The Great Wall of China is China's best-known symbol and has a long history. Initially the wall was built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the third century BC. as a means to prevent attacks from the Xiongnu and other nomadic tribes.
For more than 2,000 years the construction of the wall was continued by the Chinese authorities. The most famous and preserved part of the Great Wall was built in the 14th to 17th centuries, during the Ming dynasty. Although the Great Wall has never effectively prevented the invaders from entering China, it serves as a tangible symbol of Chinese civilization that has existed for a long time.
Qin Shi Huang and the Beginning of the Construction of the Great Wall of China
The construction of the Great Wall of China can be traced to the 3rd century BC, but many fortifications including the inside of the wall have been built hundreds of years before. The fortresses were built when China was divided into several warring kingdoms.
Around 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unite China under the Qin Dynasty, ordered the removal of defense posts between countries and united a number of walls along the northern border into one defense system. The wall was then extended by more than one 10,000 li (li is about one third of a mile). The aim of this project is to protect China from the attack of nomadic tribes in the north.
The construction of the Great Wall of China became one of the most ambitious development projects ever undertaken by any civilization. The famous Chinese general Meng Tian was in charge of the project.
According to some accounts it is said that the construction of the Great Wall of China used troops, prisoners, and commoners as workers.
Most of the Great Wall of China is made of earth and stone. The wall stretches from the port of the Shanhaiguan Chinese Sea more than 3,000 miles west to Gansu province. In some strategic areas, parts of the wall are overlapped for maximum security.
The wall has a foundation as high as 15 to 50 feet, then a height of about 15-30 feet and topped with a fort as high as 12 feet or higher. The building also features a guard tower that is placed along the wall interval.
When Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the Great Wall around 221 BC, the workforce that built the wall consisted mainly of soldiers and prisoners. It is said that as many as 400,000 people died during the construction of the wall. Many of these workers were buried in the walls themselves.
The Great Wall of China in Cross History
With the death of Qin Shi Huang and the fall of the Qin Dynasty, many parts of the Great Wall were damaged. After the next dynasty, the Han Dynasty also collapsed, a series of border tribes controlling northern China.
Among the most powerful of the tribes was the Northern Wei Dynasty. When in power this dynasty repaired and expanded the existing wall to defend against attacks from other tribes.
Bei Qi Kingdom (550-577) built or repaired walls of more than 900 miles. Repair and expansion were then continued by the short-lived Sui Dynasty (581–618).
With the fall of Sui and the rise of the Tang Dynasty, the Great Wall lost its function as a fortress, because China had defeated the Tujue tribe in the north and expanded its territory beyond the original border protected by the wall.
During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese were forced to retreat under threat from the Liao and Jin people in the north who took over many areas on both sides of the Great Wall. The powerful Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (1206-1368), founded by Genghis Khan, eventually controlled all of China, parts of Asia and parts of Europe.
Although the Great Wall was not so important to the Mongols in particular as a military stronghold, the soldiers were still assigned to the wall to protect merchants and caravans traveling along the Silk Road trade routes.
Construction of the Ming Dynasty Wall
Despite its long history, the Great Wall of China as it is today is mostly built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Like the Mongols, the early Ming rulers were less interested in building border fortifications, and building limited walls until the end of the 15th century.
In 1421, emperor Ming Yongle proclaimed China's new capital, Beijing, at the site of the former Mongol city of Dadu. Under the cold rulers of the Ming rulers, Chinese culture flourished, and the period saw a large amount of construction alongside the Great Wall, including bridges, temples and pagodas.
The construction of the Great Wall as it is known today began around 1474. After the initial phase of regional expansion, the Ming rulers largely took a defensive stance and the expansion of the Great Wall was the key to this strategy.
The Great Wall of China in Modern Times
In the mid-17th century, Manchus from central and southern Manchuria broke through the Great Wall and entered Beijing. In the end they forced the Ming Dynasty to abdicate, while also marking the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.
Between the 18th and 20th centuries, the Great Wall emerged as China's most common symbol for the Western world, and both physical symbols - as manifestations of Chinese power - and psychological representations of barriers maintained by the Chinese state to repel foreign influence and exert control over its citizens.
Today, the Great Wall is generally recognized as one of the most impressive architectural achievements in human history. There was an effort to maintain the structure of the wall, but a more concrete step was only realized in 1980, when China made the wall a tourist attraction and source of income.
In 1987, UNESCO established the Great Wall as a World Heritage Site, and popular claims that emerged in the 20th century stated that this wall was the only man-made structure seen from space.
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