Key Facts
- Duration
- 1752–1885 (133 years)
- Empire rank
- Second-largest empire in Burmese history
- Anglo-Burmese Wars
- Three wars lost to Britain (1824–1885)
- Successor state
- British Burma (annexed 1885)
- Campaigns waged against
- Siam, Qing China, Assam, Arakan, Manipur
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
Founded in 1752 by Alaungpaya, the Konbaung dynasty rose from the ruins of the Toungoo kingdom after Mon forces had sacked the Burmese capital. Alaungpaya rapidly reunified Burma, defeated the Mon kingdom of Pegu, and launched expansionist campaigns into neighboring territories including Manipur, Assam, and Arakan, establishing a powerful centralized state that built on Toungoo administrative reforms.
Phase II: Zenith
At its height, the dynasty controlled a vast territory stretching from Assam and Manipur in the northwest to Arakan in the west and into the Shan states and Tenasserim in the east. Konbaung kings repelled four Chinese Qing invasions and briefly conquered Siam in 1767, destroying Ayutthaya. Administrative and legal reforms laid institutional groundwork that informed the structure of the modern Burmese state.
Phase III: Decline
British imperial expansion proved the dynasty's fatal challenge. Three successive Anglo-Burmese Wars—in 1824–26, 1852, and 1885—stripped away Arakan, Tenasserim, Lower Burma, and finally the remaining kingdom. The British deposed and exiled the last king, Thibaw, in 1885, annexing Upper Burma and extinguishing a millennium-old Burmese monarchy, with the territory incorporated into British India.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory