Great Wall of China
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In a poem by Robert Frost entitled Mending Walls, the speaker of the poem discusses the walls that separate him from his neighbor, both physically and psychologically. The Great Wall of China is one of the most impressive man-made structures ever built. Like the speaker in Frost’s poem, the Chinese nation built the wall to protect itself physically and to impact the psychological perceptions of its enemies upon viewing the enormous structure making China a virtual fortress. When considering the size and scope of the Great Wall, one must remember that China is larger in area than the United States and it contains four times as many inhabitants. The Great Wall’s size is of such enormity that it is the only man-made structure observable from space and “is made up of between 2,500 and 3,000 miles of fortifications…never completely surveyed” (Roberts 31). The Great Wall was built over a period of thousands of years and is actually a series of walls that were constructed originally to help protect various regions of the nation, “Although the original Great Wall was built at the end of the 3rd century BCE, the wall sections that are still standing mainly date back to the Ming Dynasty (14th- to 17th century CE)” (Roberts 30). Much more than the Panama Canal, Hoover Dam or other major man-made construction projects in history, the Great Wall represents one of the most on-going and enormous public works building projects in history.
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during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) that the Wall took on its present form. The brick and granite work was enlarged and sophisticated designs were added. The watch towers were redesigned and modern canon were mounted in strategic areas. The Portuguese had found a ready market for guns and canon in China, one of the few items of trade that China didn’t already have in abundance. The Ming Emperors, having overthrown the Hun dominance and expelled their Mongol rulers of the North devoted large portions of available material and manpower to making sure that they didn’t return” (Shea 1).
The Great Wall became the greatest military strength of the Chinese. Even when the Mongols and Manchurians were able to take power it was not because of any inherent weakness in the Wall. Instead, poverty among the masses and weakness in the government of China enabled their enemies to seize power. However, for centuries armies were stationed along the length of the Wall and they remained an effective means of early warning in case of surprise attack and as a means of physical deterrence. Straw and manure were used to build and light huge signal fires and the soldiers stationed along the Wall did not find many comforts. Few towns were near e
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Approximate Word count = 1725
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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