Great Wall Dbq Essay

The cost of the Great Wall outweighed the benefits due to the fact that it allowed for and caused lots of suffering, harsh working conditions, and socioeconomic disparity.

Despite being made to reduce suffering, the building of the Great Wall did the opposite, negatively impacting those who weren’t even working on the wall. In the Qin dynasty, many were sent to work on the wall. It states “Soldiers forced to leave their families and villages for several years” (Document E) Not only did soldiers have to endure the hardship of leaving their families, the families were likely in despair at losing a family member. Furthermore, in the doc where it talks about a woman named Meng Chiang, whose husband went to work on the wall, it says “Her hatred

In the text that was created using a Han folktale called Saving Her Husband at the Great Wall-Han Folktale, it states “Work never stopped day or night, with the people carrying heavy loads of dirt under bricks, lashes and curses. They received very little food, the clothes they wore were threadbare.” (Document C) The people couldn’t stop working, and didn’t have breaks, which is appalling, and they didn’t have sustainable access to food and clothes which made it hard to thrive Likewise, according to Anchient Chinese poetry, “Tens of thousands of soldiers died from hunger, sickness, and extreme hot or cold.”(Document E) If people were dying while working, evidently the conditions were immensely bad. Lastly, as mentioned in the above paragraph, Meng Chiang is a woman whose husband was sent away to work on the Great Wall. In the story, it touches upon the fact that Meng Chiang's husband died from all the working conditions. Doc C. The seriousness of the horrible working conditions is demonstrated by this

In a text that talks about both the Qin and Han peasants who were forced to work on the wall, it says “There was a heavy use of peasant laborers, who worked seven day work weeks with little food.” (Document E) Apart from the fact the people who had less money were chosen, they were also treated horribly while they were building. Moreover, in a letter written by Chao Chu giving advice to the emperor on what to do about the invaders, it asserts, “People [slaves, convicts and willing peasants] should be selected to settle along the border areas permanently.” (Document B) Those who didn’t have as much money were made to work on the wall, which plays into the inequality between separate classes. Furthermore, in the Han period it was said that “peasant farm families were forced to move north and west.” (Document E) Similarly to the quote above, this proves that poor people at that time such as farmers were obligated to work, and because they received no money for this dedication, they were put further into economic despair. Due to the fact that families in poverty were treated extremely poorly, the creation of the Great Wall was certainly not worth