Description:
"...The present study is broken into five sections as follows. First, it looks at conflicts over the middle
Irrawaddy (1389-1411) from various perspectives with different sets of historical data, including changes in
chronicle lists of settlements; the observations of a British colonial-era gazetteer, the narrative of Kal??s Great
Chronicle and the Rajadirat epic. Previous papers (Fernquest 2006a, 2006b) have discussed in detail the larger
context of these conflicts in the Ava-Pegu War (1383-1426).
Second, it then describes the historical geography of Lower Burma and the middle Irrawaddy River
basin and draws out the implications for military power. Historically, the north-to-south orientation of the
Irrawaddy River has broken the east-to-west orientation of settlements in Lower Burma. This fragmented
geography together with the limited farming potential and difficult terrain of the Irrawaddy Delta, contributed
to an underlying localism in Lower Burma?s geography. Viewed in this context, the middle Irrawaddy River
region is a pivotal thoroughfare providing access to the delta region, Lower Burma, and food supply located
along the river. Battles over this strategically important stretch of river are a crucial turning point in the Ava-
Pegu War with food supply and adjustments in military logistics playing a crucial role in the course of the
conflicts. Apparently, because of the difficult nature of Lower Burma?s geography, the Burmans never
established a military outpost any further south than Tharrawaddy on the Irrawaddy River, before the delta
even begins.
Third, ecological patterns conditioned the long-term conduct of warfare. The regular yearly cycle of
changing climate and agriculture conditioned the way wars were fought if manpower was to be optimally
conserved. The subsistence crisis was used as an extension or weapon of war. Long-term climate patterns
may have increased the potential for these subsistence crises.
Fourth, from the underlying constraints of environment and ecology in warfare the paper passes to
the dynamics of warfare. A cycle of expansionary warfare explains how military success fueled further military
success through the accumulation of geopolitical resources such as land, food supply, and manpower. A
marchland factor also was operative in which enemies on fewer fronts aided the expansionary warfare of a
state. Eventually, imperial overstretch and logistical overload resulted in a reverse process of state contraction
in which the resources accumulated during expansionary warfare were quickly lost. Scorched earth tactics in
which local food supplies were destroyed were part of the offensive strategy of expansionary warfare, whereas
flight to the hinterland was part of the defensive response.
Finally, in the conclusion the paper re-examines the agrarian nature of the Burmese state suggesting
that general cross-cultural models of premodern agrarian states lead to richer explanations than the regionspecific
mandala or ?galactic polity? models traditionally employed in Southeast Asian history. Cross-cultural
models allow for more realistic multi-causal explanations of historical events. They also allow for the posing
and testing of a wide variety of different hypotheses and the possibility that disparate, geographically
unrelated cultures, have shared historical experiences and processes. A Bayesian approach that brings in and
VOLUME 6 (2008)
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integrates knowledge of other premodern agrarian states in the form of a priori probabilities is suggested as
one approach to crafting such a multi-threaded history of what-might-have-happened.
Taken together, the six sections of this paper demonstrate how various seemingly fictional elements
typically found in Southeast Asian historical chronicles, fictional elements often conceived of as a historical
deficit, rather provide rich details that should be conceived instead as a historical surfeit worthy of study in
and of itself..."
Source/publisher:
SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research 6, 2008
Date of Publication:
2008-12-00
Date of entry:
2009-01-27
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- Individual Documents
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Language:
English
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Format:
pdf
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1.43 MB