Transcript The Emperor and His Clay Army

The Emperor and His Clay
Army
created by Karrissa Garza
Vocabulary
• Qin- a region in China where Shihuangdi came from
• Quinling Mountains- a mountain range that protected
the southeastern border from enemies and helped
Shihuangdi expand his empire
• Provinces- political divisions of land
• Emperor- a supreme ruler over an empire
• Xianyang- the capital city of China during the Qin
dynasty
How the Emperor Came To Be
• In 221 B.C. , in a region
called Qin a general began
conquering neighboring lands
• He eventually conquered all
of northern China and
declared himself Emperor
• The new Emperor called
himself “Shihuangdi” that
means “First Grand
Emperor”
• Shihuangdi once said his Qin
dynasty would last 10,000
generations!
• Only lasted 15 years
The New Government
• Shihuangdi divided the
land into 36 provinces
• Let farmers own the land
instead of nobility
• Made many nobles move
to the capital city,
Xianyang to limit their
power
• Unified the system of
writing
• Single system of money
The Emperor and his Farmers
• The Emperor unified
China
• The country grew bigger
and stronger
• Farmers were forced to
build highways and walls
along the northern
border
• Later on the Great Wall
of China was built right
where these first walls
were built
Shihuangdi’s Tomb
• One of the greatest building
projects of the era
• He wanted the soldiers to
protect him after death
• An ancient Chinese historian
once said there were mercury
rivers pumped by machines,
stars on the ceiling, and
crossbows that would fire
automatically if the tomb was
disturbed- archeologists
haven’t found any evidence of
this yet
• No 2 terra cotta soldiers are
alike