NCERT Solutions For Class 10 History Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World

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NCERT Solutions For Class 10 History Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World Long Questions And Answers

Question 1. How did the global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world help in the colonisation of America?

Answer:

  1. The colonisation of America was not just a result of superior firepower. In fact, the most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a conventional military weapon at all. It was the germs such as those of smallpox that they carried with them.
  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. Thus, 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. There was no need for weapons to be used on the people of colonies which saved the capital of the colonisers.

Read and Learn More Class 10 Social Science Solutions

Question 2. What was the role of technology in transforming the 19th-century world? Explain with an example.
Or
What was the impact of technology on food availability? Explain with the help of examples.

Answer:

  1. Technology, in the form of improvements in transport: faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped to move food more cheaply and quickly from far away farms to final markets.
  2. Earlier, animals were shipped live from America to Europe and then slaughtered when they arrived there. Meat was hence an expensive luxury beyond the reach of the European poor.
  3. Then, new technology, viz., refrigerated ships, came which enabled the transport of perishable foods over long distances. Now, animals were slaughtered for food and then transported to Europe as frozen meat.
  4. This reduced shipping costs and lowered meat prices in Europe.
  5. To the earlier monotony of bread and potatoes many, though not all, could now add meat (and butter and eggs) to their diet.

NCERT Solutions For Class 10 Social Science History Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World Laqs

Question 3. Enumerate the importance of silk routes.

Answer:

  1. The name ‘silk routes’ points to the importance of West-bound Chinese silk cargos along this route.
  2. Silk routes are known to have existed since before the Christian era. But, Chinese pottery also travelled the same route, as did textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia. In return, precious metals – gold and silver – flowed from Europe to Asia.
  3. Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand. Early Christian missionaries travelled through this route to Asia, as did early Muslim preachers a few centuries later.
  4. Much before all this, Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk routes.
  5. This was the beginning of global trade which took different routes and is even today transforming modern society.

Question 4. What is meant by the Great Depression? Write any two causes of it.

Answer:

The Great Depression began around 1929 and lasted till the mid-1930s.

During this period, most parts of the world experienced catastrophic declines in production, employment, incomes and trade. In general, agricultural regions and communities were the worst affected.

Causes:

  1. Agricultural overproduction remained a problem. This was made worse by falling agricultural prices.
  2. As prices slumped and agricultural incomes declined, farmers tried to expand production. This worsened the glut in the market, pushing down prices even further.
  3. In the mid-1920s, many countries financed their investments through loans from the US. The US began to withdraw its loans.
  4. Countries that depended crucially on the US loans now, faced an acute crisis.
  5. The entire world economy was affected. Investments sunk, production declined and unemployment rose.

Question 5. Why the 19th-century indenture has been described as a ‘new system of slavery”? Explain.
Or
Why do you think it was right to describe 19th-century indentured labour as a new system of slavery?

Answer:

The 19th-century indenture has been described as a ‘new system of slavery’ for the following reasons:

  1. Poor people were convinced with jobs good wages and improved standard of living.
  2. Migrants were provided false information about final destinations, modes of travel, the nature of work, and living and working conditions. Often migrants were not even told that they were to embark on a long sea voyage.
  3. 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.
  4. Workers discovered their own ways of surviving. Many of them escaped into the wilds, though when caught, they faced severe punishment.
  5. Others developed new forms of individual and collective self-expression, blending different cultural forms, old and new.

Question 6. Explain the measures adopted by America for post-war recovery.

Answer:

The measures adopted by America in the post-war recovery were as follows:

  1. Mass production became a characteristic feature of industrial production in the USA. It lowered the costs and prices of engineered goods.
  2. There was a spurt in the purchase of refrigerators, washing machines, radios, and gramophone players, through a system of hire purchase (i.e., on credit repaid in weekly or monthly installments).
  3. It was also fuelled by a boom in house construction and home ownership, financed once again by loans. The housing and consumer boom of the 1920s created the basis of prosperity in the US.
  4. Large investments in housing and household goods seemed to create a cycle of higher employment and incomes, rising consumption demand, more investment, and yet more employment and incomes.

Question 7. How far is it correct to say that “The First World War was the first modern industrial war”? Explain.

Answer:

The First World War was the first modern industrial war because:

  1. The fighting involved the world’s leading industrial nations which now harnessed the vast powers of modern industry to inflict the greatest possible destruction on their enemies.
  2. It saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc., on a massive scale. These were all increasingly products of modern large-scale industry.
  3. The scale of death and destruction (9 million dead and 20 million injured) was unthinkable before the industrial age, without the use of industrial arms.
  4. During the war, industries were restructured to produce war-related goods.

Question 8. “The indentured labour gave rise to a new culture in the Caribbean Islands.” Justify this statement with any four suitable examples.

Answer:

  1. In Trinidad, the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called ‘Hosay’ (for Imam Hussain) in which workers of all races and religions joined.
  2. 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.
  3. ‘Chutney music’, popular in Trinidad and Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the post-indenture experience.
  4. 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.

Question 9. Define the term ‘Trade surplus’. How was the income received from the trade surplus with India used by Britain?

Answer:

Trade surplus: When the value of exports is higher than the value of imports, it is called ‘Trade Surplus’.

Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries. This is how a multilateral settlement system works — it allows one country’s deficit with another country to be settled by its surplus with a third country.

By helping Britain balance its deficits, India played a crucial role in the late-nineteenth-century world economy.

Britain’s trade surplus in India helped to pay the so-called ‘home charges’ that included private remittances home by British officials and traders, interest payments on India’s external debt, and pensions of British officials in India.

Question 10. Explain any four causes of the Great Depression.

Answer:

The Great Depression began around 1929 and lasted till mid-1930s.

  1. The post-war economy of the world was fragile. Agriculture production was a problem. This was made worse by falling agricultural prices. As prices slumped and agricultural income declined, farmers tried to expand production to maintain their overall income.
  2. Many countries financed loans from the US. Now, the US overseas lenders panicked at the sign of a financial crisis.
  3. American capitalists stopped all loans to the European countries thus, halting all production there.
  4. Thousands of banks were bankrupt and were forced to close. Factories closed down leading to unemployment.

Question 11. Describe features of the Bretton Woods Agreement.

Answer:

  1. The Bretton Woods Agreement was signed between the world powers in 1944.
  2. This agreement established the IMF and World Bank to preserve economic stability in the world.
  3. National currencies followed the fixed exchange rates.
  4. Ushered an era of unprecedented growth of trade and incomes.

Question 12. “Food offers many examples of long-distance cultural exchange.” Justify this statement.

Answer:

The following instances justify this statement that food offers many examples of long-distance cultural exchange:

  1. Traders and travellers introduce new crops to the lands they travelled.
  2. Noodles travelled west from China to become ‘Spaghetti’.
  3. Arab traders took Pista to Sicily.
  4. Most of the common Indian foods such as potato, soya and chillies were not known to our ancestors.
  5. Many of our common foods came from American Indians.

Question 13. Explain, why the economy of the USA was strong in the early 1920s. Would you agree that the roots of the Great Depression lay in this boom”? State reasons for your answer.

Answer:

  1. Yes, the roots of the Great Depression lay in the boom of the US economy because of overproduction in industrial and agricultural sectors.
  2. It was during this period that Henry Ford used the assembly line method to achieve mass production.
  3. Mass production lowered the costs and prices of engineered goods.
  4. There was a spurt in the purchase of refrigerators, washing machines, etc., through hire-purchase.
  5. Owing to easily available finance and loans, there was a boom in house construction and home ownership.

Question 14. Explain how the abolition of Corn Law in Britain led to the emergence of a global agricultural economy.

Answer:

  1. With the abolition of the Corn Laws, Britain began to import food grains from the rest of the world.
  2. These products were relatively cheaper than the prices of the British-produced goods and food grains.
  3. Britain was forced to import foodgrains from Eastern Europe, America and Australia.
  4. Complex changes in labour movement patterns, capital flow, ecology and technology were also important reasons.
  5. Crops were not grown by a peasant tilling his own land but by an agricultural worker. Food came from thousands of miles away.
  6. Now, food and other essential commodities were transported by railways and by ships manned by low-paid workers from Southern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Question 15. Throw light on production during the proto-industrialisation phase in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with an example.

Answer:

Following are the features of production during the proto-industrialisation phase in Europe:

  1. Merchants from towns in Europe began moving to the countryside.
  2. They supplied money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international market.
  3. A merchant clothier in England purchased wool from a wool stapler and carried it to the spinners.
  4. The yarn that was spun, was taken to weavers, fullers and dyers.
  5. The finishing was done in London before the expert merchant sold it in the international market.

Question 16. One important feature of the US economy in the 1920s was mass production. Explain.

Answer:

  1. A well-known pioneer of mass production was the car manufacturer, Henry Ford.
  2. He adopted an assembly line technique of a slaughterhouse.
  3. He realised that the Assembly line method would allow a faster and cheaper way of producing vehicles.
  4. This method forced the workers to repeat a single task mechanically and
    continuously.
  5. This was a way of increasing output per worker by speeding up the pace of work.
  6. This doubling go daily wages was considered the best cost-cutting decision he had ever made.

Question 17. “The 19th-century world of faster economic growth still brought misery for many.” Explain.

Answer:

  1. Natural features were flattened out or transformed in response to demand for space for industry, housing, etc.
  2. Huge amounts of refuse and waste polluted the water.
  3. Excessive noise became a part of urban life.
  4. Industrial smoke became a major cause of air pollution.

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