Ming dynasty · 1449-1644

The Ming Great Wall

The Great Wall most people picture today was built by the Ming after a Mongol army captured their emperor in 1449. Students follow the wall from the desert to the sea and judge whether walls kept the Ming safe.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 1500 to AD 1644
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

The Great Wall most people picture today was built by the Ming after a Mongol army captured their emperor in 1449. Students follow the wall from the desert to the sea and judge whether walls kept the Ming safe.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why the Ming rebuilt the Great Wall after 1449.
  • Locate the eastern and western ends of the Ming wall on the map.
  • Judge how well the wall worked, using the events of 1449, 1550, 1571 and 1644.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1500

Along the frontier

Open the map in 1500 and follow the northern border of the Ming from the sea to the desert. Beyond it lay the grasslands of the Mongols. How does the land change on either side?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1500

The western gate

Zoom in on Jiayuguan, the fortress at the western end of the Ming wall, in the Gansu corridor. Turn on Trade Routes. What passes through this gap?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1644

Where wall meets sea

Jump to 1644 and zoom in on Shanhaiguan, where the wall reaches the sea. That year a Ming general opened the gate here to the Manchus. Why could a wall not save the Ming?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. In 1449 Mongols captured a Ming emperor. How would that change the way the Ming thought about defence?
  2. Why build in brick and stone instead of rammed earth?
  3. Soldiers sent smoke and fire signals from tower to tower. Why was a fast warning so important?
  4. In 1571 the Ming made peace with the Mongol leader Altan Khan and opened border markets. Was trade a better defence than walls?
  5. In 1644 the Manchus came through the wall because a Ming general opened the gate. What does that tell us about walls?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Rule History as Genghis Khan and see the frontier from the other side. Let students take turns making rulings as a steppe ruler. Discuss: what did the people of the steppe want from China, and could a wall stop them?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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