[2] However, King Bodawpaya of Burma, aiming to keep the Tenasserim Coast in Burmese control, sent his son Prince Thado Minsaw to counter Siamese offensives.

A seventeenth-century account stated that the inhabitants of Mergui were "Burmese, Siamese, Chinese, Indian, Malay and European".

The Mon rebellions in the eighteenth century toppled[1] the Burmese Toungoo dynasty and established the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom.

The Burmese recovered themselves under the Konbaung dynasty who ended[1] the Hanthawaddy Kingdom and realized the importance of keeping Lower Burma and the Tenasserim Coast under control to prevent further Mon rebellions.

The Burmese Konbaung dynasty suppressed[6] the Mon people who, in great number, took refuge on the Tenasserim Coast and in Siam.

Nemyo Kyawdin the governor of Tavoy (personal name Nga Myat Pyu,[8] known as Myinzaingza in Thai sources), who had successfully defended the town from the invading Siamese, wished for himself to be appointed to the governorship of Martaban.

Nemyo Kyawdin wrote a letter inscribed on a gold plate to King Rama I to submit to Siam in March 1792.

King Rama I and his younger brother Prince Maha Sura Singhanat also marched to Khwae Noi River, Kanchanaburi.

From Khwae Noi River, Prince Maha Sura Singhanat marched to Tavoy while the king stayed at Kanchanaburi.

[2] A Siamese man named Ma informed the prince that Nemyo Kyawdin was going to defect back to the Burmese side.

[2] The royal plan was to enter Lower Burma with both land and navy forces simultaneously; Upon learning of defection of Nemyo Kyawdin to Siam, King Bodawpaya assigned his son and heir Prince Thado Minsaw the Uparaja to lead the campaigns to reclaim the Tenasserim Coast.

Prince Thado Minsaw led the armies of 14,000 men together with his Sitkes Wunyi Maha Zeyathura and Nemyo Kyawdin Thihathu,[8] leaving Amarapura in June 1792.

Wunyi Maha Zeyathura and Nemyo Kyawdin Thihathu asked the prince to wait in Rangoon until the rainy season finished.

However, the prince, fearing that the Siamese would use Tavoy as the base to invade Lower Burma, decided to continue the campaigns.

With 10,000 men, Nemyo Gonna Kyawthu met the Siamese fleet at the mouth of Tavoy River and defeated it.

Nemyo Kyawdin Thihathu sent a force to cross the river to gain a foothold on southeastern side of Tavoy but was opposed by Phraya Kanchanaburi, who was shot in battle.

The stalemate was reached as the Burmese secured western and northern suburbs of Tavoy, while the Siamese retained southern and eastern lands.

[2][8] In December 1793, seven Tavoyans[8] contacted Nemyo Kyawdin Thihathu the commander to invite the Burmese to cooperatively storm the town.

Upon learning of Tavoyan dissatisfactions towards the Siamese, Nemyo Kyawdin Thihathu ordered that all Burmese forces should enter the Tavoy town in that night.

After taking Tavoy, Burmese and Tavoyan forces stormed the Siamese regiments at eastern suburbs, all of which were defeated and retreated.

The three Siamese generals reached the camps of Phraya Aphai Ronnarit who was commanding the royal vanguard of King Rama I.

[2] The three generals and the rest of retreating Siamese then fought the outnumbering Burmese in front of the camps of Aphai Ronnarit.

King Rama I angered that the inappropriate actions of Aphai Ronnarit had caused the death of Chao Phraya Mahasena Pli, who was the Samuha Kalahom or the Prime Minister of Southern Siam.

He inflicted the cannonballs on the city of Mergui so intensely that the Burmese defensive forces had to dig holes for shelter.

Prince Maha Sura Singhanat at Kraburi received the news that the Siamese had been defeated at Tavoy and the king had ordered the general retreat.

In the 1820s, during the First Anglo-Burmese War, King Rama III sent another military expedition to the Tenasserim Coast, capturing Mergui and forcibly relocating its inhabitants.

[10] In the aftermath of the war, the Burmese-controlled portion of the Tenasserim Coast was seceded to Britain, which it would control until 1948, when it was transferred to a newly independent Myanmar.