14. The grand monument of China’s most megalomaniacal ruler
Qin Shi Huangdi (259 – 210 BC) ruled the Chinese kingdom of Qin during the Warring States Period. He ascended the throne as a child, and in his teens, wrested power from the regents who had governed during his minority. He then consolidated his power by massacring palace plotters who sought to usurp his prerogatives. Shi Huangdi then went on the warpath: he pushed back the northern barbarians, conquered all neighboring Chinese states and consolidated them under his rule, and declared himself the first emperor of a united China.
With unchecked power and the resources of an entire empire to draw upon, Shi Huangdi, grew megalomaniacal. He launched huge projects with massive amounts of forced labor, such as 700,000 laborers working on his tomb for 30 years. Millions more labored to dig canals, level hills, make roads, and build over 700 palaces. The biggest project of all was the Great Wall of China, which did double duty: keeping the northern barbarians out, and Chinese seeking to flee Qin Shi Huang’s heavy taxation and oppressive rule, in. His empire collapsed soon after his death, and as the centuries passed, it became less and less clear if the extent of his projects belonged more to the realm of myth or to that of history. Then his tomb was discovered in 1974.