Summary: The Great Wall Of China

The Great Wall of China was originally built during the Qin and Han Dynasties to protect China from the Xiongnu. It took the people of ancient China nearly 2,000 years to build and spans nearly 6,000 miles. However, building the wall was extremely costly in terms of men and supplies. Despite the cost of the wall, it proved to be immensely beneficial to the Chinese people. This is a result of the wall providing protection for merchants, the people within the wall and preventing the Xiongnu from invading.

For thousands years, the Mongols have been a big threat to the Chinese civilization. The Great Wall of China took about 2000 years to build and finish. It has been measured to be over 5,488 miles long. Due to the many threats and enemies of Chinese, the wall was built. In my opinion, the benefits of building the wall do outweigh the costs for many reasons surrounding the topic.

The Great Wall of China is often regarded as one of the man-made wonders of the world. The Great Wall of China was constructed by two early Chinese dynasties; the Qin Dynasty (221 BCE-206 BCE) and the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). Emperor Qin was considered to be cruel and brutal. Cruel rulers invite rebellion and in 206 BCE, his successors were overthrown by the Han Dynasty. Both dynasties shared a common concern, border security. The wall was constructed over a period of 2,500 years and stretch to be 5,488 miles long. The wall was built to increase security, impress visitors and enhance the glory of china. However the wall also required much sacrifice on the part of the Chinese people. Overall did the benefits outweigh the costs? There were both costs and benefits into building the Great Wall of China, but the benefits outweigh the cost. The great walls benefits outweighed the costs by providing protection, create new towns

The benefits of the Great Wall did not outweigh the cost. According to document C, the Qin and Han Dynasty built the wall in order to keep out attackers but since they built the wall someone needed to protect it so the soldiers did and they would die.In document C, it also says the soldiers had to work on the wall for two to five years because they had to work on it for so long they were forced to leave for several years. If they never built the wall it wouldn't matter because soldiers would go to war instead of dying from protecting the wall. In conclusion they should not halve built the wall because it did nothing but kill soldiers.

A list compiled of many sources, including legends, folk songs, and historical documents conveys, ¨...tens of thousands of soldiers died from hunger, sickness, and extreme heat or cold¨ (Doc E). This manifests that many soldiers died from building the wall when they could have been protecting the country. Also, this loss of innocence is not necessary and they died from not having basic human needs like food or clothing which is truly unjust. Again this list of compiled sources demonstrates, ¨80 percent Han casualties, a terrible cost of protecting the wall¨ (Doc E). This elucidates that not only did they die building the wall but four-fifths of the people who were protecting the wall were killed in cold blood.

The Great Wall of Ancient China: Did the Benefits Outweigh the Cost? The Great Wall was built by the Qin and Han Dynasty in order to protect China from the Mongols. However, the benefits of building the Great Wall of China did not outweigh the costs for building the Great Wall. In accordance to Document C, the soldiers had to leave their homes and families in order to work on building the Great Wall. This supports the claim because the soldiers had to sacrifice their families when they had already been sacrificing their lives to fight for China.

The Great Wall was built by The Qin and the Han Dynasty. They built The Great Wall to keep out and protect China from the Mongols. The benefits of building The Great Wall of China did not outweigh the costs. In Document B, it showed that tribute was being paid by The Han. The Han was one of the the dynasties who first built The Great Wall. This shows that the benefits did not outweigh the costs because The Han still had tribute to pay to the Xiongnu Mongols and The Han dynasty still had to build and protect The Wall from the Mongols. In Document C, the text indicated that The Qin and The Han dynasties were peasants, and worked on The Great Wall while they got feed a little bit of food and suffered. The Qin and The Han were not treated well

The Great Wall of China: did the benefits outweigh the costs? China’s great wall was not worth the costs because of the high amount of deaths and all of the unfair working conditions. One reason the Great Wall was not worth the cost was because of all of the lost lives. According to Document F it says, “We sally forth at dawn, but do not return at dusk.” Seeing this evidence proves that lots of soldiers died fighting the Xiongnu, or

The Great Wall of China is one of the most beautiful and biggest ancient structure. In ancient times it was very well maintained and now it is sort of maintained because 30% of the wall is gone. The wall shows pride and culture to china even though 30% of the wall is gone and now there are laws in place to protect and maintain the wall. However most of the wall if gone is from human damage.

The first reason why the Great Wall was not worth the cost was because the wall was not very effective . The chin and Han dynasty's built the Great Wall to keep out invaders. People would walk around the spots where there wanot a wall built yet or a spot where guards were not on duty. ( Doc B ) The purpose was so that not as many guards would have to be on duty, but just as many guards were then as there were when the wall was not yet built. There were not guards protecting all spots of the wall, leaving it a blank opening for other enemies to enter. The wall was not just

According to a list compiled from various sources, “Heavy fighting against the Xiongnu... [Mongols occurred] during much of [the] 2nd century BCE” (Doc. E). From the source, it is clear that if a project does not perform its set purpose that so many people suffered to try to complete it, then it is not worth it. The Great Wall was built originally to keep out Mongols, and it could not do even that. Instead it forced people to suffer under horrible conditions while a useless 4,000-mile-long ornament was being built.

The Great Wall was first build by Qin and Han.The reason why they build the wall is because to keep the enemies away like The Mongols.However, the benefits of the Great Wall of China did not outweigh the costs.

The lives ruined or lost in the building of the wall was the greatest cost. According to one ancient chinese scripture “During a ten year period of Qin Dynasty wall building, there was a heavy use of peasant laborers who worked seven days a week with little food.” And another scripture, “One campaign in 104 B.C. Reported 80% of Han Dynasty casualties.” (from attacks by the Xiongnu). The great wall of china was needed to protect the people of china from the northern nomads who wanted to pillage villages, but the great wall of china was actually very weak and the Xiongnu could even bribe their way in if they wanted. Any advantage of the wall do not justify any of the cost associated with building it. In all it is clear that the great wall of china should not have been built.

In order to fend off the Xiongnu, Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of an enormous defensive wall. The work was carried out by hundreds of thousands of slaves and criminals between 220 and 206 BCE; untold thousands of them died at the task.

China’s unity of its civilians helped the prosperity of its nation to become well known to other power nation. At this period China became well known and believed to be as equally strong to other power nations. Sterling extensively explains that building The Great Wall of China came at an immeasurable cost for a "temporary advantage" (147). Many citizens of China have died for the cause of building a national symbol for China, which was not known as The Great Wall of China until foreigners gave it a name to remember. Only during the Ming dynasty did the interconnections of the walls that once divided China, became a unity. The expansion of many walls together came at a great cost. The Great Wall of China made it very difficult for the Mongols and Manchus to penetrate their defensive system, but this did not stop them from failing to attack the dynasty. The perceived barbarians had bankrupt the dynasty. Strategies of keeping enemies from infiltrating is a vital key to keep an economy from chaos and destroying a nation’s wealth that took years or centuries to achieve.