16 January 1516
Bayinnaung, the warrior king
Myanmar's archetypal warrior-king, Bayinnaung (personal name Ye Htut), was born on 16 January 1516. His polyglot empire dominated mainland Southeast Asia, integrating the Irrawaddy valley with the Tai-speaking uplands and the Chao Phraya valley to the east.
This map (from G.E. Harvey's 1925 History of Burma) shows Bayinnaung's empire at its height c. 1565 after his conquests of Siam, and the Lanna and Lanxang kingdoms; the even more cosmopolitan empire of Arakan was then a separate and significant power. What the map doesn't show is that many of the areas within the purported borders were only indirectly administered, if at all. The highlands, such as the Chin and Kachin hills, were never administered by any central authority until colonial times.
Explore more in Early Modern Myanmar and its Global Connections (1510-1824AD)