S.S. Ch.11 Lesson 3

Wei River ValleyQin generals conquered other states as they rode horses into battle and fought with iron weapons
a 13-year-old boy took the Qin throne and ruled over China’s first empire.
After founding the Qin Empire, the king named himself Qin Shi Huangdi,“First Emperor of China.”
The empire lasted only 15 years

Wei River Valley
Shi Huangdi used fear to rule through a governing system called legalism
He had absolute
control and governed with strict laws.
Building a Bureaucracy
Shi Huangdi built both a strong army and a bureaucracy
The old feudal system had to be broken apart before Legalism could replace it.
Feudal lords ruled their land and collected taxes
To prevent the nobles from turning against him, they were forced to move to Qin, the capital city of Xianyang


Standardization
Shi Huangdi standardized:
coins and the units for weights
ordered the building of canals and roads to connect major cities
Education
Li Si(advisor) said that too many books questioned Qin ideas so he ordered certain books, including many about Confucianism, to be burned
This unification made the empire easier to control
Building a Great WallFor about ten years, he forced hundreds of thousands of workers to build the wall.
the wall stood 25 feet high and 20 feet wide and stretched for more than 3,000 miles from east to west.
Along the wall, soldiers kept watch from 40-foot-high towers. If they saw enemies approaching, they used smoke or fire to signal soldiers in the next tower.

The Emperor’s Clay Army Shi Huangdi planned a great burial place for himself.
The tomb had been under construction for more than 30 years.
The tomb had 7,000 larger than life soldiers holding real weapons, as well as life-size clay horses and wood and bronze war chariots

Shi Huangdi planned a spectacular
burial place for himself. He
ordered an army of thousands
of clay soldiers and horses
built to protect the tomb
for all time.