Answered by Djavulen from 'murica | May. 01, 2015 13:37
The [almost] complete history is that the wall comprised of many other walls built by farmers over a few hundred years. Then Qin Shi Huang (huang meaning emperor, not part of his birth name) united the Chinese feudal states under the Qin Dynasty into the country we now call China (the phrasing used by the Chinese today is "zhong guo ren" pronounced (zd/ch)ong guo lit meaning is middle country.) Emperor Qin then order much of China's product to increase defenses against foreign enemies and built up the wall. Then he tried to find the answer to immortality and ate a ton of mercury, which if you didn't know, it's highly poisonous.