To do this, they built a rather famous wall. The Great Wall was mostly built under the Ming Dynasty using resources that they only had because they stopped building gigantic ships. And just imagine what might have happened if the Ming emperors had embraced a different strategy, one that was based on outreach instead of isolationism. And now, to the blue corner representing Portuguese exploration, we have Vasco da Gama. A couple things about Portugal. First, it has a fair bit of coastline. Secondly, it was relatively resource poor, which meant it relied upon trade in order to grow.