The Great Wall Of China - 1266 Words

The Great Wall of China James Allen World History 1st period February 1, 2015 The first unified Chinese empire was formed in 221 B.C., that was when seven states were brought together by Shi Huangdi, a conqueror from the state of Qin. Shi Huangdi means â€Å"first emperor.† Until the twentieth century all rulers of imperial China called themselves the emperor. The emperor was believed, by the people of China, to be the son of heaven, God-like. They believed that each of the emperor’s ruled China through heaven’s approval, which was called â€Å"mandate of heaven.† This kind of ruling ensured peaceful dynasties for more than two thousand years. The emperor maintained harmony and kept order and when an emperor died,†¦show more content†¦The nomads really needed the grain and iron from the chinese people and when they couldn’t get it they started robbing and killing the chinese people. The chinese were often terrorized by the nomads. The nomads would raid farms to steal their grain and sometimes they would even attack an entire city. The chinese people were dependant on the emperor’s to protect them, keep them safe, and bring some kind of order in the land. Different emperor’s throughout time tried many different approaches in defending China. Some emperor’s tried to make peace with the nomads, some attacked them and tried to drive them north, away from the chinese cities and farms. Other emperor’s built walls to try to keep the nomads out of China. The emperor’s had walls built around the cities and they were many stories high surrounding the whole city. The only way to get in and out of the cities would be roads that passed through the walls with big heavy gates. The gates were guarded day and night by soldiers and they would close the gates every night. The emperor’s had the walls built so thick that the soldiers could stay up on top of the walls to guard the city. To defend China against the nomads Qin Shi Huangdi built the first long wall. Over two thousand years ago when the Great Wall of china was being built, the emperor’s would use their prisoners to help build the wall.