THE GREAT WALL THROUGH TIME
770-476BC |
During the Spring and Autumn Period, construction on the Great Wall began. While the main part of the wall was being built, princes organised for separate walls to be built around the borders to protect their state but not as big. The first separate walls were in between states Lu and Qi, built about around 650 BC.
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475-220 BC |
As enemy states fought against one another, the Kings started to decrease in power. The small states were combined into 7 large states; Chu, Qi, Wei, Yan, Zhao, Qi and Han.
Each of these new, large states built a separate wall to give themselves defence and protection against the other states while warring against each other. |
221-206 BC |
After a while of the states warring against each other, the state of Qin proved to be the strongest state of them all as they pretty much always won over the others. Qin Shihuang, the king of the state Qin (247-221 BC), became China's first ever Emperor and ruled for most of the short Qin Dynasty.
While he was reigning, Qin Shihuang asked for the northern parts of the wall on the borders of the state especially sections of the wall built by states Qin, Zhao and Yan to be connected to form a large, defensive wall to protect the country from harassment from the Mongols. It was officially the first part of the Great Wall. It took a million workers 9 years to finish connecting the minor walls together. |
206BC-220AD |
After Qin Shihuang passed away in 210 BC, the Qin Dynasty soon came to an end and the Han Dynasty was established by Emperor Gaozu . The first part of the Great Wall put together during the Qin Dynasty was strengthened and also lengthened with other parts of wall running along side it for hundreds of kilometres.
Later when Emperor Wu took over, he had the Yanmenguan Pass in 130 BC repaired and renovated the Qin Dynasty Wall in 127 BC. In 121 BC he ordered for a wall to be built between Yongdeng Country and Jiuquan so the Hexi Corridor (*) would be protected. The wall was again extended from Jiuguan to Yanmenguan Pass from 111 BC to 110 BC and even further lengthened in 104 BC-101 BC to Lop Nor in Xinjiang. The Han Dynasty wall was not just built to defend themselves against the Huns but also to protect China's Silk Road which links China and the western provinces. *What is the Hexi Corridor?*The Hexi Corridor is an important route in Gansu Province. It was an important route because traders and the army used it to get to Tarim Basin and central Asia.
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220-960 |
After the downfall of the Han Dynasty, China was chaos and states fought against one another to gain and expand their land. They also built more of the Great Wall to defend themselves from one another. Other separate walls were built by smaller and less powerful dynasties Northern Wei, Northern Qi, Eastern Wei and Northern Zhou.
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960-1279 |
During the Song Dynasty the Great Wall continued to defend Northern China from the northern invaders and the western invaders like Western Xia, Liao and Jin. After a while, the wall failed to stop intruders from the Northern Jin Dynasty and the Song Dynasty collapsed. Luckily for Zhao Guo (also known as Emperor Gaozu of the Song Dynasty) was able to escape to Southern China and redeveloped the Song Dynasty in Lin'an (today known as Hangzhou). They named it the Southern Song Dynasty and the previous Song Dynasty was then called the Northern Song Dynasty. Due to lack of money and heaps of rivers like the Yangtze River around the dynasty the Southern Song Dynasty did not build their own wall to defend their territory.
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1115-1234 |
After conquering over the Northern Song, the Jin Dynasty became the reigning dynasty of northeast China.The Jin Dynasty began to build the northern parts of the wall in 1194 because they were threatened by neighbouring states like Western Xia and the Mongols. Unfortunately, the project was discontinued due to drought and disapproval of the ministers. Later in 1116, the project was started up again and lasted for around 3 years. The Jin Dynasty Wall is around 1, 650 km long and many beacon towers and fortresses were built for soldiers to live in and keep watch.
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1271-1368 |
The Yuan Dynasty was the very first dynasty where the whole of China wasn't controlled by the Chinese, instead they were controlled by the Mongols. The Great Wall had protected China for 1, 500 years. Building on the wall was (not surprisingly) halted during the Yuan Dynasty and the Mongols made no effort to maintain or improve the wall.
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1368-1664 |
When the Yuan Dynasty came to an end because of local protest, the Chinese once again took control and the Ming Dynasty was established by the leader Zhu Yuanzhang (the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty). Most of the Great Wall that exists today was built during the 100 year project during the Ming Dynasty. Sections of the wall near Beijing like Badaling and Mutianyu were built during the Ming Dynasty. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were always busy with construction on the wall throughout out their time. After seizing power from the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty, the emperors battled the desperate Yuan strength and stopped the risk of invasion from other northern tribes like Nuzhen, Dada and Wala. To prevent the invaders and the protect the citizens, the emperors during the Ming Dynasty spared no effort building, extending and finally completing the wall.
The design of the Ming Wall was thought out very well. The Xuanfuzhen Wall was built strategically because they built 2 walls, an inner and an outer to strengthen the defence. A total of 6 passes were built. The inner passes were Juoyongguan Pass, Zijingguan Pass and Daomaguan Pass. The outer passes were Piaguan Pass, Ningwuguan Pass and Yammenguan Pass. China thrived during the Ming Dynasty. |
1644-1911 |
The Ming Dynasty Wall was strong but it failed to stop troops of the Qing Dynasty, a management established by the Manchu. The Qing troops broke the Shanhaiguan Pass and took the central area. During the beginning of the Qing Dynasty the emperors thought they were strong enough to defend for themselves so little more of the wall was built.
In time the wall slowly ceased to work as a defence system and many sections were majorly damaged or disappeared due to natural disasters and human activities. The Qing Dynasty wanted nothing to do with the wall and left it there. The emperors said "if you are building a house and you need bricks, you can just take some from the wall" . The Qing Dynasty also marked the end of the construction and maintenance on the Great Wall. |
1911-1957 |
Nothing happened with the Great Wall and it just sat there.
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1957-The Present Day |
In 1957, the Badaling Section was restored and refurbished and cleaned up by the government of the Peoples' Republic of China and later was opened up to the public.
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