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History Class 10 Chapter 4 Question Answer Solutions
Make your learning experience enjoyable by preparing from the quick links available on this page. Use the Class 10 SST History Chapter 4 NCERT Solutions and get to know different concepts involved. All the Solutions are covered as per the latest syllabus guidelines. Knowing the NCERT Class 10 History Chapter 4 Questions and Answers helps students to attempt the exam with confidence.
The Making of Global World Class 10 Questions Answers
Question 1.
Explain what we mean when we say that the world ‘shrank’ in the 1500s.
Answer:
The world ‘shrank’ in the 1500s can be understood in the following ways:
- Europeans discovered the sea route to Asia. As a result, trade activities increased between Asia and Europe.
- The American continent was discovered only when the sea route through the Atlantic ocean to America was found.
- The above reasons increased interaction among the people living in various continents of the world and thus caused the world ‘shrink’ in metaphorical terms.
Question 2.
Discuss the importance of language and popular traditions in the creation of national
identity.
Answer:
A person is identified as belonging to a particular nation by his cultural traditions and the language that he speaks. They give an identity to an individual wherever he is. For example, German will normally speak the German language fluently. He will also follow German traditions and customs wherever he is in the world, as he would have imbibed them in his family from his childhood days. Thus, he will be identified as a German national.
Question 3.
Who profits from jute cultivation according to the jute growers’ lament? Explain.
Answer:
The traders, according to the jute growers’ lament, take profit from jute cultivation. The poor peasants of Bengal grow jute by borrowing money from the local traders. They do hard labour in hope that they will get a fair price. But the traders cheat them. They don’t give them a fair price and thus make huge profits.
History Class 10 Chapter 4 NCERT Textbook Questions and Answers
Question 1.
Give two examples of different types of global exchanges which took place before the seventeenth century, choosing one example from Asia and one from the Americas.
Answer:
One example from Asia
The silk routes played an important role in establishing trade and cultural links between distant parts of the world. West-bound Chinese silk cargoes travelled through these routes. Historians have identified several silk routes, over land and by sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia, and linking Asia with Europe and northern Africa. They are known to have existed till the fifteenth century. Chinese pottery also travelled the same route as did textiles and spices from India and southeast Asia. In return, precious metals like gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia. Besides, cultural exchanges also took place. Early Christian missionaries travelled this route to Asia, as did early Muslim preachers a few centuries later.
One example from the Americas
Food has an important role in long-distance cultural exchange. Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands they travelled. It is believed the noodles travelled west from China. Other common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, etc. were only introduced in Europe and Asia after Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. From the sixteenth century, its vast lands, abundant crops and minerals began to transform trade and lives everywhere. Precious metals from mines enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia.
Question 2.
Explain how the global transfer of disease in the pre-modem world helped in the colonisation of the Americas.
Answer:
(i) America was very rich in natural resources. It had vast lands, abundant crops and minerals. This attracted Europeans (Portuguese and Spanish) who were known for their superior firework.
(ii) But European conquest was not just a result of superior firework. In fact, the most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors proved to be the germs of smallpox and other diseases that they carried on their person.
(iii) Because of their long isolation, America’s original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox in particular proved to be a deadly killer.
(iv) Once introduced, it spread deep into the Americas and killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for colonisation of this continent.
(v) Guns could be bought or captured and turned against the invaders. But not diseases such as smallpox to which the conquerors were mostly immune.
Question 3.
Write a note to explain the effects of the following:
(a) The British government’s decision to abolish the Corn Laws.
(b) The coming of rinderpest to Africa.
(c) The death of men of working-age in Europe because of the World War.
(d) The Great Depression on the Indian economy.
(e) The decision of MNCs to relocate production to Asian countries.
Answer:
(a) (i) The nineteenth-century Britain lacked self-sufficiency in food because of the fast population growth. The ever-increasing population increased the demand for food grains in Britain.
(ii) As urban centres expanded and industries grew, the demand for agricultural products went up. This pushed up the prices of food grains.
(iii) The British government also restricted the import of corn by introducing the Corn Laws. But these laws were soon abolished as a result of which food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country.
(iv) British agriculture could not compete with imports. Vast areas of land were left uncultivated, and thousands of men and women were thrown out of work. They migrated to cities or overseas.
(v) Higher incomes and decline in food prices led to the increase in food consumption and therefore more food imports. Countries like Russia, America and Australia began to export food grains to meet the British demand. This further weakened the local producers.
(b) (i) Rinderpest, a devastating cattle disease, arrived in Africa in the late 1880s. It was carried by infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers invading Eritrea in East Africa.
(ii) As soon as rinderpest entered Africa in the east, it moved west fast and reached Africa’s Atlantic coast in 1892. It reached the Cape, Africa’s southern most tip, five years later. Along the way the disease killed 90 per cent of the cattle.
(iii) The loss of cattle on such a large scale destroyed African livelihoods. Planters, mine owners and colonial governments took advantage of this situation.
(iv) They monopolised the remaining cattle resources to strengthen their power and to drag Africans into the labour market to employ them on plantations.
(v) By establishing control over the scarce resources of cattle the European colonisers easily sub-dued Africa which they wanted from the day they came to this continent. Thus, rinderpest played an important role in making Africa a puppet in the hands of colonisers.
(c) (i) The First World War brought great devastation to the world. It saw the use of machine guns,tanks, aircrafts, chemical weapons, etc. on a massive scale.
(ii) To fight the war, millions of soldiers had to be recruited from around the world and moved to the frontlines on large ships and trains. The scale of death and destruction was beyond imagination.
(iii) Most of the killed were men of working age. These deaths and injuries reduced the able-bodied workforce in Europe, with fewer numbers within the family, household incomes declined after the war.
(iv) This forced the women to outside world in search of jobs. They took jobs to run their families. Thus, their activities were no longer limited to home and hearth. The war taught them how to bear double burden.
(d) (i) An integrated global economy had taken place by the early twentieth century. Hence, the impact of the Great Depression could be seen on India too.
(ii) In the nineteenth century, colonial India had become an exporter of agricultural goods and importer of manufactures. The depression immediately affected Indian trade. India’s exports and imports nearly halved between 1928 and 1934.
(iii) As international prices crashed, prices in India, also plugged. Between 1928 and 1934, wheat prices in India fell by 50 per cent. This made the lives of peasants and farmers miserable.
(iv) Though agricultural prices fell sharply, the colonial government refused to reduce revenue demands. Peasants producing for the world market were the worst hit.
(v) Across India, peasants’ indebtedness increased. They used up their savings, mortgaged lands and sold whatever jewellery and precious metals they had to meet their expenses. This made India an exporter of precious metals, notably gold. Indian gold exports promoted global economic recovery but the Indian peasants were bound to lead a miserable life.
(e)
- From the late 1970s, MNCs began to shift production operations to Asian countries because of their low wages.
- The countries like China offered abundant labour force to these MNCs. These workers were ready to work on low wages.
- Hence, the foreign MNCs made these countries their favourite destinations for investment in order to compete to capture world markets.
- The relocation of industry to low-wage countries stimulated world trade and capital flows. And countries like India, China and Brazil have undergone rapid economic transformation.
Question 4.
Give two examples from history to show the impact of technology on food availability.
Answer:
Technology played a major role in making food available. This can be understood by the following examples: .
(i) Faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped move perishable food-stuff more cheaply and quickly from faraway farms to final markets.
(ii) The technique of cold storage and use of refrigerated ships boosted the export of perishable goods. Now animals were slaughtered for food at the starting point in America, Australia or New Zealand and then exported to Europe where meat was scarce. The poor in Europe could now add meat to their diet.
Question 5.
What is meant by the Bretton Woods Agreement?
Answer:
(i) The Bretton Woods conference was held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA with an aim to preserve economic stability and full employment in the industrial world.
(ii) The Bretton Woods conference established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations.
(iii) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development popularly known as the World Bank was set up to finance post-war reconstruction.
(iv) The Bretton Woods system was based on fixed exchange rates. In this system, national currencies were pegged to the dollar at a fixed exchange rate. The dollar itself was anchored to gold at a fixed price of $35 per ounce of gold.
Discuss
Question 6.
Imagine that you are an indentured Indian labourer in the Caribbean. Drawing from the details in this chapter, write a letter to your family describing your life and feelings.
Answer:
Respected Maa/Baba
I am one of the ill-fated Indian indentured labourers who have been employed in a cocoa plantation in Trinidad. Actually the agents, who hired me and others, provided false information about final destinations, modes of travel, the nature of the work, and living and working conditions. You’ll be shocked to know that the conditions at the plantations are completely different from what we had imagined. We are forced to live in harsh conditions. What is more we have been given few legal rights. I am very upset and so are my fellow indentured labourers.
In spite ofour best efforts, most of us fail to do the works allotted to us properly and in given time frame.In case of absenteeism from work, one is prosecuted and even sent to jail. Deductions are also made from wages if the work is considered to have been done unsatisfactorily. Many labourers cannot therefore earn their full wages and are punished in various ways. Actually, we are slaves without any rights and freedoms. I am afraid I can lose my family. But I can’t do anything except doing hard labour in harsh conditions. Although I am in great trouble, I have full faith in God. One day He will shower His blessings on me and my fellow labourers. Dear Maa/Baba, you too have faith in God.
Yours
Raman
Question 7.
Explain the three types of movements or flows within international economic exchange. Find one example of each type of flow which involved India and Indians, and write a short account of it.
Answer:
The three types of movements or flows within international economic exchange are:
- The flow of trade which in the nineteenth century is referred largely to trade in goods such as cotton, wheat, etc.
- The flow of labour i.e., the migration of people in search of employment.
- The flow of capital for short-term or long-term investments over long distance.
Examples of each type of flow
(i) Historically, fine cottons produced in India were exported to Europe. With industrialisation, British cotton manufacture began to expand and industrialists pressurised the government to restrict cotton imports and protect local industries. Tariffs were imposed on cloth imports into Britain. As a result, the inflow of fine Indian cotton began to decline.
(ii) Over the nineteenth century, food grain and raw material exports from India to Britain and the rest of the world increased. But the value of British exports to India was much higher than the value of British imports from India. Thus, Britain had a ‘trade surplus’ with India. Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries. By helping Britain balance its deficits, India played a crucial role in the late nineteenth century world economy.
(iii) In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and in social and railway construction projects around the world. These were indentured labourers who were hired under contracts which promised return travel to India after they had worked five years on their employer’s plantation.
Question 8.
Explain the causes of the Great Depression.
Answer:
The Great Depression began around 1929 and lasted till the mid-1980s. During this period most parts of the world experienced catastrophic decline in production, employment, incomes and trade. The depression was caused by a combination of several factors:
(i) Agricultural overproduction remained a problem. This was made worse by falling agricultural pric¬es. As prices fell and agricultural incomes declined, farmers tried to expand production and bring a larger volume of produce to the market to maintain their overall income. This worsened the glut (an excessive supply) in the market, pushing down prices even further. Farm produce rotted as there were no buyers.
(ii) In the mid-1920s, many countries financed their investments through loans from the US. While it was often extremely easy to raise loans in the US when the going was good, the US overseas lenders panicked at the first sign of trouble. In the first half of 1928, the US overseas loans amounted to over $1 billion. A year later it was one quarter of that amount. Countries that depended crucially on US loans now faced an acute crisis. The withdrawal of the US loans affected much of the rest of the world. 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 fall in agricultural and raw material prices.
(iii) The US attempt to protect its economy in the depression by doubling import duties also proved a severe blow to world trade. With the fall in prices and the prospect of depression, the US banks also slashed domestic lending and called back loans. Faced with falling incomes, many households in the US could not repay what they had borrowed. Ultimately, the US banking system collapsed. Thousands of banks went bankrupt and were forced to close.
Question 9.
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:
The group of 77 or G-77 is a loose coalition of developing countries. It was designed to promote the collective economic interests of its members. In fact, the G-77 emerged with a demand of a new international economic order known as NIEO. By the NIEO, the member nations meant a system that would give them real control over their natural resources, more development assistance, fairer prices for raw materials, and better access for their manufactured goods in the markets of the developed countries. They wanted to stop immediately the powerful countries like the US from exploiting their natural resources. There were 77 founding members but the group has since expanded to around 130 member countries.
The G-77 can be seen as a reaction to the activities of the Bretton Woods twins i.e. the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, because these two institutions were designed to meet the financial needs of industrial and developed countries. These institutions did nothing for the economic growth of former colonies and developing countries. They were still facing grim poverty and wanted to come out of it by strengthening their economic condition. Hence, they grouped together for collective welfare.
Project
Find out more about gold and diamond mining in South Africa in the nineteenth century. Who controlled the gold and diamond companies? Who were the miners and what were their lives like?
Answer:
For self-attempt.
Class 10 History Chapter 4 NCERT Intext Activity Questions and Answers
Question 1.
Prepare a flow chart to show how Britain’s decision to import food led to increased migration to America and Australia.
Answer:
Britain decides to import food items.
⇓
Russia, America and Australia export food items to Britain.
⇓
These countries increase their production to supply Britain.
⇓
America and Australia were newly colonised and did not have enough labour.
⇓
So many people migrated to these countries to fulfil the demand for labour.
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