The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications
running in general east to west through the entire northern part of China,
which is made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, built
originally in part to protect the northern borders of the Chinese
Empire or its prototypical states against intrusions by various
nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples or forces.
Several walls had already been begun to be built beginning around the 5th
century BC: these, later joined together and made bigger, stronger, and unified
are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the
wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of
China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains.
Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, enhanced;
the majority of the existing wall was reconstructed during the Ming DynastyOther
purposes of the Great Wall have included allowing for normal national border
control practices, such as border check points allowing for the various
imperial governments of China to tariff goods transported along the Silk Road,
to regulate or encourage trade (for example trade between horses and silk
products), as well as generally to control immigration and emigration.
Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by
the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling
capabilities through the means smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the
Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.The Great Wall stretches
from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner
Mongolia. The most comprehensive archaeological survey, using
advanced technologies, has concluded that all the walls measure 8,851.8 km
(5,500.3 mi).
This is made up of 6,259.6 km (3,889.5 mi) sections of actual wall,
359.7 km (223.5 mi) of trenches and 2,232.5 km (1,387.2 mi)
of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.The
Great Wall concept was revived again during the Ming Dynasty
in the 14th century,
and following the Ming army's defeat by the Oirats in the Battle of Tumu
in 1449. The Ming had failed to gain a clear upper hand over the Manchurian
and Mongolian
tribes after successive battles, and the long-drawn conflict was taking a toll
on the empire. The Ming adopted a new strategy to keep the nomadic
tribes out by constructing walls along the northern border of China. Acknowledging the
Mongol control established in the Ordos Desert,
the wall followed the desert's southern edge instead of incorporating the bend
of the Huang He.Unlike
the earlier Qin fortifications, the Ming construction was stronger and more
elaborate due to the use of bricks and stone instead of rammed earth. As Mongol raids
continued periodically over the years, the Ming devoted considerable resources
to repair and reinforce the walls. Sections near the Ming capital of Beijing were especially
strong.During
the 1440s–1460s, the Ming also built a so-called "Liaodong Wall".
Similar in function to the Great Wall (whose extension, in a sense, it was),
but more basic in construction, the Liaodong Wall enclosed the agricultural
heartland of the Liaodong province, protecting it against potential incursions
by Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan from the northwest and the Jianzhou
Jurchens from the north. While stones and tiles were used in some
parts of the Liaodong Wall, most of it was in fact simply an earth dike with
moats on both sides.Towards
the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against
the Manchu
invasions that began around 1600. Even after the loss of all of Liaodong,
the Ming army under the command of Yuan
Chonghuan held off the Manchus at the heavily fortified Shanhaiguan
pass, preventing the Manchus from entering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus
were finally able to cross the Great Wall in
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