The military revolution in China gave the Ming army an initial advantage in its wars in Southeast Asia, but that advantage was quickly lost as guns spread to its neighbors in that region. Ming armies conquered and controlled Đại Việt from 1407 to 1427, and Đại Việt absorbed much of the Ming's military technology. Once they were sufficiently capable with guns, they were able to defeat the Ming forces and drive them out of their country. Đại Việt then expanded its own territory using left-over Ming guns, and their own reproductions of them. The Maw Shans and Lan Na benefited similarly from contact with the Ming, through either conflict or trade, and extensively adopted guns. The northern part of Southeast Asia was thus familiar with guns more than a century before European contact became regular and sustained. Indeed, some early European travelers were favorably impressed with several Southeast Asian troops' facility with muskets, particularly those of Đại Việt.

Maritime Southeast Asia was also acquainted with guns, but they were not widely used. It is unclear why this was the case, but their contact with the Ming was much more limited in scale than that of the mainland Southeast Asian kingdoms, and their limited access to the necessary resources may well have handicapped them. As in all the other Asian polities, Southeast Asians were quite familiar with guns long before Europeans arrived, and exploited their military potential to the extent that they could.