The Great Wall of China was built over two millennia to protect China’s northern borders.
This wonder stretches over 21,000 kilometers, which is more than half the circumference of the Earth. But does this vast wall, with an average height of 7.8 meters, truly protect China from the outside world?
The Great Wall of China.
The answer largely depends on how one assesses the successes and failures of the Great Wall. The Chinese built the Great Wall as a masterpiece of defensive architecture, and while it certainly helped the Chinese military thwart many attacks from various invaders, the wall was not invincible.
On the other hand, the wall also served to showcase China’s wealth, architectural expertise, and technical prowess throughout history. In this regard, it has undoubtedly succeeded and continues to do so as China uses the wall as a patriotic symbol.
The construction of walls in the northernmost parts of the country began around 700 BC, but it was not until Qin Shi Huang unified China and became its first emperor in 221 BC that the Great Wall project was seriously undertaken.
He directed farmers to connect previously built fortifications into a wall to protect his expanding empire from various nomadic tribes in the Mongolian region, according to Britannica. Subsequent emperors continued to expand and reinforce the wall, adding beacon towers that could be lit to send messages about raids.
However, the Great Wall did not guarantee absolute safety. In many cases, invaders could simply march from multiple directions. One of the most evident failures of the wall led to the downfall of an entire ruling dynasty.
Julia Lovell, a professor of modern Chinese history and literature at Birkbeck, University of London, noted that the wall failed to protect the Ming dynasty from one of their greatest enemies—the Manchus from the northeast. The Manchus later established the Qing dynasty in 1644, which lasted until 1912.
Louise Edwards, an honorary professor of Chinese history at the University of New South Wales in Australia, stated: “Ordinary people had to provide labor for many years to build it, and it has become a symbol. This is its true and enduring strength.”
