Kangleipak's early kings consolidated power by absorbing the hill principalities around the Imphal Valley, then turned outward. In 1443, King Ningthoukhomba raided Akla -- present-day Tamu in Myanmar -- initiating Manipuri claims to the neighboring Kabaw Valley that would echo across centuries. By around 1630, Chinese merchants had taught the kingdom the art of making gunpowder, and within a century Manipuri artisans were producing their own rockets, called Meikappi. This was no isolated backwater. The kingdom sat at the junction of Indian, Burmese, and Chinese trade routes, and it absorbed influences from all three while maintaining a fiercely distinct identity. In 1714, King Pamheiba adopted Gaudiya Vaishnavism as the state religion, replacing the indigenous Meitei faith, and in 1724 he renamed the kingdom Manipur -- after Manipura of the Mahabharata -- anchoring it to the Sanskrit literary tradition.

Manipur's independence crumbled gradually under pressure from both east and west. After the death of King Garib Niwaj in 1751, the Kingdom of Burma occupied Manipur, and King Bhagyachandra appealed for help -- first to the British, who refused, then to the Ahom king Rajeswar Singha, who sent 40,000 troops to free the kingdom. A treaty of alliance was negotiated in 1762, but the military support proved temporary. When the First Anglo-Burmese War erupted in 1824, exiled prince Gambhir Singh allied with the British, who provided sepoys and artillery to train a Manipuri levy. Together they expelled the Burmese, but the price was protectorate status. The British established a residency in Imphal in 1835, and the Kabaw Valley -- hard-won by Gambhir Singh -- was returned to Burma over Manipuri objections. The compensation: 500 Sicca Rupees per month.

The relationship between Manipur and its British protectors detonated on 24 March 1891. When the British attempted to arrest Tikendrajit, the kingdom's military commander, the Residency was attacked. Chief Commissioner J.W. Quinton and several British officials were killed. Ethel St Clair Grimwood, the Resident's widow, led a desperate retreat of surviving sepoys to Cachar and was later celebrated as a hero in the British press. The empire's response was overwhelming: a 5,000-strong punitive expedition entered Manipur from three directions. After skirmishes with a Manipuri army of 3,000, the kingdom fell. Tikendrajit was hanged. King Kulachandra Singh was shipped to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands. A five-year-old boy, Churachandra, was placed on the throne to rule in name only.

During World War II, Manipur became a battleground. Between March and July 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army occupied parts of the state, shelling the capital Imphal on 10 May. The Battle of Imphal -- known locally as Japan Laan -- proved a turning point for the Allied campaign in Southeast Asia, though it remains among the war's lesser-known engagements. Independence from Britain in 1947 briefly restored Manipur's autonomy. The Manipur State Constitution Act of 1947 established an elected assembly and an appointed prime minister. But the new India was consolidating its princely states. On 21 September 1949, Maharaja Bodhachandra Singh signed a merger agreement with India -- an act his supporters maintain was done under duress, without consulting his people or the popular ministry. Manipur became a Part C state, its assembly dissolved, its centuries of sovereignty reduced to a line in a constitutional schedule.