Question

great wall of china
directions: complete the reading and respond to the questions below
while scholars hated the chin emperor, shi huangdi, for his book burning, poor people hated him for their forced labor in building a unified great wall. earlier, chou rulers had erected smaller walls to discourage attacks by northern nomads. shi huangdi was determined to close the gaps and unify the wall, 1,400 miles from the yellow sea in the east to the gobi desert in the west. as a result, an enemy would have to gallop halfway to tibet to get around the wall.
the great wall of china was on the backs of hundreds of thousands of peasants, who worked neither for wages nor for love of the empire. they faced a terrible choice: work on the wall or die. their labor involved piling heaps of pebbles and rubble as the inside with slabs of cut stone on the outside. each section of the wall rose to a height of 20 to 25 feet. many laborers worked on the wall and died anyway, victims of the crushing labor or the winter winds.
some scholars believe china was in no great danger from northern invaders when the great wall was built. they suggest that instead the project was launched to keep potential trouble - makers busy. shi huangdi had raised huge armies to conquer china, and once the job was done, the armies remained. the emperor knew that without employment these troops might make trouble, and that concern may have led him to have them complete the great wall. the wall did eventually prove useful, preventing barbarian incursions until genghis khan punched his way through 14 centuries later.
the great wall of china is so huge that it is one of the few human - made features on earth visible from space. it remains today a national symbol of china.
adapted from back, world history, pp. 100 - 101.
questions:

1. how do you suppose chinese officials convinced peasants to work on the wall?
2. why were soldiers employed in wall construction? explain.

Explanation:

1. The text states peasants faced a terrible choice: work on the wall or die. So, they were likely coerced through threats of death.
2. The emperor was concerned that unemployed troops might cause trouble. Thus, he had them work on the wall to keep them occupied.

Answer:

1. They were likely coerced with threats of death as they faced the choice of working on the wall or dying.
2. The emperor was worried that unemployed troops might make trouble, so he had them work on the wall to keep them busy.