The charges need to be balanced with the fact that Alaungpaya was merely reacting to what historian Victor Lieberman calls "dismally self-defeating" policy of ethnic polarization of the Restored Hanthawaddy. It was the self-professed Mon kingdom that first attacked his homeland in 1752 and had begun persecutions and pogroms against Bamars in the south since 1740. The upstart southern kingdom had portrayed itself "as a quintessentially Mon kingdom, ordained by prophecy, wherein Mon language and cultural symbols would enjoy pride of place, and the Burman north would become a tributary". About 8,000 Bamars were massacred in 1740 alone. After executing scores of Avan captives in 1754, the Hanthawaddy leadership obliged all Bamars to wear an earring with the stamp of the Bago heir-apparent and to cut their hair in Mon fashion as a sign of loyalty to the southern kingdom.Lieberman 2003: 204–205 Moreover, while Alaungpaya was merciless in his sacks of Thanlyin and Bago where the moats "ran red with gore", elsewhere he reappointed Mon governors who submitted.
