Key Facts
- Duration
- 1510–1752 (imperial periods)
- Peak area
- ~750,000 km²
- Largest empire in Southeast Asia
- Under Bayinnaung, mid-16th century
- Two ruling periods
- First Toungoo (1510–1599); Nyaungyan Restoration (1599–1752)
- Dynasty ended
- 1752, captured by Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Territorial Scale Comparison
Peak area vs modern sovereign states
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
Founded in the town of Toungoo, the dynasty rose under kings Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung, who reunified the fragmented territories of the former Pagan Kingdom for the first time since 1287. They conquered the Shan States, Manipur, Chinese Shan States, Siam, and Lan Xang, assembling an empire described as probably the largest in Southeast Asian history by the mid-16th century.
Phase II: Zenith
At its zenith under Bayinnaung, the empire exercised suzerainty from Assam and Manipur to the Cambodian marches and from Arakan to Yunnan. After the First Empire's collapse, the Nyaungyan Restoration rebuilt a more stable kingdom by 1622. The Restored Toungoo kings, ruling from Ava, enacted trade and administrative reforms that sustained prosperity for over 80 years and established legal structures lasting into the 19th century.
Phase III: Decline
Following Bayinnaung's death in 1581 the empire rapidly fragmented. Though partially restored, the kingdom fell into gradual decline driven by insular palace rule. From the 1720s, Meitei raids from the Chindwin River intensified, and Chiang Mai rebelled. In 1740 the Mon people of Lower Burma founded the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom, whose armies captured Inwa in 1752, ending the 266-year Toungoo dynasty.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory