information

"How effective was the Great Wall of China?"
BACKGROUND TO THE WALL- The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered a wall to be built to stop the nomads (group with no permanent home. An example of a nomad group is below (Xiongnu) ) .
The nomads often raided farms to steal crops and food. Over the years, the Chinese built a number of long walls from the north of China to prevent the intrusion of the nomads.

- Qin Shi Huang, made a very good decision. To keep his empire safe. Although the process of building the wall wasn't a very pleasant one. Numbers of ordinary people were forced
to work on the wall and many people died as a result of working under such bad conditions. Today, historians refer to the Great Wall as 'the longest graveyard in the world' .

Source : Imperial China , Reynoldson, Fiona , Heinemann Educational, first published 1991, pages 16-17.
THE BUILDING OF THE WALL- The Wall was built during three dynasties ~ Qin, Han and Ming.
QIN DYNASTY -
[221-206 B.C]
Qin Shi Huang was in power during this dynasty, he (as mentioned above) ordered a long walll to be built, to stop invasion.
HAN DYNASTY-
[206 B.C-220 A.D]
After the fall of the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, the wall was extended westwards toward the Gobi Desert.
During this dynasty a technological change occurred; the building materials from the previous wall were very scarce, so Chinese engineers came up with a solution to continue making
bricks for the wall. The bricks were made in the following way:
-A layer of woven willow weeds were layed down.
-A layer of gravel and some water were put on top and trampled down.
-Another layer of willow weeds and gravel were put down ontop. These steps were repeated until the wall was finished.
Watchtowers were also made two stories high, to claim a good lookout for invaders.
MING DYNASTY-
[1368-1644]
(This dynasty is not really relevant, as it is not classified in an ancient time period)

finally, the ACTUAL essay question!

How effective was the Great Wall of China?
This question has alot of interesting research behind it. For instance what it protected China from, what materials it was built with, AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!!
Time to hit the books...

evaluation...

2/8/2010
6:00PM

I have narrowed down my essay question based on The Great Wall of China to what purpose it was built - what did it protect China from ?
- How useful was it?
Maybe assessing the usefulness of the wall.

progress...

29/7/2010
time start: 8:10PM
time end: 8:27PM

China's Great Wall

[Some interesting facts]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

http://www.thegreatwall.com.cn/en/goc/goc-1.htm

*Explain the significance of The Great Wall of China*

-First built in the 7th century B.C

-The wall was built to survive the attack from weapons (swords and spears)

-The wall was built from compounded earth and gravel which were put into
board frames

-It was built to protect the Chinese Empire against invasions from the Xiongnu

-The Xiongnu were a nomadic (move from one place to another on a consistant basis) tribe in
central Asia.

28-7-10 ~ 8:09PM

My essay question is the following:
"Describe China's Great Wall. Discuss/Explain its importance in the history of China."

First Blog

I have chosen my topic; which is going to be on the Great Wall of China.
I am currently in the process of making my question for the essay.