Chapter 10b - Maha Chakkrap'at (fl1553-fl1564)
Distant Thunder
The mysterious 'Anglia' (or 'England' as its natives referred to it in their own bizarre language) appeared to be an interesting place to live. Late in 1553, Ayutthayans in Jaffna reported that the 'King' of England had made peace with the Creek and instead declared war on their neighbours, the equally mysterious 'Cherokee'. Shortly thereafter news came that the King himself was dead, and his family, nobles and Court were engaged in a succession dispute. This was simple enough, but it also appeared that this dispute had somehow caused England to revolt against Northumberland. On hearing this, Maha Chakkrap'at ordered the banishment of several diplomats, scholars and interpreters who had informed him that Northumberland was a province of England instead of, as it now appeared, vice versa.
Shortly thereafter, it was reported that England was being governed by a eunuch called 'Mary', under the overlordship of the King of Spain (1). Nothing more was heard of the nation of Northumberland, so the rebellion was presumed successful. The chief domestic policy of the new ruler(s) of England (curiously, English residents in Jaffna reacted with anger to suggestions that they should now be called Spainish) was to change the State religion to a new version which was completely different from - and in fact opposed to - the old practice despite being (as far as Ayutthayan scholars could determine) exactly the same. The scholars decided unanimously that these developments were too distant and unimportant to be reported to the King.
Domestic Interlude
The King had other things on his mind at the time. In the spring of 1554, he eagerly offered men and money to an exiled cousin of the Sultan of Brunei, who promised to return the gift tenfold when he had attained his throne (2). Even before the prince's disappearance that summer, the King had lost interest, devoting himself to the internal administration of Ayutthaya, which he described as 'archaic'. Declaring 'let a dozen schools of thought contend' (3) the King solicited advice from officials, nobles and merchants alike and promised the major reforms would be instituted 'before New Year'.
New year, however, brought news of Gresham's currency reforms in England. Declaring that 'even the barbarians recognise the wisdom of my project', Maha Chakkrap'at send a special ambassador to England to bring him a full report. The report never arrived, the King never noticed.
The Thunder Draws Nearer
There was trouble in lands much closer than England. In the spring of 1553, the Sultan of Brunei, having twice captured the province of Surabaja only to be driven out by local peasant uprisings, had finally contented himself with extracting an indemnity from the Raja of Mataram. Peace however, did not return the province to tranquillity. The rebellious peasants remained in arms, and the Raja's enfeebled forces appeared helpless to suppress them. Late in 1554, an army of them crossed into Ayutthayan territory in Bandung province and laid siege to the capital.
Maha Chakkrap'at's response was immediate - a powerful expeditionary force was dispatched to Bandung immediately. The King may have been inspired in this by his Imperial role-model who, faced with a swarm of pirates besieging Nanjing, had also chosen to respond with strength. Sadly, the King's efforts met with less success than the Emperor's. In March 1555, his 'New Model Army' was badly beaten by the insurgents in Bandung and force to withdraw to Jakarta. Shortly afterwards the Muslims of Malacca, roused by reports that the Javan uprisings would result in Hindus being granted rights equal to Muslims, rose in revolt (4). The army had to be hastily returned home to deal with them. Only in the last month of the year was the New Model Army free to return to Java. Again it was defeated.
Foreign Adventures
Nasser's reports of rich, unorganised territories along the Indian coast had not gone unnoticed by the merchant Guilds. Trading missions were dispatched west in 1555, and the beginning of 1556 saw the first Ayutthayan trading posts established in India, in Palakimedi and Trivandrum.
Alas, the merchants had not taken into account the likely response from the Hindu states. Within weeks of the traders' arrival, the Mararaja of Orissa declared war against 'Ayutthayan encroachment' and despite the Guilds' attempts to finance an expeditionary force (5), the fledgling settlements were quickly destroyed by the forces of Orissa's ally, the nation of Vijaynagar (6).
The New Model Army was otherwise occupied, being defeated again in Bandung in March. Only in August were the last insurgents destroyed or driven back into Surabaja, and by then the ashes of the Indian trade posts had already cooled. The Army sailed wast instead, to pacify the turbulent natives of Mindoro.
The Mindoro campaign opened in traditional fashion, with a heavy defeat for the New Model Army at the hands of the uncivilised tribesmen. According to official records, a full five thousand Ayutthayans perished in the jungles of Mindoro. However these same archives record a major population boom in Luzon province the same year (7), so it is possible the reduction of the army was due as much to desertion as defeat.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the rump of the army managed to pacify the province at the second attempt in the summer of of 1557, and despite many difficulties, a secure permanent settlement was established late in the next year, at the same time as a formal peace was made with Orissa..
Trade Booms
The ability of Ayutthaya to support ever-wider colonial expansion and military deployments was underwritten by a general improvement in trade in the 1550s. Ayutthayan merchants had steadily re-established their dominance of the markets of Shanghai and Kansai, and contact with the English not only opened new markets but also encouraged new developments in finance and trade practices (8). Maha Chakkrap'at, obsessed with his army, barely noticed, but the advance of the Merchant Guilds proved crucial to the events that followed.
In mid-1557, the Emperor of China, in move worthy of Maha Chakkrap'at himself, abruptly chose to grant trading rights - indeed an entire trading city, to the Europeans. Given the paucity of Europeans in the area, and their apparent lack of interest in sailing beyond India, it can only be concluded that this was an attempt to open China to the world (9), and to cut Ayutthaya out of its effective monopoly of the English trade. Such an interpretation is reinforced by the Emperor's decision to grant this concession not to the English but to a totally different European nation, Portugal. Portugal, the homeland of the the preacher Xavier, was said to be a great trading nation, but neither her ships nor her traders had been seen in Shanghai or Malacca.
Whatever the Emperor's intention, it was Ayutthaya that profited most. The Kingdom's merchants flooded the new trading centres, installing themselves as middlemen between the Chinese and the Europeans (10). It is a measure of Ayutthaya's newfound wealth and prestige that in 1558, the inhabitants of Surabaja chose to subordinate themselve to the Elephant Throne rather than return to the misgovernment of the Raja of Mataram. Late in the year, the recognition of the island of Ceram as a province in its own right rounded off what was known simply as the Great Year (11).
The Surabaja Affair
The transition of Surabaja to Ayutthayan rule did not go unnoticed in China. The Emperor claimed overlordship over the whole of Mataram, and insisted by letter that the people of Surabaja had no right to leave his vassalage. Maha Chakkrap'at, pleased with the expansion of his realm - which he had celebrated by extending tolerance to Hindus, as the Malaccans had feared - responded sharply, and denied any Chinese claim on Java. It is said that the decline in relations between the Elephant King and the Dragon Emperor dates from this event (12).
A Time of Waiting
The next few years followed a pattern - stability at home, economic expansion, turbulence beyond the borders. Makassar and Atjeh had declared war on Mataram during the Surabaja affair in 1558 and steadily pressed their advantage, invading Bali itself in 1560.
Meanwhile Ayutthaya's domestic economy continued to prosper (13), with the general approval of Maha Chakkrap'at, though the King showed more interest in the establishment of a permanent military infrastructure in Java (14). Ignoring widespread local opposition to his edicts (15), he re-equipped the army in 1561 (16), and reformed the navy two years later (17). So immersed in technicalities did he become that he was widely hailed abroad (18) as the 'Peaceful King', an epithet of which he remained unaware.
Peace was something sadly absent among Ayutthaya's neighbours and trading partners. The Sultan of Brunei, with Chinese support, declared war on Champa late in 1561, a few months before Atjeh announced the annexation of Mataram (19). Meanwhile, in Europe, England declared war on the Shawnee in 1559 and Portugal on Zimbabwe in 1561. Both wars ended early in 1563, at which point the English, now ruled by a new eunuch (or woman?) named Elizabeth (and not subject to the King of Spain), announced that they were changing their religion again, to a new and equally incomprehensible version of their previous belief (or perhaps the same one) (20). Not to be outdone, the Portuguese announced
their allegiance to the King of Spain, in his wars with Siena, Bavaria, Cologne and a mysterious tribe called the 'Palatinate'. More pragmatically, the Chinese Empire, under the direction of Qi Jiguang, insituted major army reforms in the summer of 1563, perhaps in imitation of Maha Chakkrap'at.
Despite all this, Ayutthaya's trade continued to blossom. Peace brought the traders back to Palakimedi by 1562, and new posts were set up in Pondicherry, and in Madurai the next year, while commerce with the English (of whatever religion) grew apace.
The Storm Breaks
Perhaps it was this impression of Ayutthaya's strength that lead Maha Chakkrap'at to follow the course he did. He had been greatly offended by the Emperor's support of Brunei's attack on his vassal, Champa, back in 1561, though his advisors had, with difficulty, persuaded him to stay his hand. Now he saw a way to repay the insult.
Mataram, annexed by Atjeh two years earlier, had technically been an Imperial vassal, though the Emperor had shown no interest in its demise. Maha Chakkrap'at saw occupied Bali as an opportunity to assert his authority over part of the Emperor's sphere of influence, just as the Emperor had impinged on his in Champa. On New Year's Day 1564, Maha Chakkrap'at summoned his generals. Styling himself protector of the Indonensian Hindus, he issued a declaration of war on Atjeh and its ally, Makassar (21).
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Notes
(1) Unfortunately for the scholars, Ayutthaya has contacted England at one of its most 'interesting' historical periods. Mary is now Queen and the state religion is now Catholic.
(2) Supported Dissidents in Brunei, May 1554.
(3) +1 Innovativeness (now Innovative 3).
(4) Heretics event, Malacca, March 1555
(5) Gift to State, 200 ducats, April 1556
(6) The Orissan DOW gave me contact with Vijaynagar, so the TPs weren't a total loss.
(7) New Land Cleared in Luzon, April 1557 (+2,000 population, +1 Tax, +1 Manpower).
(8) After a mere 79 years of research,
I reached Trade 3! All research now went to Land Tech - I was getting tired of losing to natives & rebels.
(9) Ok, the event is
called ' The Closing of China'. Given the lack of European competition, however...
(10) No-one seem very interested in the new Guangzhou CoT, so I quickly secured a monopoly. Plus, of course, the event gave me contact with Portugal and knowledge of Tago
(11) Exceptional Year in 1558
(12) What actually happened was that I had to raise Hindu tolerence for Surabaja (I'd have given it back to Mataram if I could, but that wasn't an option). This meant I had to reduce Konfucian tolerance to zero. Relations with China quickly followed it down.
(13) Internal Trade Ordinance in kwai, May 1559 (+1 Tax).
(14) Establish Cantonments in Jakarta, Jan 1560 (+1 Manpower).
(15) Non-Enforcement of Ordinances, May 1561. -1 Centralisation, now Centralisation 2.
(16) Reached Land Tech 3, October 1561.
(17) Reform of the Navy, January 1563 (+250 Naval Investment).
(18) Great Reputation, April 1562
(19) Gnash! Leave the one-province minors alone, can't you!
(20) England was Protestant again.
(21) I
knew this was a bad idea, particularly as Atjeh and Makassar both had 30,000-strong armies sitting in their capitals. I delayed as long as I could, hoping Bali would revolt. In the end, however, I just couldn't pass up the chance to squelch two of my biggest trading rivals without China getting involved.
Machiavellian - Thank-you
All compliments gratefully received. As for the Wild Elephant - he's done OK so far, but give him time...
Director - The loan wasn't a major problem - it was the stability hit and the slider shift to Land I could really do without.
As for bribing China - have you seen what it
costs? The colonial effort still has some way to go, though.
jwolf -
The King and I? Nice idea, but a bit out of the time period - maybe it'll be in Victoria?
The explorer managed three or four voyages to India, actually (he lasted five years out of twelve). Apart from England (didn't think of asking), the only ports I knew of in India belonged to Orissa (-190 relations). As for colonising India, all the coastal provinces have the natives (big, scary) intact, and a troop convoy there would take
serious attrition. I did try TPs, though.
Radagast - Sadly, I don't know everyone England knows - or rather I know of them (I can read England's diplomacy screen) but I don't have diplomatic contact. As far as diplomatic contact goes, I know China, Nippon, Cambodia, Champa, Brunei, Makassar, Atjeh, Pegu, Arakan, Tibet, Chagatai, Orissa, Vijaynagar, Bengal, Delhi, England & Portugal = 17 total.