The Great wall of China was built by whom? Why it was constructed? Why the Great Wall is called so probably?
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Answer:
If we start at the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese History (770 – 476 BC), at that time, China was not a unified country, rather a collection of dozens of large and small states, many with their own rulers, armies, philosophies, and religions. Walls were built by each state as borders to define their own territorial boundaries. According to historical records, the first wall was built by the Chu state to prevent intrusion from the Jin and Qi states. Leading into a period known as the Warring States (476-221 BC), so called because the many states were at war with each other, the walls became defensive barriers to protect themselves from each other. At this time the walls were built from tamped earth and any useful materials, which lay around such as stones, rocks, and wood.
221BC brought the Warring States period to an end and ushered in the new era of the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC). China’s first Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi took power and he set about unifying all the states into one unified country. A new single state of China was born, not just in name, but in territory. Emperor Qin joined up all the walls and built new walls, making a Greater Wall, and bringing about a more systematic, unified fortification. In this period the unification of the walls symbolized the unification of the country; The Wall came to symbolize the strength and self-confidence of China as a unified state. Emperor Qin employed the ordinary people of China to build The Wall, and by making this labor a way of paying tax to the state, he used The Wall to create among the people, a sense of obligation to the state. They were united in building The Wall and building their state. The Qin Dynasty was a period of enforced wall-building.
But it was hard work, and tens of thousands of people, particularly young men, died whilst building took place.
This was one of the reasons why the Qin Dynasty became unpopular, and it was soon succeeded by the Han Dynasty, (207BC-200AD). The Han took the moral high ground and wanting to be seen as benevolent to its people, relaxed the wall-building a little. In this period, the Han Dynasty established the Silk Road, a network of trade routes, which officially opened trade with the West and brought traders from East and West into the country. Eastward traders brought gold, ivory, precious stones and metals to China, while Westward traders carried ceramics, jade, bronze, and iron.
However, inevitably where money and goods are exchanged, fights will break out, and The Han soon found problems occurring along the trade routes. Bandits ransacked caravans carrying trade, and nomadic tribes such as the Xiongnu regularly harassed traders on the northern and western borders. The Han went back to the strategy of wall-building for control, defense and policing purposes. They extended the walls and built forts along them in an attempt to hold back the Xiongnu. The Han used The Wall as a military base and extended The Wall every time they conquered new territory.
In this period, The Great Wall was strategic and economic; it became crucial in protecting the trade of the Silk Road and helped to maintain a Chinese presence throughout the region. It also helped to serve the transmigration of ideas, religion, and art. Buddhism came to China from Gandhara along the Silk Road.
The purpose of The Wall continued like this for the next few hundred years. For several centuries the Sui, Han, Jin and Northern dynasties continued to repair and improve numerous sections of the Great Wall to defend their territories from invading northern tribes. But the threat of the Mongol tribes from the North was a constant concern.
In the thirteenth century, the threat of the Northern tribes finally became a reality as the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) came under heavy pressure from the Mongols, who in 1215 declared all-out war, under their leader Genghis Khan. After decades of fighting, the Mongols allied with the Southern Song and captured important territories such as the Western Xia and the Jin capital of Zhongdu. The last major battle between the Mongols and Jin was in the city of Caizhou when the Mongols besieged the city and finally overthrew the Jin Dynasty in 1234. The Mongols continued to conquer major territories including the Dali Kingdom. Under the leadership of Kublai Khan, one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons, the Mongols unified the vast land of the northern areas of China and established the Yuan Dynasty (1271- 1368) with Khanbaliq (modern-day Beijing) as its capital – the first time in history that the whole of China was conquered and ruled by a foreign ruler.
In 1368, the Chinese returned to power under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and The Wall became important again.
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