The beginning of The Great Wall of ChinaThe Great Wall was built through more than 20 dynasties; however, the beginning of The Great Wall can be traced back to where parts of the fortification was built in the Zhou Dynasty's (770BC–221BC) 8th century BC pre-warring states period. Here, the 7 state overlords built a number of separate mud-brick border walls for defense from other kingdoms at war. These separate walls built by the kingdoms Quin, Chu, Han, Wei, Zhao, Yan and Qi soon became the beginning of The Great Wall. The beginning of The Great Wall inspired many dynasties to continue it's build for around 2,000 years.
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The Main Dynasties who built The Great Wall of China
The Quin Dynasty
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The Han Dynasty After the death of The Quin Dynasty the wall fell into disrepair. Then the Han Dynasty's (206BC – 220AD) emperor Wudi (140BC-87BC) extended the wall approximately 6,000km between Dunhuang in the west and the Bohai Sea in the east. This extension was necessary for their defense policies to block out the Mongols, Turks and Tunguz of the Empire of the Xiongnu, the first empire of the steppes. Eventually, the uprising of frontier Tribes throughout China defeated The Han Dynasty. These tribes started the period known as the 3 kingdoms and furthermore extended The Great Wall.
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Genghis KhanWith the fall of the Sui Dynasty (581AD-618AD) and the rise of the Tang Dynasty (618AD-907AD) The Great Wall lost its meaning of fortification, with China having defeated The Tujue tribe to the north and expanded past the original frontier protected by the wall. There was only peace in the land. The song Dynasty (960-1279) was the first to feel the peace threatened with them having to withdraw under the attack of the Liao and Jin Empire in the north, who took control of many sides of The Great Wall. Eventually, The powerful Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (1206AD-1368AD) invaded China. Genghis Khan (1206AD- 1227AD) the first emperor of the Mongol Dynasty found little use in The Great Wall as a fortification and therefore did not continue its build, but used it as a means to protect merchants on the Silk Road by assigning soldiers to guard the wall.
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The Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty (1368AD–1644AD) defeated the Mongols and revived the Qin Shi Huang traditions. Yet, like the Mongols, the Ming Dynasty had no use in The Great Wall as a fortification and wall building was limited till 1421AD. When China’s Emperor Yongle proclaimed China’s new capital, Beijing, on the site of former Mongol city of Dadu. The Ming Dynasty's Hero General Qi Jiguang (1528AD-1588AD) rebuilt the Great Wall around Beijing in 1474AD, as part of a strategy for territorial expansion by taking a defensive stance. The Ming Wall winded its way through to the Yalu River in Liaoning Province, to the eastern bank of the Taolai River in Gansu Province and from east to west through today’s Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu. The Ming Dynasty was the last Dynasty to extend The Great Wall. |