At the peak of
the Roman Empire, the empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to Brittain, from
northern Africa to southern Germany. But the great conquering emperors like
Trajan learned that conquering land was easy compared to holding on to it. In fact, Trajan’s successor, Hadrian, was
known for shrinking the empire and consolidating Trajan’s gains into a more
defensible set of holdings. This made him not popular among his generals who
wanted glory and spoils. But he understood if you stretch yourself too thin,
you can wind up with nothing.
To consolidate
the Empire’s holdings in Brittain, he had a wall constructed from Solway Firth
to the Tyne River. Construction began in the year 122 AD. The Empire had never
been able to subdue the highland Scottish tribes, so this wall (Hadrian’s Wall)
divided the “barbarians from the Romans.” It was a solid piece of engineering
with forts and towers scattered along it to keep the “barbarians” out.
Hadrian’s
successor, Antonius Pius, had a wall constructed 100 miles north of Hadrian’s
Wall, but his successor, Marcus Aurelius decided the land between the two walls
was not defensible and abandoned Antonius’ Wall in favor of Hadrian’s. By the
early Fifth Century, Roman rule in Brittain was collapsing and no amount of
walls would prevent it.
The Great Wall
of China began as a series of fortifications in the 7th Century BC.
It was expanded and linked to its full extent over the centuries that followed,
culminating in the Ming Dynasty. It is one of the marvels of human engineering
and is certainly the most massive and well-constructed wall ever built. Originally
designed to keep out the “barbarians” and later the Mongols and Manchus.
Eventually (1644), the Manchus were able to cross the wall for good and defeat
the Ming Dynasty.
The Maginot Line
was not one wall but a series of walls, fortifications, and use of terrain to
thwart an invasion from Germany into France. In the 1930’s France was
increasingly nervous about the rearming and aggression of Germany. The Maginot
Line was the approved solution, though some generals like de Gaulle opposed it
feeling the money would be better spent building tanks and aircraft. The Maginot Line was state of the art for the
time. It had fortifications with retractable and rotating turrets. A phone
system connected each fort. It had underground railways, observation posts,
natural basins that could be flooded on demand, infantry bunkers, heavy railway
artillery, and more. They thought of everything . . . and it was an utter
failure. There was almost no coverage of the Maginot Line through the Ardennes
Forest because the terrain was considered too rough for an invasion route. So,
the invasion, when it came, went through Belgium and the Ardennes Forest and
quickly bypassed the French fortifications. General Patton said in reference to
the Maginot Line “This is a first-class case of man’s monument to stupidity.”
In the movie Patton, he goes on to say, “When mountain ranges and oceans
can be overcome, anything built by man can be overcome.” I don’t know if
the last words are Patton’s words or just the screenwriter’s. Nonetheless, it
remains true.
The Berlin Wall
was built by East Germany to keep people from escaping to the west. It did
serve as a deterrent. But thousands of people were still able to scale it, bypass it,
or tunnel under it before it was finally demolished.
The Republic of
Ragusa built the Walls of Ston to protect itself from invasion from mainland of
what would today be Croatia. It was 4.5 miles long and had 40 towers, but it
could not keep out Napoleon.
Castles are
basically walled fortresses. The reason castles stopped being built was because
technology made them obsolete. Once cannons started being produced in large
numbers, castles and walls in general were no longer impregnable.
The bottom line
is, walls designed to keep people in or keep people out are always going to be vulnerable.
If you are determined to get past a wall
and you have enough resources, you will figure out a way to do so. There is
always going to be a way to go under, over, around, or through it.
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