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