The Great Wall of China stretches about 5,500 miles long crossing deserts, mountains, grasslands, and plateaus. It took more than 2,000 years to build this incredible manmade structure. Many people died to build this wall. It displays the changes between the agricultural and nomadic civilizations. It proves that the superb structure was very important to military defense. It became a national symbol of the Chinese as a security for their country and its people. The Great Wall of China must be preserved at all cost because it is a historical symbol that made it possible for China and other nations across the world to prosper (UNESCO World Heritage Centre: The Great Wall).
The Great Wall of China served as a foundation for prosperity in China to advance to its fullest potential. It was first built on the order of the first emperor, Ch'in Shih-Huang (221-201 B.C.) who was believed to be the first to unify China. The next subsequently dynasties added on to the wall. This leads to the thought of why did some dynasties participate to the contribution of expanding the wall, while some dynasties did not. According to Arthur Waldron, in his book: The Great Wall of China from History to Myth. Waldron explained in chapter one that “each dynasty had to define for itself where its political sway would end.” China was not merely just a culture that transformed into a nation because of the outputs of The Great Wall of China. A few of the many important factors that makes The Great Wall of China notably important is the geography of its strategy, the rise and falls of dynasties, changes of politics and military policies in the sixteenth century, and the problem of compromising with outsiders to build a foreign policy. Changes of politics and mil...
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...laborers available only in China at that time (China Travel Guide: Culture of the Silk Road).
Works Cited
"The Great Wall." UNESCO World Heritage Centre. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
Liu, Xinru. The Silk Road in World History. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Richardson, Adele. "Ancient Wonders of the World." The Great Wall of China. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 2004. 20. Google Books. Web. 24 Oct. 2013
Sterling, Brent L. "The Ming Great Wall of China: A Dynasty’s Unending Pursuit of Security."Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?: What History Teaches Us about Strategic Barriers and International Security. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown UP, 2009. 121+. Hawai'i Voyager. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
Waldron, Arthur. The Great Wall of China From History to Myth. New Youk: Cambridge UP, 1990. Print.
“Culture of the Silk Road”. China Travel Guide, 1998. Web. 24 Oct. 2013
Discovered in 1974 a group of farmers digging wells near Xi'an, China stumbled upon the tomb of Qin Shi Huang which is located 22 miles east of Xian Shi Huangdi. (259 BC - 210 BC), the first emperor of China, inherited the throne at the age of 13, when construction of his tomb began. He was responsible for several immense construction projects built by his people, including the Great Wall of China. The laborers came from three groups of people, craftsmen, prisoners and people who were repaying a debt. Sima Qian, a great historian who wrote in early Han dynasty, offered archeologists great insight on the mausoleum's construction. We learned from him that the tomb is huge. Moreover, booby traps with automatic-shooting arrows and crossbow booby traps were
The founder of the Qin dynasty was Qin Shi Huangdi, a title meaning “First Emperor.” He was a brutal ruler, but he brought about many changes. However, in addition to all the new, some old ideas were continued from the Zhou, such as the emphasis on the wheat and rice staple foods, and the philosophies, Confucianism and Daoism. The old continuities tended to have been deeply embraced by China, and, just as the Zhou did, the Qin would create some ideas that lasted, and some that did not. Qin Shi Huangdi enforced a tough autocratic rule and, as a result, opposed formal culture that could make people counter his rule. This meant that he burned many books and attacked Confucian ideas in order to keep the people from generating rebellious ideas. When the Qin dynasty fell, so too did the opposition towards education, because it took away from the civilization culturally. Despite the fact that the Qin dynasty was very short and had little time to fully develop its systems and ideas, it did pump out a vast quantity of new and lasting concepts, such as the Great Wall and a central government. One of the biggest contenders for the most well-known feature of the Qin dynasty is the Great Wall. This architectural masterpiece extends over 3,000 miles, and was mainly a
Building the wall was very dangerous. The would hire Han soldiers to work on the wall for two to five years. If people died while building the wall the would be bury them in the wall. The Qin worked on the Great Wall for ten years, they used a lot of laborers. They worked 7 day a week and had little food.
Around 220 CE the Han dynasty that rules China starts many attacks on the northern nomads. The Han have conquered and received new territories. Then repairs and builds about 10,000 kilometers of walls. This is the first time the Chinese are extending far west through the Gobi Desert. The Great Wall then takes on a new role which is protecting the Silk Road trade routes that connect China and the West.
Have you ever wondered why both the Panama Canal and the Great Wall of China are such iconic land marks for the countries they are in? It’s because of the magnitude of effort that took to create such massive structures. Hard work, blood, tears, sweat and certainly patience played part in the creation of such marvels. However the purpose behind each structure and the challenges builders faced during their construction is what truly sets them apart.
As in terms of economics, China grew prosperous through trade, military expansion, invention of tools and other means of convenience and through the market economy. From the Han Dynasty China began to build again. The Sui Dynasty constructed the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal was an artificial canal that extended 1,240 miles. It enabled merchants and farmers to travel by water, selling an abundance of rice and other crops. This canal was extremely expensive but throughout the years paid itself off by providing travel routes north and south of China. The Sui Dynasty also built palaces, granarie...
The Chinese empire had once been one of the greatest and most powerful empires in the world. Before the 19th century, China had a large population and was ruled by families or dynasties. It was considered technologically advanced as China had a history of many miraculous inventions, such as: writing, magnetic compasses, movable sails, porcelain, abacus and paper money. Although China was isolated from the rest of the world, it coped well on its own, and saw no need to begin trading with the west, (as Lord McCartney proposed in 1793), since it was a self-sufficient nation. At that particular time, the Chinese empire was still able to exclude the ‘barbarians’, thus forcing them to only trade at one port. However, China soon took a turn for the worst as important ...
China was without a doubt one of the most innovative countries by reason of their many advances made throughout the Shang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Numerous accomplishments were archived by this empire. Their form of government was based on Dynasties, which are series of rulers from the same family. Different dynasties brought out different successes, such as the famous Great wall, which was a 13,170 miles fortress built around around 206 A.C. by millions of people. This structure was ordered to build by China’s first emperor, Qin, in the interest of protecting the Empire from invaders. Another extraordinary Chinese invention was paper. This universal utensil was created in the 2nd century B.C. by Cai Lun. The creating of this material
Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1986.
(www.discovery.com) By extending the Great Wall they opened China up to great expansion of trade. Trade of ideas, knowledge, and physical goods.
The Great Wall of China, one of the world’s eight wonders, is one of the most famous feats of human architecture in the history of the world. This ancient marvel is not only a great spectacle, but is also significant in the shaping and molding of the China everyone knows today. The Great Wall of China allowed China to possess some of the longest lived governmental structures in the world by providing a means of protection against hostile nomadic groups and other warlike peoples. This allowed the lifespans of the dynasties-- lines of hereditary rulers who rule over a country for a long period of time-- inside the wall to be prolonged. This massive structure is therefore a key part of China’s history, influencing nearly every dynasty that ruled the region, since the rise of the first emperor.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
CNN. “China builds a Great Fire Wall” http://edition.cnn.com/2001/ASIANOW/business/01/10/china.netcontrol/ , consulted on Friday, April 11, 2003
The Chinese dynastic system was highly admired for its vast structural integrity which allowed it to persevere for more than two millennia. The Xia Dynasty was the first recorded dynasty in Chinese history, founded by a man named Shun who renounced his throne to his trusted official Yu. Rather than pass the power to someone qualified for the position, Yu then entrusted the Dynasty to his son Qi, setting the precedence for the Dynastic rule. 1 This ushered in the Hereditary System which was followed by many dynasties to come. Under the hereditary system the power was passed down through the family members. This system also had an added benefit of ensuring stability and continuity within the nation’s infrastructure.2
Ng, Teddy. “Rise of China’s Military and Economic Power Leaves the Rest of the World Wary.” South China Morning Post. South China Morning Post Publishers. 20 Sep 2012. Web. 10 Mar 2014.