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1046-256 BCE
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All the states wanted the territory to themselves. Greedy people. 476-256 BCE
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The Qin King (Shi Huangdi) succeeded in conquering the other states in the warring period and uniting China.
221 B.C.E FUN FACT: Qin is pronounced "Chin" which is why China is called China. -
(The Northern Frontier Part) Using the existing parts of the wall, Shi Huangdi started to connect them together to build one big barrier.
By this time, the length had increased to 3, 107 miles. -
China goes into a civil war with all the chaos of Shi Huangdi dying and now being leaderless.
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Fighting, Bloodshed, ect. 207-202 BCE
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Han made sure that the existing walls were properly maintained and renovated as he saw fit. He also built new walls, built for a new purpose. To keep the Huns away and to protect the silk road, which connected China to the west.
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A former officer and general, Emperor Gaozu came to power after the civil war had ended.
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Emperor Gaozu died, and his Empress, Lu Zhi, began brutally murdering all of his sons so she could take the throne. (Greedy, much?) 220 AD
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Although she never really was in complete power, I believe it’s important to recognize her not only as a ruthless murderer but as China’s first reigning empress.
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Known as the "Northern and Southern Dynasties" While Lu Zhi was kind of in power (But not really), the dynasties were ruling together. These two dynasties were called the Northern Wei Dynasty and The Liu Song Dynasty. They each built their own section of the wall. This was a chaotic time in China's history.
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During this time, The Sui Dynasty did a LOT of construction because the Huns were a threat and an ongoing issue. More Northern and Southern walls were built within this time. 581-618
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Barely any construction happened in this dynasty. A mere 93 miles of the wall was built. It was a peaceful time in China's history.
618-907 -
Because of very little money and bad finances, this dynasty did not construct walls on the borders of their territory. 960-1279
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The Jin Dynasty was an extremely strong and powerful dynasty. But that didn't stop the power-hungry Mongol Empire from wanting to invade. Extreme protection was needed, so as a huge defense mechanism, a large part of the wall was built called the Jin Dynasty Wall. It stretched a whopping 1,025 miles. The wall possessed garrisons, beacon towers, fortresses, and ditches, a huge asset.
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If you thought the Jin Dynasty was powerful, check out this one! The Yuan dynasty had such a fierce military, they decided they were too good for building walls in their dynasty.
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From 1368 up until 1644, The Ming Dynasty built a crazy amount of the wall. They built 5,500 miles of the wall due to the invading Northern tribes that threatened The Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty emperors also worked hard to ensure that the walls built in the past were kept up and fortified even more.
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The wall that the Qing Dynasty built was called the Willow Line and it was made of a huge trench with willows planted along it. It was really a defensive thing, but it was to stop the Han people from traveling into Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. 1644-1912
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In this year, the Republic of China began marking the end of the dynasties. The wall was fully completed and the full length is 13,170 miles and 40 feet high.
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The Great Wall Of China is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a huge tourist attraction for many people. A fascinating story of it's creation, the Great Wall Of China continues to spark wonder in people's minds to this day.
