In the first place, building the Great Wall killed many people. Construction took one million men and 300,000 Han soldiers,not to mention an additional 300,000 Qin soldiers. 80% …show more content…
of the Han soldiers were killed,and the numbers of Qin are unknown. Around one million men total died during construction. To make it worse, every person that helped were separated from their families. In my opinion, this was cruel and unfair.
Not only the deaths,but also the Great Wall cost tons of money to build.
Modern calculations show that a mile of the wall cost one to five million. That means it cost approximately $360 billion,and with taxes in the U.S,that would add to $1.359 trillion dollars. They also added catapults,thorn bushes,and decorations which cost even more money. I believe all that money could’ve went to a leap in technology or something better by now!
Not to mention the hard work from peasants and laborers. Most of the people who worked on the wall were peasants and laborers, which corresponds to the many deaths.They spent day and night, seven days a week with very little food and in freezing temperatures. They suffered badly.
Above all, some people may argue that the Great Walls benefits did outweigh the costs. They might say that in the end it protected China,and that the wall made China’s popularity boost. There is some agreement in the wall protecting China, but if they had 300,000 soldiers for two dynasties (Han and Qin) and guarded China, they had a good chance of succeeding. Also, making China’s popularity boost wasn’t even the emperors main goal!
In the final analysis, the many deaths, the tons of money, and the hard work from peasants and laborers show that The Great Wall of China’s benefits did not outweigh the costs. With these three points, you might just realize why The Great Wall of China’s benefits did not outweigh the
costs.