Key Knowledge and the Great Wall of China

I had been taught at school that the Great Wall of China was built to keep invaders out but I kept thinking to myself how would that work? If you think about it, no matter how high a wall is, someone can climb over it. Then I decided to view it as a key knowledge issue.

If you imagine you were in charge of China's defense and needed to know the key knowledge to prevent your country being invaded it might be something like this. It might not be how to keep them out but rather how to stop them becoming an effective force once they got in. The key knowledge was that an invading force required horses to be effective (they were the tank or fighter aircraft of their day). So if you could stop horses getting into the country you would prevent invasion and conquest.

Thus the Great Wall of China was not build to stop soldiers getting into the country but to stop horses getting into the country!

Sometimes the key knowledge we need isn't immediately obvious.


Knoco Ltd