မြန်မာဘုရင့်တပ်မတော်

မြန်မာဘုရင့်တပ်မတော်သည် ၉ရာစုမှ ၁၉ရာစုအထိတိုင်အောင် အရှေ့တောင်အာရှတွင် အင်အားအလွန်ကြီးမား​သော တပ်မ​တော်အဖြစ်တည်ရှိခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၁၉ရာစုတွင် ဗြိတိသျှတို့သည် ကျူးကျော်စစ်သုံးကြိမ်ခင်း၍ မြန်မာဘုရင့်တပ်မတော်ကို နှစ်​ပေါင်း၆၀ကျော် ကြာအောင်တိုက်ခိုက်ဖျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။ မြန်မာဘုရင့်တပ်မတော် ဆိုသည်မှာ သရေခေတ္တယာအင်ပါယာ၊ ပုဂံအင်ပါယာ၊ တောင်ငူအင်ပါယာ၊ ညောင်ရမ်းအင်ပါယာ၊ ကုန်းဘောင်အင်ပါယာ၊ မြင်စိုင်းနိုင်ငံ၊ ပင်းယနိုင်ငံ၊ စစ်ကိုင်းနိုင်ငံ၊ အင်းဝနိုင်ငံ၊ မက္ခရာနိုင်ငံ၊ ဟံသာဝတီတိုင်းပြည်၊ သထုံတိုင်းပြည်၊ မြောက်ဦးတိုင်းပြည်၊ တိုင်ရှမ်းတိုင်းပြည်၊ လေးမြို့တိုင်းပြည် တို့၏ တပ်မတော် ကိုရည်ညွှန်းခြင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ စစ်တပ်ကို မြို့တော်နှင့် နန်းတော်ကို ကာကွယ်သည့် ထောင်ဂဏန်းရှိသော သေးငယ်သော တပ်ငယ်တစ်ခုအဖြစ် ဖွဲ့စည်းထားပြီး ပိုမိုကြီးမားသော စစ်မှုထမ်းအခြေပြု စစ်အတွင်း စစ်တပ်တစ်ခုအဖြစ် ဖွဲ့စည်းထားသည်။ စစ်မှုထမ်းစဉ်ကာလတွင် လူဦးရေအပေါ်အခြေခံ၍ ၎င်းတို့၏တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့်မှ ကြိုတင်သတ်မှတ်ထားသော လူများကို ၎င်းတို့၏တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့်ခွဲတမ်းကို ထောက်ပံ့ပေးရန် ဒေသတွင်းအကြီးအကဲများ လိုအပ်သည့် အမူထမ်း စနစ်အပေါ် အခြေခံထားသည်။ စစ်အတွင်း စစ်တပ်တွင် ဆင်တပ်၊ မြင်းတပ်၊ အမြောက်တပ် နှင့် ရေတပ်များ ပါဝင်သည်။ ၁၄ ရာစုနှောင်းပိုင်းတွင် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံမှ စတင်မိတ်ဆက်ခဲ့သော သေနတ်များသည် ရာစုနှစ်များစွာကြာမှသာ ဗျူဟာအဖြစ် တဖြည်းဖြည်း ပေါင်းစပ်လာခဲ့သည်။ ပေါ်တူဂီ ကိုက်ညီသော့ခလောက်များ(ရမ်းသေနတ်များ) နှင့် အမြောက်မြား တပ်ဆင်ထားသည့် ပထမဆုံး အထူးကျောက်တုံး(သေနတ်တပ်) နှင့် အမြောက်တပ်များကို ၁၆ ရာစုတွင် ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့သည်။ အထူးသေနတ်တပ်များအပြင်တွင်၊ မိမိကိုယ်ကို ခုခံကာကွယ်ခြင်းဆိုင်ရာ အခြေခံဗဟုသုတရှိရန် မျှော်လင့်ထားကြသော ပုံမှန်စစ်သည်များအတွက် တရားဝင်လေ့ကျင့်ရေးအစီအစဉ် မရှိပါ။ ၁၈ ရာစုတွင် ဥရောပအင်အားကြီးနိုင်ငံများကြား နည်းပညာကွာဟချက် ကျယ်ပြန့်လာသည်နှင့်အမျှ စစ်တပ်သည် ပိုမိုခေတ်မီဆန်းပြားသော လက်နက်များကို ရောင်းချရန် ဥရောပသားများ၏ ဆန္ဒအပေါ် မှီခိုနေရသည်။ စစ်တပ်သည် ဘုရင့်နိုင်ငံတော်၏ အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံများ၏ တပ်များကို ဆန့်ကျင်ဘက်ထက်ပို၍ ချုပ်ကိုင်ထားသော်လည်း နည်းပညာအရ ပိုမိုအဆင့်မြင့်သော ဥရောပစစ်တပ်များကို ဆန့်ကျင်သည့် စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်မှာ အချိန်နှင့်အမျှ ယိုယွင်းလာသည်။ ၁၇ နှင့် ၁၈ ရာစုများတွင် ပေါ်တူဂီနှင့် ပြင်သစ်ကျူးကျော်မှုများကို အသီးသီး အနိုင်ယူနိုင်ခဲ့သော်လည်း တပ်မတော်သည် ၁၉ ရာစုတွင် အင်္ဂလိပ်တို့၏ တိုးတက်မှုကို မရပ်တန့်နိုင်ဘဲ အင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာ စစ်ပွဲသုံးကြိမ်စလုံး ရှုံးနိမ့်ခဲ့သည်။ ၁၈၈၆ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် ဗမာဘုရင်စနစ်(ကုန်းဘောင်မင်းဆက်) နှင့် ၎င်း၏စစ်တပ်လက်ရုံးဖြစ်သော ဗမာ့တပ်မတော်(မြန်မာဘုရင့်တပ်မတော်) ကို ဗြိတိသျှတို့က တရားဝင် ဖျက်သိမ်းခဲ့သည်။ ယနေ့အချိန်ထိ မြန်မာတို့သည် စစ်အင်အားကို တပ်မတော်ဟု သုံးစွဲခေါ်ဝေါ် ကြသည်။ ဇစ်မြစ် Myinkhin Thabin, equestrian sport for the royalty From the 17th century onward, cavalry troops made up about 10% of a typical regiment. The men of the cavalry were drawn mainly from hereditary villages in Upper Burma. One of the core areas that provided expert horsemen since the early 14th century was Sagaing. The Sagaing Htaungthin ( ; lit. "Thousand-strong Regiment of Sagaing") cavalry regiment, founded in 1318 by King Sawyun of Sagaing, was maintained up till the fall of Burmese monarchy. The formation of the regiment consisted of nine squadrons, from each named after the hereditary village.Hardiman 1901: 67 Cavalry name Strength Tamakha Myin 150 Pyinsi Myin 150 Yudawmu Myin 150 Letywaygyi Myin 150 Letywaynge Myin 70 Kyaungthin Myin 50 Myinthegyi Myin 50 Hketlon Myin 30 Sawputoh Myin 30 Later in the 18th and 19th centuries, Manipuri horsemen formed the Cassay Horse (), the elite cavalry unit in the Burmese cavalry corps. Artillery Royal Burmese Army's soldiers and commanders in their mission to France The formal attire of the field infantry was minimalist. Ordinary foot soldiers were typically dressed only in thick quilted cotton jackets called taikpon (), even in the campaigns that required them to cross thick jungles and high mountains. Their dresses were hardly enough to keep the conscripts warm during the army's punishing, many-week-long marches. The palace guards wore more ostentatious uniforms—Bayinnaung's palace guards wore "golden helmets and splendid dresses"—and rode horses and elephants. In the First Anglo-Burmese War, a Western observer at the Burmese capital noted of the army leaving for the front: "each man was attired in a comfortable campaign jacket of black cloth, thickly wadded and quilted with cotton".Myint-U 2006: 111 Strength Army mobilization per campaign, Toungoo Empire (1530–1599) Standing army The size of the regular standing army, the Palace Guards and the Capital Defense Corps, was in low thousands only, even in wartime. Even under Bayinnaung, the much celebrated soldier king whose reign was marked by a series of constant military campaigns, the Capital Defense Corps was only about 4000 strong. In 1826, right after the First Anglo-Burmese War, a British envoy reported a capital garrison of 4000 to 5000. In peacetime, the size was even smaller. In 1795, another British envoy found 2000 troops, including about 700 palace guards, at the capital Amarapura. Wartime army The general strength of the wartime army varied greatly depending on a number of factors: the authority of the king, the population of the territories he controlled, and the season of year. Because most of the conscripts were farmers, most wars were fought during the dry season. The famous Forty Years' War was largely fought during the dry season, and armies went back to till the land during the rainy season. Only a few times in the imperial era was the decision to extend the campaign to the rainy season made, most notables being the First Anglo-Burmese War and the Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767). The maximum size of the army ultimately depended on that of the overall population from which to draw levies. During the Ava period (1364–1555), when the country was divided into several small fiefdoms, each petty state could probably have mobilized 10,000 men at most. (The Burmese chronicles routinely report numbers at least an order of magnitude higher but these numbers have been dismissed by historians.) The latter kingdoms (Toungoo and Konbaung dynasties) with larger populations certainly fielded larger armies. The crown practiced the policy of having conquered lands provide levies to his next war effort. Historian GE Harvey estimates that Bayinnaung likely raised about 70,000 men for his 1568–1569 invasion of Siam while early Konbaung kings likely raised armies of 40,000 to 60,000.Harvey 1925: 333–336 Military technology The main weaponry of the infantry largely consisted of swords, spears and bow and arrows down to the late 19th century although the use of firearms steadily increased starting from the late 14th century. The infantry units were supported by cavalry and elephantry corps. War elephants in particular were the heavily sought after as they were used to charge the enemy, trampling them and breaking their ranks. Elephantry and cavalry units were used in warfare down to the 19th century. Encounters with Burmese war elephants were recorded by the Mongols in their late 13th century invasions of Burma. Introduction of firearms Early German matchlock musket Western firearms and early modern warfare first arrived at the shores of Burma in the early 16th century by way of Portuguese mercenaries. The matchlock musket, first invented in Germany in the mid-15th century, arrived to Burma in large quantities starting in the 1530s. Cannon and matchlocks supplied by Portuguese mercenaries proved superior in accuracy, safety, ballistic weight and rapidity of fire.Dijk 2006: 34–35 Firearms became a pillar of the new imperial order. Starting with the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, foreign gun makers were encouraged to establish foundries, which were even able to export to neighboring countries. For example, some of the firearms found in Malacca when the Portuguese took it in 1511 came from gun foundries in Lower Burma.Tarling 2000: 41–42 Royal artisans produced gunpowder and matchlocks throughout the Toungoo period. Guns were also secured from China and various Tai-Shan realms. By the 17th century, mainland Southeast Asia was "fairly awash with guns of every kind". In some late 16th century campaigns, as high as 20–33 percent of the troops were equipped with muskets. In 1635, 14 to 18 percent of Burma's royal troops used firearms.Dijk 2006: 35–37 Expanding maritime trade after mid-18th century, a coincident increase in the quality of European handguns, and the frequency of warfare all contributed to increased integration of firearms. By 1824, on the eve of First Anglo-Burmese War, anywhere from 29 to 89 percent of Konbaung field armies were equipped with guns, with 60 percent a reasonable average. The cannon were also integrated to siege warfare although the Burmese like many other Southeast Asians regarded the cannon for their imposing appearance and sound than actual usefulness. By the mid-18th century, small 3-inch caliber cannon were widely used in the sieges Pegu and Ayutthaya.Tarling 2000: 49Harvey 1925: 242 However, the quality of domestically produced and Chinese firearms perpetually remained inferior to European ones. The court concentrated on procuring coastal imports, which—given the demands of campaigning and the guns' rapid deterioration in tropical conditions—became an endless task. Thus a principal responsibility of coastal governors was to procure firearms through purchases and levies on incoming ships. Royal agents also purchased guns as far afield as India and Aceh; while diplomatic approaches to Europeans typically focused on this issue. King Bodawpaya (r. 1782–1819) obliged Burmese merchants plying the Irrawaddy to supply specified quantities of foreign guns and powder in lieu of cash taxes.Lieberman 2003: 164–167 Widening technology gap with European powers A Manipuri Cassay horseman in the service of Konbaung army The army's war strategy and fighting tactics generally remained fairly constant throughout the imperial era. The infantry battalions, supported by the cavalry and elephantry, engaged the enemy in the open battlefield. The arrival of European firearms did not lead to any major changes in battle techniques or transform traditional ideas of combat. Rather, the new weapons were used to reinforce traditional ways of fighting with the dominant weaponry still the war elephants, pikes, swords and spears. In contrast to European-style drill and tactical coordination, Burmese field forces generally fought in small groups under individual leaders. Siege warfare and fortified defenses The siege warfare was a frequent feature during the small kingdoms period (14th to 16th centuries) when the small kingdoms or even vassal states maintained fortified defenses. By the 1550s, the Portuguese cannon had forced a shift from wood to brick and stone fortifications. Moreover, the Portuguese guns may have encouraged a new emphasis on inflicting casualties, rather than or in addition to taking prisoners. In the early 17th century, the Restored Toungoo kings required the vassal kings to reside at the capital for long periods, and abolished their militias and their fortified defenses. When the Dutch merchants visited Burma in the mid-17th century right after the change was instituted, they were amazed that even the major towns except the capital did not have any fortified defenses. They found that the Burmese kings distrusted the vassal states, and instead preferred to rely on the country's numerous toll stations and watchtowers from where messengers could be rushed to the capital. Despite the royal prohibition, the fortifications returned to the scene during the Burmese civil war of the 1750s, which featured a series of sieges by both sides. In the 19th century, forts along the Irrawaddy was a major part of Burmese strategy to defend against a potential British invasion. In practice, however, they did little to withstand British firepower. Scorched earth tactics Ruins at Ayutthaya as a result of the 1767 sack of the city by the army A major strategy of the army was the use of scorched earth tactics, mainly in times of retreat but also in times of advance. They would burn and destroy everything in sight that could be of use to the enemy, crops and infrastructure (wells, bridges, etc.). At times, the entire region at the border was destroyed and depopulated to create a buffer zone. For example, in 1527, King Mingyinyo depopulated and destroyed the infrastructure of the entire Kyaukse–Taungdwingyi corridor between Ava (Inwa) and his capital Toungoo (Taungoo).Harvey 1925: 124–125 Likewise, the Burmese had left the entire Chiang Mai region depopulated and its infrastructure destroyed in the wake of their 1775–1776 war with Siam. The army also used scorched earth tactics as a means to intimidate the enemy and to secure easier future victories. The ruthless sacks of Martaban in 1541 and Prome in 1542 served to secure the fealty of Lower Burma to the upstart regime of Tabinshwehti of Toungoo. Threatened by Bayinnaung's army of a sack of their capital Ayutthaya, the Siamese duly surrendered in 1564. When the Siamese changed their mind in 1568, the city was brutally sacked in 1569. Two hundred years later, the army's brutal sack of Pegu in 1757 secured the subsequent tribute missions of Chiang Mai, Martaban and Tavoy to Alaungpaya's court.See Phayre and Harvey on aforementioned wars. Indeed, the brutal 1767 sack of Ayutthaya has been in a major sore point in the Burmese-Thai relations to the present day.Seekins 2006: 441 Use of firearms Though firearms had been introduced since the late 14th century, they became integrated into strategy only gradually over many centuries. At first, Burmese shared with other Southeast Asians a tendency to regard guns of imposing appearance as a source of spiritual power, regardless of how well they functioned. A motley assortment of local manufactures, Muslim imports, and French and English rejects defied standardized supply or training. In sharp contrast to Europe, cannon were rarely used for frontal assaults on stone fortifications. Firearms became both more common and more closely integrated into strategy from the 16th century onward when the army began to incorporate special units of gunners. Alongside Portuguese mercenaries, who formed the army's elite musketeer and artillery corps, indigenous infantry and elephant units also began using guns. By the mid-17th century, expensive foreign mercenaries had been replaced by local hereditary ahmudan corps, most of whom were descended from the foreign gunners of the previous generations. Late Toungoo and Konbaung tactics reflected the growing availability and effectiveness of firearms in three spheres: In controlling the Irrawaddy, teak war-boats carrying up to 30 musketeers and armed with 6- or 12-pounder cannon dominated more conventional craft; During urban sieges, cannon mounted atop wooden platforms cleared defenders from the walls and shielded infantry attacks Particularly in jungle or hill terrain, Burmese infantry learned to use small arms to cover the building of stockades, which were then defended by firepower massed within. Battlefield performance The Royal Burmese Army was a major Southeast Asian armed force between the 11th and 13th centuries and between 16th and 19th centuries. It was the premier military force in the 16th century when Toungoo kings built the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia.Lieberman 2003: 152 In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the army had helped build the largest empire in mainland Southeast Asia on the back of a series of impressive military victories in the previous 70 years.Liberman 2003: 32Myint-U 2006: 107–127 They then ran into the British in present-day northeast India. The army was defeated in all three Anglo-Burmese wars over a six-decade span (1824–1885). Against Asian neighbors Even without counting its sub-par performance against European powers, the army's performance throughout history was uneven. As the main fighting force consisted of poorly trained conscripts, the performance of the army therefore greatly depended on the leadership of experienced commanders. Under poor leadership, the army could not even stop frequent Manipuri raids that terrorized northwest Burma between the 1720s and 1750s. Under good leadership, the same peasant army not only defeated Manipur (1758) but also defeated arch-rival Siam (1767) as well as much larger China (1765–1769). (A similar shift in performance too was seen in Siam. The same Siamese conscript army, having defeated in the two wars in the 1760s by the Burmese, changed its fortunes under good leadership. It stopped the Burmese in the following two decades, and built an empire by swallowing up parts of Laos and Cambodia.) Even under good military leadership, the army's continued success was not assured because of its heavy reliance on conscript manpower. This reliance had several major weaknesses. First, the size of population was often too small to support the conqueror kings' wartime ambitions. With the size of population even under Toungoo and Konbaung empires only about 2 million, continual warfare was made possible only by gaining more territories and people for the next campaign. The strategy proved unsustainable in the long run both with Toungoo dynasty in the 1580s and 1590s and the Konbaung Dynasty in the 1770s and 1780s. The long running wars of the 16th and 18th centuries greatly depopulated the Irrawaddy valley, and correspondingly reduced their later kings' ability to project power in lands most conscripts had never even heard of. The populace welcomed breaks from warfare such as during the reign of King Thalun (r. 1629–1648) or that of King Singu (r. 1776–1782).Harvey 1925: 246, 262 Secondly, the army never effectively solved the problems of transporting and feeding large armies, especially for the long-distance campaigns. Badly planned campaigns saw many conscripts perished even before a single shot was fired.Harvey 1925: 272–273 Indeed, the ability to get supplies to the front was one of the most important factors in Burma's centuries long wars with Siam in which each side's sphere of influence was largely determined by the distance and the number of days supplies could be shipped to the front. Nonetheless, as history clearly shows, the army held more than its own against the armies of the kingdom's neighbors, all of which also faced the same problems to a similar degree. But facing head-on against more technologically advanced European forces would lead to the army's eventual end. Against European powers |The arrival of British forces in Mandalay on 28 November 1885, Third Anglo-Burmese War The Royal Burmese Army's performance vis-a-vis European forces grew worse as the technology gap grew wider. The fight against European forces was already a challenge even in the relatively low-tech matchlock era. The Burmese victory at Syriam in 1613, which drove out the Portuguese from Burma for good, came after a month's siege.Myint-U 2006: 79 In the flintlock era, mid-18th century, a French-defended Syriam (led by just a few hundred French troops) held out for 14 months before finally captured by Alaungpaya's forces in 1756.Myint-U 2006: 94–97 Likewise, the Burmese put up the best fight in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826), the longest and most expensive war in British Indian history. The campaign cost the British five million to 13 million pounds sterling (roughly 18.5 billion to 48 billion in 2006 US dollars), and 15,000 men.Myint-U 2006: 113 and Hall 1960: Chapter XII, 43 But for the Burmese, it was the beginning of the end of their independence. Not only did they lose their entire western and southern territories by the Treaty of Yandabo, a whole generation of men had been wiped out on the battlefield. After 30 years of growing technology gap, the outcome of Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852) was never in doubt. Lower Burma was lost. Another three decades later, the Third Anglo-Burmese War (1885) lasted less than a month. The entire country was gone. The end After the third and final war, on 1 January 1886, the British formally abolished the millennium old Burmese monarchy and its military arm, the Royal Burmese Army. One month later, in February 1886, the former kingdom was administered as a mere province of the British Raj. (Burma would become a separate colony only in 1937.)Htin Aung 1967: 334 Burmese resistance went on not only in the lowland Irrawaddy valley but also in the surrounding hill regions for another 10 years until 1896. In a divide-and-rule maneuver, the British enforced their rule in the province of Burma mainly with Indian troops later joined by indigenous military units of three select ethnic minorities: the Karen, the Kachin and the Chin. The Burmans, "the people who had actually conquered by fire and sword half the Southeast Asian mainland", were not allowed to enter military service.Myint-U 2006: 195 (The British temporarily lifted the ban during World War I, raising a Burman battalion and seven Burman companies which served in Egypt, France and Mesopotamia. But after the war, the Burman troops were gradually discharged—most of the Burman companies were discharged between 1923 and 1925 and the last Burman company in 1929.)Hack, Retig 2006: 186 The British used Indian and ethnic minority dominated troops to ruthlessly put down ethnic majority dominated rebellions such as Saya San's peasant rebellion in 1930–1931. The divide-and-rule policies would lead to long-term negative tensions among the country's ethnic groups. In particular, the policies are said to have rankled deeply in the Burman imagination, "eating away at their sense of pride, and turning the idea of a Burmese army into a central element of the nationalist dream." On 1 April 1937, when Burma was made a separate colony, the Burmans were allowed to join the British Burma Army, which used to be the 20th Burma Rifles of the British Indian Army. (To be sure, only the British could still be officers.) At any rate, few Burmans bothered to join. Before World War II began, the British Burma Army consisted of Karen (27.8%), Chin (22.6%), Kachin (22.9%), and Burman 12.3%, without counting their British officer corps.Steinberg 2009: 29 The emergence of a nationalist anti-colonialist Japan-backed Burman-dominated army in the 1940s in turn alarmed the ethnic minorities, especially the Karen. Since independence in 1948, the Myanmar Armed Forces, still called the Tatmadaw in Burmese in honor of the army of old. But unlike the Royal Burmese Army, in which minorities played a significant role throughout history, the modern Tatmadaw has been heavily dominated by Burmans. The modern Tatmadaw has been fighting one of the world's longest running civil wars ever since. မှတ်ချက်များ ကိုးကားချက် ကဏ္ဍ:မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ စစ်သမိုင်း ကဏ္ဍ:မြန်မာသက်ဦးဆံပိုင်ဘုရင်စနစ်