanfu Division and Ganya Xuanfu Division were established. In southern Myanmar, the newly enthroned Dakula Xuanwei Division, Demasasa Xuanwei Division and Dewu Laxuan Wei Division were newly enthroned.
In fact, these chieftains are all independent small countries, which are a manifestation of Myanmar's divided state. The chieftains of these chieftains actually called themselves kings. For example, the Xuanweisi of Myanmar is actually the Kingdom of Ava, the Xuanweisi of Dakula is actually the Kingdom of Bago, and Demassar and Dewuala are the Kingdom of Toungoo.
During the Yongle period, these three dynasties rejected Yongle's canonization and were no longer nominally affiliated with the Ming Dynasty. The kingdoms of Mubang, Mengyang, Mengmi, and Arakan in northern Myanmar were interspersed with the Ming Dynasty and the three other kingdoms. The "Sanxuan and Liuwei" as they were called in the middle of the Ming Dynasty no longer included the three southern kingdoms.
Toungoo Dynasty
King Toungoo officially called himself the King of Myanmar in 1531 and established the Toungoo Dynasty. After that, he successively annexed Bago, Ava, Sipo, Manmo, and Meng. Small kingdoms such as Yangyang, Mengmi, Mengnai, and Yanghui basically unified Myanmar by 1554. After that, Toungoo captured the Lanna Kingdom (Babaidaidian Xuanweisi), Lancang Kingdom (Laos Xuanweisi), Mengmi Chieftain, etc.
How many wars were fought between the Ming Dynasty and Burma? In ten years, the final result was that Taungoo unified the entire Myanmar and occupied half of the Indochina Peninsula. The "Liuwei" among the "Three Xuan and Six Wei" of the Ming Dynasty was basically destroyed, leaving only three small Xuanfu divisions. From then on, after this battle, the "foreign barbarians" in Yunnan ceased to exist, and the area of Yunnan shrank significantly.
Yunnan in the early Ming Dynasty
Yunnan in the late Ming Dynasty
Four. The Qing Dynasty cleaned up the mess left by the Ming Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty entered After the pass, Nanming was destroyed and the mainland was unified. In Yunnan, the early Qing Dynasty inherited the mess left by the Ming Dynasty. The chieftains of Yunnan, such as Mengyang, Mubang, and Manmu (Manmo), had already been annexed by Myanmar. At the beginning of its rule, the Qing Dynasty tried to stabilize the overall situation and did not want to go to war. The Zhengmai and Mu states under Burmese control wanted to join the Qing Dynasty, but they refused on the grounds that the foreigners had been Burmese subjects since the late Ming Dynasty and it was inconvenient to allow them. Later, Burma and other countries in the Indochina Peninsula expressed their submission to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty's power in Southeast Asia reached its peak.
During the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty destroyed the Junggar Khanate and became stronger, so it began to adopt a tough attitude towards Myanmar. In the 10 years from 1765 to 1767, Qianlong sent troops to Burma three times, but the first three times failed. By the time of the fourth war, both the Qing Dynasty and Burma could no longer hold on, and finally both sides chose peace talks. Although the Qing Dynasty's war against Burma basically ended in failure and suffered heavy losses, it recovered the chieftain areas such as Mubang, Mengyang, and Manmo, and expanded its territory.
In the Qing Dynasty, Yunnan implemented the "remove the chieftains first and then suppress the barbarians". The measures of "reforming the soil and returning it to the river" were implemented in Yunnan. The chieftains changed their status and returned to their native land, while the foreign chieftains did not change. Since the "foreign barbarian" chieftains did not carry out the reform and return to their native lands, this also created huge hidden dangers. In 1852, the British began to invade Myanmar and soon arrived in the Mubang area. In 1897, Britain and the Qing Dynasty signed the "Sino-British Renewal of Burma Treaty", and the Mu State area was included in British Burma. So the Han people in the area were renamed the Kokang people, the Chinese people were called Guoyu, and the Chinese people were called Guowen people.
Based on the above, the Yuan Dynasty originally pushed its territory to the periphery of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty failed to control this area and was eventually unified by the Toungoo Dynasty. The Toungoo Dynasty fought another war with the Ming Dynasty, which caused the area of Yunnan to shrink significantly. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, areas such as Mubang were recovered, but they were still occupied by the British at the end of the period. In this way, everyone can understand this clue more clearly.