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Odd Solutions to Historic Problems

Khalid Elhassan December 9, 2020 32 min

United States - American Civil War — Young recruits during the Vietnam War, circa 1967. History

18. The Ruler Who First Unified China Had to Figure Out How to Keep it Unified

Qin Shi Huang (259 – 210 BC), founder of the Qin Dynasty, was king of the Chinese state of Qin during the Warring States Period (circa 475 BC – 221 BC). He brought that era to an end by conquering all the warring states. Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne as a child, and soon as he reached his teens, he wrested power from the regents who had governed during his minority. He consolidated his power by massacring palace plotters who sought to usurp his prerogatives.

The young ruler then went on the warpath, 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. He was then faced with the difficult problem of how to unify the recently-conquered empire, and keep it from fracturing back into warring states. His solution was ruthless: impose his unifying will upon the empire via absolute tyranny.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.