After the collapse of the Qin empire, China was one chaotic land. Even Qin Shi Huang's Great Wall started to fall apart, suffering from years of neglect. Again, China's northern frontiers were at the mercy of fierce outsiders known as the Xiongnu.

In 206 B.C., a new dynasty, the Han, rose to power and began to move the empire in a new, more open direction, The Han restored much of China's classic literature, especially the works of Confucius. It also established a strong but more humane central government, set up the first public school system and, in a struggle that lasted nearly 70 yeas, crushed the Xiongnu menace once and for all.

With this victory by Han Wu-Di, the greatest of the Han emperors, came a westward expansion into the wilderness of Central Asia. To protect that border Wu-Di began China's second great campaign of wall building. His engineers restored the crumbling Qin wall and extended it 300 more miles across the forbidding Gobi Desert.

With Central Asia under Han control, safe caravan routes -- the legendary Silk Road -- were established, opening China to the commerce and culture of the Western world. Traders from Rome, Antioch, Baghdad and Alexandria trekked eastward to deal in jade, gold, spices, horses, precious gems and of course, silk. No matter what road they traveled, they could not reach their destination without passing through the Great Wall.

Home     Qin Dynasty    Ming Dynasty     Cool Facts     Gallery     Other Sites   

 Feedback