The Making of a Global World
Topic: The Pre- Modern World
1. Describe how human societies have become steadily more interlinked in the ancient times.
Or
Mention any three sources of interlinkage between nations in ancient timesAnswer: It is true to say that human societies have become steadily more interlinked in the following ways:
- From ancient times, travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast distances for knowledge, opportunities and spiritual fulfillment or to escape persecution.
- They carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions and even germs and diseases.
- As early as 3000 BCE an active coastal trade linked the Indus Valley civilisation with present-day West Asia.
- For more than a millennia, cowries were used as a form of currency.
- From the ninth century, images of ships appear regularly in memorial stones found in the western coast, indicating the significance of oceanic trade.
2. Describe the significance of silk route in the pre-modern period in the field of Trade, cultural exchange and religion.
Or
Enumerate the importance of silk routes.
Or
“Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand.” Explain the statement in the light of the silk route.
Answer: 1. The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural links between distant parts of the world.
2. They were spread over land and sea knitting together vast regions of Asia and linking with Europe and Africa.
3. They existed since before the Christian Era and thrived almost till the 15th century.
4. Chinese pottery, textiles, and spices from India traveled to Europe.
5. In return, precious metals, gold, and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.
6. Buddhism, Christian missionaries, Muslim preachers also traveled through this route to Asia.
3. " Food offers many examples of long - distance cultural exchange . " Support your answer with three examples .
Answer: This statement can easily be justified by the following points:
1. Traders and travelers introduced new crops to the lands they traveled . Even ' ready ' foodstuff share common origins.
2. It is believed that noodles travelled West from China to become spaghetti and Arab traders took pasta to Sicily.
3. Many of our common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chilies, and sweet potatoes and so on were not known to India until about five centuries ago. These foods were only introduced in Europe and Asia after Columbus accidently discovered America.
4. In fact, many of our common foods came from America's original inhabitants, the American Indians.
4. The Spanish conquest and colonisation of America was decisively underway by the midsixteenth century'. Explain with example
Or
How were the germs used as powerful weapon by the Portuguese and the Spanish for the colonisation of America
Answer: By the 16th century, Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonization was underway.
1. The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not the conventional military weapon but the germs of the disease such as smallpox that the conquerors carried on their person.
2. Because of their long isolation , America 's original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that came from Europe . Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer.
3. Once introduced , it spread deep into the continent ahead even of any European reaching there . It killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for conquest.
4. Guns could be bought or captured and turned against the invaders . But not diseases such as smallpox to which the conquerors were mostly immune.
5. Why thousands of people fled Europe for America in the 19th century ?
Or
Why did thousands of people flee away from Europe to America in the 19th century ? Give any three reasons .
Answer:
1. Until the 19th century , poverty and hunger were common in Europe .
2. Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread.
3. Religious conflicts were common and religious dissenters were persecuted. So people migrated from Europe to America.
Topic: The Nineteenth Century (1815-1914)
6. Explain the three types of movements or flows within international economic exchange. Mention any one example of any one type of flow from India and one from England
Answer: (i) The first movement is the flow of trade of goods.
(ii) The second movement is the flow of people migrating in search of employment.
(iii) The third movement is the flow of capital in terms of short-term and long-term investments over long distances.
India: Migration of indentured laborers; trade of cotton textile.
Europe: Selling of Manchester goods in India.
7. What were Corn Laws ? Why were they passed ?
Answer:
- The laws allowing the government to restrict the import of corn were known as Corn Laws.
- Under pressure from landed groups, the government had passed these laws.
8. Describe the effects of abolishing the Com Laws.
Answer: The following were the effects of abolishing the Com Laws in England.
(i)After the Corn Laws were scrapped, food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country.
(ii)British agriculture was unable to compete with imports.
(iii)Vast areas of land were now left uncultivated and thousands of men and women were thrown out of work.
(iv) Peasants flocked to the cities or migrated overseas.
9. How was the food problem solved in Britain after scrapping of the Corn Laws? Explain.
Answer:
1. After scrapping of the Corn Laws, food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country. So Britain began to import food grains from rest of the world.
2. Around the world, especially in Eastern Europe, Russia, America and Australia, land was cleared and food production expanded to meet the British demand.
3. There had been complex changes in labour movements patterns, capital flow, ecology and technology.
4. Crops were not grown by a peasant tilling his, own land but by an agricultural worker. Food came from thousands of mile away.
5. Food and other essential commodities were transported by railways and by ships manned by low paid workers from southern Europe, Asia, Africa and Caribbean islands.
10. Describe any three dramatic changes that occurred in west Punjab in the 19th century, in the field of agriculture.
OR
Describe the Canal Colonies. Where and why were they introduced?
Answer:
(i) In the 19th century, the areas irrigated by the new canals built by the British-Indian Government were called the 'Canal Colonies'.
(ii) They were introduced in Punjab. Peasants from the other parts of Punjab settled around these canals.
(iii) They were developed to transform semi-desert waste lands into fertile agricultural lands to grow wheat and cotton for export.
11. How did technology help to solve hardship of food availability throughout the world in the late-nineteenth century? Explain with example.
Answer: Technological advancement stimulated the process of food availability. Technology help to solve hardship of food availability in the following ways.
(i) Because of new investments and improvements in transport, like faster railways with lighter wagons and large ships, food moved quickly and cheaply from farms to final markets.
(ii) Now perishable food could travel long distances easily through refrigerated ships.
(iii) Earlier animals were carried long which posed problems like utilisation of space, diseases and loss of weight. Meat was hence an expensive luxury beyond the reach of the European poor.
(iv) Now animals could be slaughtered and easily packed for long distances. Cost of transportation also reduced.
(v) The poor could now consume more varied diet including meat as it was available in plenty and at reduced costs.
12 . “Trade flourished and markets expanded in the late 19th century but there was a darker side to the process.” Explain.
Answer:
(i) In many parts of the world, the expansion of trade and a closer relationship with the world economy led to a loss of freedoms and livelihoods.
(ii) European conquests produced many painful economic, social and ecological changes through which the colonised societies were brought into the world economy.
(iii) For example, the African continent was divided by the European powers at a Berlin conference in 1885 without caring for the local inhabitants.
(iv) Britain and France made vast additions to their overseas territories. Belgium and Germany became colonial powers.
(v) The US also became colonial power in the late 1890s by taking over some colonies earlier held by Spain.
(vi) The explorations by Sir Henry Morton Stanley and other explorers helped the conquest of Africa. These explorations were not driven by an innocent search for scientific information. They were directly linked to imperial projects.
(vii) A fast-spreading disease of cattle plague or rinderpest affected the people’s livelihood
and local economy in Africa. It killed 90 per cent of the cattle between Atlantic coast and the Cape. (viii) Africans rarely worked for a wage but the Europeans imposed heavy taxes in order to compel them to work for wages on plantations and mines. Peasants were displaced from land to work in labour market.
13. Before the arrival of outsiders, most of the Africans had a little reason to work for a wage. Explain three reasons.
Answer: Three reasons were as mentioned below :
- Africa had abundant land and a relatively small population.
- Land and livestock sustained African livelihoods. People rarely worked for a wage.
- There were few consumer goods that wages could buy. If you had been an African possessing land and livestock, there would have been no reason to work for a wage. The fact was that there was plenty of land and livestock.
14. What attracted the Europeans to Africa in the late nineteenth century ? Give any three reasons.
Answer: In the late nineteenth century the main reasons for the attraction of Europeans to Africa were as mentioned below :
- There were vast resources of land and minerals.
- Europeans hoped to establish plantations to produce crops.
- They wanted to control mines to produce minerals for export to Europe.
15. Describe various methods employed by the Europeans to recruit and retain labour in Africa.
Answer: The following methods were used by the Europeans to recruit and retain labour in Africa:
- Heavy taxes were imposed which could be paid only by working for wages on plantations and mines.
- Inheritance laws were changed which displaced the peasants from land. Only one member of a family was allowed to inherit land, as a result of which the others were pushed into the labour market.
- Mine workers were also confined in compounds and not allowed to move about freely.
16. How did rinderpest become instrumental in subjugating the Africans?
Answer: Rinderpest was a devastating cattle disease that not only affected the cattle but also the lives of the people by subjugating them to the Europeans in the following ways.
(i) The Loss of 90% of the cattle destroyed African livelihoods.
(ii) Planters, mine owners, and colonial governments now successfully monopolized what scarce cattle resources remained, to strengthen their power and forced Africans into the labor market.
(iii) Control over the scarce resource of cattle enabled European colonizers to conquer and subdue Africa.
17. Explain major features of global agricultural economy that had taken shape towards the close of the 19th century.
Answer: By 1890, a global agricultural economy had taken shape. It was accompanied by complex changes in labour movement patterns, capital flows, ecologies, and technology. It has the following features:
(i) The food requirement was met not from a nearby village but from places that were thousands of miles away. For example, the British demand for more food was met by the expansion of food production in Eastern Europe, Russia, America and Australia.
(ii) The work in a field was not done by a peasant titling his own land but by an agricultural worker working on a large farm which was a forest earlier.
(iii) Low-paid workers from other distant places such as Southern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean were employed in the ships and railways. Agricultural produce was also transported by railways and ships.
iv) In addition to food, the cultivation of cotton also expanded worldwide to fulfil the needs of the British textile mills.
v) As a result, global agricultural economy which was earlier self sufficient in rural society transformed into an industrial city with more demand for food.
18. Give three examples to show that the pre-modern world changed with the discovery of new sea routes to America.
OR
‘The pre-modern world changed with the discovery of new sea routes to America’. Support the statement with suitable examples.
Answer: The pre-modem world changed a lot with the discovery of new sea routes
(i) Many of our common foods like potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes etc were introduced to Europe after the discovery of America. Sometimes, these crops made difference between life and death. The poor began to eat better and live longer in Europe with the introduction of potato.
(ii) Precious metals like silver found in present day Peru and Mexico, also enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia.
(iii) Slave trade started. European traders captured slaves in Africa and took them to America where they worked on plantations. Europe now emerged as the centre of world trade.
(iv) Religious conflicts were common and religious dissenters were persecuted. Thousands therefore fled Europe for America.
(v) Diseases like smallpox, germs of which were carried by Europeans to America, decimated the whole community who had no immunity to it.
19. The First World War was a war like no other before. Explain any three features about the war that support the statement.
Answer:(i) It involved the world's leading industrial nations.
(ii) This war was the first modern industrial war. Machine guns, tanks, aircrafts, chemical weapons, were used on a massive scale.
(iii) The size of death 9 million dead,20 million harmed was unbelievable before the mechanical age.Most of those who were killed and maimed were men of working age. The scale of death and destruction was great. These deaths and injuries reduced the workforce in Europe.
(iv) Industries during the war were restructured to produce war-related products.Entire social orders were rearranged for war — men went to fight, ladies stepped in to take up occupations that prior just men were relied upon to do.
v) The war led to the snapping of economic links between the world's largest economic powers which were now fighting with each other to pay for them. The war transformed the US from being an international debtor to an international creditor.
20. Who were indentured labourers? How were they recruited? Describe the main characteristic of indentured labour migrated from India.
Answer:
i) Indentured labourers were bonded labourers under contract to work for an employer for a specific amount of time, to pay off their passage to a new country or home.
ii) Recruitment was done by agents engaged by employers and was paid a small commission.
iii) In the 19th century hundreds of thousands of Indian and Chinese labourers were hired
iii) In India, indentured labourers were hired under contracts which promised return travel to India after they had worked five years on their employers plantation.
iv) Most Indian indentured workers came from the present-day regions of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districts of Tamil Nadu. In the mid-nineteenth century these regions experienced many changes-cottage industries declined, land rents rose, lands were cleared for mines and plantations.
v) All this affected the lives of the poor; they failed to pay their rents, became deeply indebted and were forced to migrate in search of work.
vi) Nineteenth-century indenture has been described as a 'new system of slavery. On arrival at the plantations, labourers found conditions to be different from what they had imagined. Living and working conditions were harsh, and there were few legal rights.
21. How were the working conditions for the indentured migrants overseas? How did the different cultural form blend into new forms?
Answer: On arrival at the plantations, the indentured labour found extremely horrible and miserable living and working conditions.It can he described as :
i) They were subjected to harsh, inhuman and unsympathetic conditions.
(ii) If they were caught while escaping, they faced severe punishment.
(iii) Deductions were made from their wages, if the work was found unsatisfactory.
(iv) Working hours were very long and labourers had few legal rights.
The indentured labour in the Caribbean islands gave rise to new forms of individual and collective self expression which blended different old and new cultural forms in the following ways.
(a) In Trinidad, the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called ‘Hosay’ in which workers of all races and religions joined.
(b) Similarly, the protest religion of Rastafarianism made famous by the Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley is also said to reflect social and cultural links with Indian migrants to the Caribbean.
(c) ‘Chutney music’, popular in Trinidad and Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the post-indenture experience.
(d) These forms of cultural fusion are part of the making of the global world, where things from different places get mixed, lose their original characteristics and become something entirely new.
22. Write any three factors responsible for indentured labour migration from India.
Answer: Factors responsible for indentured labour migration from India :
i) In the mid-19th century cottage industries declined land rents rose lands were cleared for mines and plantations. This affected poor people because they were highly indebted and forced to migrate for work.
ii) As the agents provided false information about final destinations nature of work and living and working conditions many poor people were tempted to go and work.
iii) In order to escape Poverty or oppression at home and in villages many migrants agreed to work.
23. What is meant by 'Trade Surplus' ? Why did Britain have a Trade Surplus with India ?
Answer: Trade Surplus: It is a situation in which the total value of exports of a nation during the year exceeds the total value of imports.
(i) Over the 19th century, British manufacturers flooded the Indian market. Food grains and raw material exports from India to Britain and the rest of the world also increased.
(ii) Value of British exports to India was higher than imports from India.
(iii) Britain, as such had a "Trade surplus" with India. Britain used this surplus to balance the trade deficit with other countries.
(iv) This is how a multilateral settlement system works that allows one country's deficit with another country to be settled by its surplus with a third country.
(v) India played a crucial role in helping Britain to balance its deficits. Trade surplus also
helped to pay the ‘home charges’, which included interest payments on India’s
external debts and pensions of British officials in India.
24. After 19th century, how did the indentured labourers discover their own ways of survival? Explain.
Answer:
(i) Initially, the indentured laborers found it difficult to adjust to the harsh living conditions of the plantation. But very soon they discovered new ways of survival.
(ii) They developed new forms of individual and collective self-expression, blended art, cultural forms, old and new.
(iii) In trinidad, the culturalMuharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called 'Hosay' in which workers of all races and religions joined.
(iv) The protest religion 'Rastafarianism' is also said to reflect social and cultural links with Indian migrates to the Caribbean.
(v) Chutney music popular in Trinidad and Guyana is another creative expression of the post indenture experience.
25. what were the main features of the First World War?
Answer: The main features of the First World War are as follows:
(i) The First World War (1914-18) was mainly fought in Europe. But its impact was felt around the world.
(ii) It was fought between two power blocs -the Allies (Britain, France, and Russia) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria - Hungary, and Ottoman Turkey). It lasted for more than four years.
(iii) This war was the first modern industrial war. Machine guns, tanks, aircrafts, chemical weapons, were used on a massive scale.
(iv) The size of death 9 million dead,20 million harmed was unbelievable before the mechanical age.Most of those who were killed and maimed were men of working age. The scale of death and destruction was great. These deaths and injuries reduced the workforce in Europe.
(v) Industries during the war were restructured to produce war-related products.Entire social orders were rearranged for war — men went to fight, ladies stepped in to take up occupations that prior just men were relied upon to do.
26. Describe in brief the economic conditions of the post First World War period.
Answer: Post First World War period economic conditions:
(i) Britain which was world's leading economy in the pre-war period faced a prolonged crisis.
(ii) Indian and Japanese industries were developed as Britain was occupied with war.
(iii) After the war, it was difficult for Britain to recapture its earlier position in the Indian market.
(iv) Britain was burdened with huge external debts from the US.
(v) The government reduced bloated war expenditure. This led to huge job losses and unemployment.
(vi) Grain prices fell, rural income declined, and farmers fell deeper into debt.
27. Explain the effect of great depression of 1929 on Indian economy.
Answer:
i) In the 19th century, Colonial India had become an exporter of agricultural goods and importer of manufactured goods. The depression had immediate effect on Indian trade, India’s exports and imports halved between 1928 and 1934.
ii) As agricultural prices fell sharply internationally as a result of this prices plunged in India.
iii) Peasants and farmers suffered due to the fall of prices. Their income lowered but the Colonial government refused to reduce the revenue they collected and this led to their hardships.
iv) Jute producers of Bengal also were hard hit with the collapse of gunny bag export, jute prices crashed, peasants who had borrowed in the hope to increase their production, fell into debts due to the crash of jute prices by 60 per cent.
v) Peasants used up their savings, mortgaged lands and sold whatever jewellery and precious metals they had to meet their expenses.
vi) The depression did not have much negative effect on urban India. Town dwelling landowners who received rents, people with fixed income or salaried classes became better off with the falling of prices of the foodgrains and other commodities. Industrial investments were not much affected as the government extended tariff protection to industries.
28. Explain the causes of the Great Depression.
Answer: The Great Depression was caused by a combination of several factors:
i) Agricultural overproduction was a major factor. As a result, agricultural prices fell. As prices fell and agricultural incomes declined, farmers tried to expand production. This increased the volume of goods in the market. The situation got worsened in the market. Prices fell down further. Farm produce began to rot due to the lack of buyers.
ii) In the mid-1920s, many countries for the US financed their investments through loans. US overseas lenders got panicked at the sign of trouble and withdrew their
amount. Countries that depended on US loans now faced acute financial problem.
iii) The withdrawal of US loans affected the rest of the world in many different ways.
In Europe, it led to the failure of some major banks and the collapse of currencies
such as the British pound sterling. In Latin America and elsewhere it intensified
the slump in agricultural and raw material prices.
iv) The US attempt to protect its economy in the depression by doubling import duties also gave another severe blow to world trade which aggravated the Great Depression.
29. Explain the effects of the Great Depression of 1929 on the United States.
Answer:
i)With the fall in prices and the prospect of depression, the US banks also slashed domestic lending and called back loans.
ii) Farms could not sell their harvests , households were ruined, and businesses collapsed.
(iii) Faced with falling income, many households in the US could not repay what they had borrowed, and were forced to give up their homes, cars and other consumer durables.
iv) As unemployment soared, people trudged long distances looking for any work they could find. Ultimately, the US banking system itself collapsed.
30. Briefly summarise the two lessons learnt by economists and politicians from the inter-war economic experience.
Answer: The economists and politicians learnt two key lessons from the inter-war economic experience.
- First, an industrial society based on mass production cannot be sustained without mass consumption. There is a need for high and stable income which depends on full employment of the people.
- Since market alone could not guarantee full employment; government should intervene and take steps to minimise fluctuation of market forces.
- The second lesson is that the global economy is inter-related.
- The goal of full employment could only be achieved if governments had power to control flow of goods, capital and labour.
31. What steps were taken by the economists and politicians of the world to meet the global economic crisis that arose after the Second World War?
Answer: The steps taken are as follows :
(i) Bretton Woods Conference established IMF to deal with external surplus and deficit of its members.
(ii) The World Bank was set up to finance post-war reconstruction.
(iii) Bretton Woods system was established based on fixed exchange rates.
(iv) A dollar was anchored to gold at a fixed price.
32. When was the Bretton Woods conference convened? State the main aim of the conference.
Answer: (i) The Bretton Wood Conference was convened in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, U.S.A.
(ii) Its main aim was to preserve economic stability and full employment in the industrial world.
(iii) The conference established International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nation and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) was set up to finance post war reconstruction.
33. Discuss the factors that led to the end of Bretton Woods System and the beginning of globalization.
Answer:
(i) Decline in economic power of the USA : (a) US dollar no longer commanded confidence.
(b) US dollar could not maintain its value in relation to gold.
(c) A collapse of fixed exchange rates on floating exchange rates.
(ii) Change in the international financial: The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created to meet the financial needs of the industrial countries. The international financial system changed, and developing countries were forced to borrow from western commercial banks. (iii) Unemployment in industrialized countries: Industrial world was hit by unemployment. The number of unemployed started rising and people trudged long distances looking for any work they could find.
(iv) Shifting to production enterprises: MNCs shifted their production units to Asian countries because of cheap labor and low wages.
(v) Changes in China: China became an attractive destination for investment by foreign MNCs.
34. Explain what is referred to as the G-77 countries. In what ways can G-77 be seen as a reaction to the activities of the Bretton Woods twins?
Answer: (i) The Bretton Woods Twins - the IMF and the World Bank were dominated by the former colonial powers As a result, most developing countries did not benefit from the fast growth that the western economies experienced in 1950s and 1960s. So. they organised themselves as a croup - the group of 77 of G-77 to demand a new International economic order.
(ii) Former colonial powers exploited the natural resources for developing nations through the IMF and the World Bank.
(iii) The developing nations organised themselves into G-77 so as to gain real control over then natural resources.
(iv) They wanted to get more development assistance and fairer prices tor raw materials.
(v) They also wanted a better opportunity for their manufactured goods in the markets of developed nations.
35. The relocation of
industry to low-wage countries stimulated world trade and capital flows.”
Justify the statement.
Answer: Relocation of industry
to low wage countries stimulated world trade and capital flows due to the
following reasons.
i)In the last two
decades the world economic geography has been transformed as countries like
China, India and Brazil have undergone rapid economic transformation.
ii)Wages were relatively
low in these countries. Thus, these became attractive destinations for
investment by foreign MNCs competing to capture world markets. The low cost
structure of economy of China and low wages specially attracted them.
iii) With the failure of
Soviet style communism and the collapse of Soviet Union, many Eastern European
countries were also integrated in the world economy.
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