Origins:Current Events in Historical Perspective Presents
Top Ten Origins: History's Great Walls, Good Neighbors or Bad Policy?
In the midst of a migration crisis in Europe and strident talk and a standoff
about building a wall on the US/Mexican border, people around the world are resorting
to an old strategy: building walls.
Historically, walls have a decidedly mixed record in achieving their goals to keep some
people out and others in.
While good fences may make good neighbors, as the old cliché has it, neighborliness
has not been the reason behind most of history’s major wall projects.
Here is a look at the most famous of these insular architectural projects.
1.
The Wall of Jericho The Biblical Wall of Jericho is one of the
earliest examples of a defensive wall constructed by a community.
Two sets of walls found in Jericho, and excavated by Ernest Sellin and Carl Watzinger, date
back to anywhere between 1950 BCE and 1550 BCE.
But the earliest evidence of a wall is believed to date to 7825 BCE.
The most famous Wall of Jericho, however, is the one mentioned in the Biblical account
of the wall that the Israelites destroyed using the Ark of the Covenant in the Book of Joshua.
The wall is believed to have stood five feet thick, anywhere between 12 and 17 feet tall,
surrounded by a 27-footwide and nine-foot deep ditch.
It is hypothesized that the Wall of Jericho was constructed not only for defensive purposes,
but also to protect the city from floods and for ceremonial usages.
The Tower of Jericho may have been a means to draw individuals into the city.
After the wall came tumbling down, according to the biblical text, every man, woman, and child
in the city of Jericho was put to the sword save for the family who harbored Israeli spies
during the siege.
2. Hadrian’s Wall Hadrian’s Wall, constructed between 122 CE
and 128 CE for inspection by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, was a reaction to rebellions
that Rome experienced by the provincial peoples of Britannia.
The wall stood an impressive ten feet wide, 16 to 20 feet tall, and 73 miles long, following
the course of the Tyne River.
Historians disagree on the explicit purpose of Hadrian’s Wall, though it is widely considered
to have been an attempt at curbing immigration as well as providing an opportunity to tax
anyone crossing the wall.
In this endeavor, Hadrian’s Wall was successful.
Even when a different wall was constructed during the reign of Antoninus Pius farther
north (the Antonine Wall), the Romans opted to garrison its legions along Hadrian’s Wall.
Until the end of Roman rule in the province of Britannia, which was around 410 CE, Hadrian’s Wall
stood strong.
When Rome lost its hold on the province, however, the wall was largely dismantled for parts
by the “barbarian” populations against whom it had stood.
3.
The Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China was not always so
great.
It began as a series of independently constructed walls as long ago as the 7th century BCE.
Over time, they became connected into a single vast wall spanning a staggering 5,500 miles
during the Ming Era.
The wall’s militaristic purpose was to defend China against the multitude of invaders that
plagued the borderlands – primarily the Mongols and the Manchu.
But the walls provided other economic and social benefits for China, allowing the Chinese
to enforce economic duties along the Silk Road as well as decrease the number of immigrants
from Central Asia.
As a means of maintaining control over citizens of China and their trade, the Great Wall was
quite successful.
However, the wall failed to keep invaders out entirely.
Genghis Khan and his Mongol warriors, the Liao, the Jin, and the Manchus all managed
to invade and take territory across the wall.
Though this wall has never been altogether destroyed, its maintenance was, and is, such
a colossal undertaking that large sections of it have fallen into disrepair over time.
4.
Berlin Wall Officially known on the East German side as
the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart, this infamous wall is an extraordinary example
of a society’s attempt to halt the movement of its own people, separating Germans (and
often families) into two different worlds.
The Soviet, eastern side of Germany had a vested interest in keeping out the ideals,
culture, and economic models of the West during the Cold War.
Upon completion, the wall stood 87 miles long with another wall running parallel to the
original just 300 feet behind it.
In its infancy the wall was primarily made of barbed wire but over time it evolved into
an extremely formidable border.
Concrete, barbed wire, and a no man’s land of coverless space between the walls made
this barrier system one of the most daunting walls in human history.
It was not to persist, however.
In October of 1989, the East German government decided to allow some citizens to emigrate
to West Germany, which resulted in a swarming of the wall checkpoints by thousands of citizens.
And on November 9, the Berlin Wall was officially opened.
5. Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Snaking across the width of the Korean peninsula,
this wall creates a 160-mile-long, two-and-a-half-mile-wide buffer zone between North and South Korea.
The DMZ was constructed along the 38th Parallel and is considered the most heavily militarized
border in the entire world.
Incidents and incursions continue along the DMZ, although recent peace talks have begun
ever so slightly to depressurize the border.
The two countries have agreed to allow families divided between the Northern and Southern halves
of the border to reunite in a rare effort at cohabitation.
Such efforts do not erase recent episodes of landmine explosions, cross-boundary rocket
fire, and propaganda radio broadcasts, but may ease tensions along the political
powder keg that is the DMZ.
Since the Korean conflict ended in 1953 in a truce, the state of war between Seoul and
Pyongyang continues to validate the existence of the world’s most heavily guarded border.
This wall stands as perhaps the most effective anti-migrant fortification in all of human history.
It has kept the populations of two independent nations almost entirely secluded from one
another for over six decades.
6. West Bank Barrier This massive wall currently runs along
the 1949 Armistice Agreement Line (or the Green Line) that separates Israel from the
territories of the West Bank.
This barrier runs a staggering 330 feet in width at certain places and up to 26 feet
high.
The primary reasons for the construction of this barrier (which began in approximately
2000) are contentious.
The Israeli government states that the wall is being built to protect Israeli citizens
from suicide bombers and radical terrorist organizations.
Opposition groups argue that the barrier is a land-grab disguised as a defensive perimeter.
Although the construction on the wall has not yet been completed, some reports indicate that
there has been marked decline in the number of suicide attacks within Israel.
7. The Hungarian Border Wall
Standing 13 feet tall and projected to reach completion across the entirety of the 109 mile long Hungarian-Serbian border,
this wall is part of an extremely tumultuous time for border control in Europe
As hundreds of thousands of migrants flee conflict zones in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe
finds itself challenged by the influx of refugees.
Hungary, unlike most of its European counterparts, has opted to build facilities and enforce
strict border policies instead of facilitating migrant travel.
By utilizing tear gas, water cannons, razor wire, and the Hungarian military to deal with
the migrants, this most recent emergence of an historic wall will surely be a point of
contention for years to come.