like, wasn’t the great wall of china (which is actually multiple walls, btw) more a military thing to keep the raiders out?
May I introduce to you the wall? There’s a whole wonder of the world that’s a wall: a Great one in China.
Also, there used to be people on those walls with pokey things that hurt. People outside the empire/nation/whatever they called it back then didn’t want to go near it when they weren’t supposed to, since they didn’t want to be poked by the pokey things.
With the invention of firearms, you can shoot a tiny pokey thing really fast! Pokey things have really advanced over the years, for the better or worse.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Yes, to keep the invaders out. That’s border control, no? To control the flow of people between borders, military or otherwise, is border control. To control borders.
shalafi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You still have to have loads of humans to man those walls, along with paying them and the associated logistics. Firearms weren’t too great a range until the 20th century.
You could control choke points, but nothing was stopping a random dude from walking in through the forest or desert.
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Smuggling was a thing back then, right? Paying someone to help you navigate the not so hospitable and easy-to-get-lost-in deserts and forests.
herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
The Great Wall was not very effective. China has been successfully invaded many times, including (but not limited to) the Jurchen, Mongols, Manchus and many many others.
And the Great Wall is an exception. Most walls were around cities, not countries.