The Making Of A Global World - Class 10 History - Extra Questions

Smallpox was the most powerful weapon used by the Spanish to conquer America.

1. Population growth from the late eighteenth century had increased the demand for food grains in Britain.
2. As urban centres expanded and industry grew, the demand for agricultural products went up, pushing up food grain prices.
3. Under pressure from landed groups, the government also restricted the import of corn which was opposed by urban dwellers who were unhappy with high food prices.
4. Thus, in nineteenth century Britain self-sufficiency in food meant lower living standards and social conflict.

By 1890, a global agricultural economy had taken shape, accompanied by complex changes in labour movement patterns, capital flows, ecologies and technology. Food no longer came from a nearby village or town, but from thousands of miles away. It was not grown by a peasant tilling his own land, but by a recently arrived agricultural worker, who was now working on a large farm that had previously been a forest. Food was transported by railway and by ships which were manned by low-paid workers from southern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Trade and cultural exchange on the silk routes always went hand in hand. Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk routes. Early Christian missionaries travelled along the silk route to Asia, as did early Muslim preachers a few centuries later.

1. After the Corn Laws were scrapped, food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country.
2. British agriculture was unable to compete with imports.
3. Vast areas of land were now left uncultivated, and thousands of men and women were thrown out of work. They flocked to the cities or migrated overseas.
4. As food prices fell, consumption in Britain rose. From the mid-nineteenth century, faster industrial growth in Britain also led to higher

In west Punjab, the British Indian government built a network of irrigation canals to transform semi-desert wastes into fertile agricultural lands that could grow wheat and cotton for export. The Canal Colonies, as the areas irrigated by the new canals were called, were settled by peasants from other parts of Punjab.

The example of indentured labour migration from India illustrates the two-sided nature of the nineteenth-century world. It was a world of faster economic growth as well as great misery, higher incomes for some and poverty for others, technological advances in some areas and new forms of coercion in others.

The indentured worker communities developed new forms of individual and collective self-expression, blending different cultural forms, old and new into a cultural fusion. In Trinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called Hosay in which workers of all races and religions joined. Similarly, the protest religion of Rastafarianism is also said to reflect social and cultural links with Indian migrants to the Caribbean. Chutney music, popular in Trinidad and Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the post-indenture experience.

Recruitment for indentured labour was done by agents engaged by employers and paid a small commission. Many migrants agreed to take up work hoping to escape poverty or oppression in their home villages. Agents also tempted the prospective migrants by providing false information about final destinations, modes of travel, the nature of the work, and living and working conditions. Often migrants were not even told that they were to embark on a long sea voyage. Sometimes agents even forcibly abducted less willing migrants.

During the First World War, entire industries were restructured to produce war related goods. Entire societies were also reorganised for war as men went to battle, women stepped in to undertake jobs that earlier only men were expected to do. The war led to the snapping of economic links between some of the worlds largest economic powers which were now fighting each other.

Hyderabadi Sindhi traders ventured beyond European colonies. From the 1860s they established flourishing emporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels.

A multilateral settlement system allows one countrys deficit with another country to be settled by its surplus with a third country. For example, Britain used its trade surplus with India to balance its trade deficits with other countries that is, with those countries from which Britain was importing more than it was selling to.

Britain had a trade surplus with India. Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries; i.e. with countries from which Britain was importing more than it was selling to. Britains trade surplus with India also helped to pay the so-called home charges that included private remittances home by British officials and traders, interest payments on Indias external debt, and pensions of British officials in India.

The Great Depression immediately affected Indian trade. Indias exports and imports nearly halved between 1928 and 1934. As international prices crashed, prices in India also plunged. Between 1928 and 1934, wheat prices in India fell by 50 per cent. Peasants and farmers suffered more than urban dwellers. Though agricultural prices fell sharply, the colonial government refused to reduce revenue demands. Peasants producing for the world market were the worst hit. The depression proved less grim for urban India. Because of falling prices, those with fixed incomes such as urban landowners who received rents and middle-class salaried employees, now found themselves better off as everything cost less. Industrial investment also grew as the government extended tariff protection to industries.

The US was the industrial country most severely affected by the depression. With the fall in prices and the prospect of a depression, US banks had slashed domestic lending and called back loans. Farms could not sell their harvests, households were ruined, and businesses collapsed. Faced with falling incomes, 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. The prosperity of the 1920s disappeared. As unemployment soared, people traveled long distances looking for work. Ultimately, the US banking system itself collapsed as it was unable to recover investments, collect loans and repay depositors. Thousands of banks went bankrupt and were forced to close. By 1933 over 4,000 banks had closed about 1,10,000 companies had collapsed.

The withdrawal of US loans affected much of the rest of the world, in 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. The US attempt to protect its economy in the depression by doubling import duties also dealt another severe blow to world trade.

The war had led to an economic boom, that is, to a large increase in demand, production and employment. When the war boom ended, production contracted and unemployment increased. The government reduced bloated war expenditures to bring them into line with peacetime revenues. These developments led to huge job losses. In 1921 one in every five British workers was out of work. Anxiety and uncertainty about work became an enduring part of the post-war scenario in Britain.

Many agricultural economies were in crisis after the war. Before the war, eastern Europe was a major supplier of wheat in the world market. When this supply was disrupted during the war, wheat production in Canada, America and Australia expanded dramatically. But once the war was over, production in eastern Europe revived and created a glut in wheat output. Grain prices fell, rural incomes declined, and farmers fell deeper into debt in Canada, America and Australia.

Post-war economic recovery proved difficult. Britain, which was the world's leading economy in the pre-war period, faced a prolonged crisis. While Britain was preoccupied with war, industries had developed in India and Japan. After the war Britain found it difficult to recapture its earlier position of dominance in the Indian market, and to compete with Japan internationally. Moreover, to finance war expenditures Britain had borrowed heavily from the US. This meant that at the end of the war Britain was burdened with huge external debts.

In general, agricultural regions and communities were the worst affected by the Great Depression. This was because the fall in agricultural prices was greater and more prolonged than the fall in the prices of industrial goods.

When an unemployment census in the US showed 10 million people out of work, the local governments in many US states began making small allowances to the unemployed. People lined up in long queues to receive the unemployment benefits. These long queues came to symbolise the poverty and unemployment of the depression years.

The jute producers of Bengal grew raw jute that was processed in factories for export in the form of gunny bags. But as gunny exports collapsed, the price of raw jute crashed more than 60 per cent. Peasants who had borrowed money to grow jute in the hope of higher prices or to increase output faced ever lower prices, and fell deeper and deeper into debt.

Most of the victims of world war belonged to young generations of working men. As a result, it reduced the workforce in Europe, thereby reducing household income. The role of women increased and led to demand for more equality of status. It made the feminist movement stronger. Women started working alongside men in every field. Women and youngsters became more independent and free with long-term effects.

The coming of rinderpest to Africa caused a loss of livelihood for countless Africans. Using this situation to their advantage, colonising nations conquered and subdued Africa by monopolising scarce cattle resources to force Africans into the labour market.

The global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world helped in the colonisation of the Americas because the native American Indians were not immune to the diseases that the settlers and colonisers brought with them. The Europeans were more or less immune to small pox, but the native Americans, having been cut off from the rest of the world for millions of years, had no defence against it. These germs killed and wiped out whole communities, paving the way for foreign domination. Weapons and soldiers could be destroyed or captured, but diseases could not be fought against.

Population growth from the late eighteenth century had increased the demand for food grains in Britain. As urban centers expanded and industry grew, the demand for agricultural products went up, pushing up food grains prices. Under pressure from landed groups, the government had restricted the import of corn. The laws allowing the government to do this were commonly known as the 'Corn Laws'. The British government's decision to abolish the Corn Laws saw the inflow of cheaper crops from America and Australia. Many English farmers left their profession and migrated to towns and cities. Some went overseas. This indirectly led to global agriculture and rapid urbanization, a prerequisite of industrial growth.

Examples of the different types of global exchanges which took place before the seventeenth century:

•  Textiles, spices and Chinese pottery were exchanged by China, India and Southeast Asia in return for gold and silver from Europe.
•  Gold and foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, tomatoes and chillies were first exported from the Americas to Europe.

Two examples from history to show the impact of technology on food availability were:

•  Faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped transport food more cheaply and quickly from production units to even faraway markets.
•  Refrigerated ships helped transport perishable foods such as meat, butter and eggs over long distances.

 A triangular slave trade took place between Europe, Africa and the Americas.

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.

The Great Depression was a result of many factors:

• Prosperity in the USA during the 1920s created a cycle of higher employment and incomes. It led to rise in consumption and demands. More investment and more employment created tendencies of speculations which led to the Great Depression of 1929 upto the mid-1930s.
• Stock market crashed in 1929. It created panic among investors and depositors who stopped investing and depositing. As a result, it created a cycle of depreciation.
• Failure of the banks. Some of the banks closed down when people withdrew all their assets, leaving them unable to invest. Some banks called back loans taken from them at the same dollar rate inspite of the falling value of dollar. It was worsened by British change in policy to value pound at the pre-war value.

The impact of the Great Depression in India was felt especially in the agricultural sector. It was evident that Indian economy was closely becoming integrated to global economy. India was a British colony and exported agricultural goods and imported manufactured goods. The fall in agricultural price led to reduction of farmers’ income and agricultural export. The government did not decrease their tax and so, many farmers and landlords became more indebted to moneylenders and corrupt officials. It led to a great rural unrest in India.

The kings wanted to control the Silk Route to protect the traders. This was done with the aim of ensuring a flourishing trade. The flourishing trade could ensure good tax collection and collection of tributes. Hence, the kings wanted to control the Silk Route.

Henry Ford introduced the Assembly line method for producing automobiles on a large scale.

The main aim of the post-war international economic system was to preserve economic stability and full employment in the industrial world. Its framework was agreed upon at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.

• The Bretton Woods conference established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations.

• The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (popularly known as the World Bank) was set up to finance post- war reconstruction.

Rinderpest refers to the cattle plague in Africa in 1890s. This disease show that how during this era of conquest even a disease affecting cattle reshaped the lives and fortunes of thousands of people. The infected cattle was imported from British Asia into Africa to feed Italian soldiers. The following were the impact of Rinderpest on people's livelihoods and the local economy in Africa:

Indentured labour is a bonded labour who is hired on contract for a specific employer for a specific period of time. 
The main destinations of Indian indentured migrants were the Caribbean islands (Mainly Trinidad,), Mauritius and Fiji. Tamil migrants went to Ceylon and Malaya. Indentured workers were also recruited for tea plantation in Assam. 
Recruitments were done by the agents engaged by employers. 
Nineteenth century indenture has been described as a 'new system of slavery. 
Living and working conditions of indentured labourers were harsh and few legal rights were granted to them. 
Labourers assimilated themselves with the culture of the new place. In Trinidad, the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called 'Hosay' in which workers of all races and religion joined. 'Chutney music: popular in Trinidad and Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the post indenture experience. 
Indenture labour migration was abolished officially in $$1921$$. 

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are large companies that operate in several countries at the same time. The first MNCs were established in the 1920s. Many more came up in the 1950s and 1960s as US businesses expanded worldwide and Western Europe and Japan also recovered to become powerful industrial economies. The worldwide spread of MNCs was a notable feature of the 1950s and 1960s. This was partly because high import tariffs imposed by different governments forced MNCs to locate their manufacturing operations and become domestic producers in as many countries as possible.

The IMF and the World Bank were designed to meet the financial needs of the industrial countries. Both institutions also aimed to support post-war reconstruction in Europe. These were the main motive of formation of the World bank and IMF.

Most developing countries did not benefit from the fast growth the Western economies experienced in the 1950s and 1960s. Therefore they organized themselves as a group the Group of 77 (or G-77) to demand a new international economic order (NIEO). By the NIEO they 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 developed countries' markets.

The IMF and the World Bank were designed to meet the financial needs of the industrial countries. They were not equipped to cope with the challenge of poverty and lack of development in the newly  independent countries . But as Europe and Japan rapidly rebuilt their economies, they grew less dependent on the IMF and the World Bank. Thus from the late 1950s the Bretton Woods institutions began to shift their attention more towards developing countries.

From the mid-1970s the international financial system changed in important ways. Earlier, developing countries could turn to international institutions for loans and development assistance. But now they were forced to borrow from Western commercial banks and private lending institutions.

The NIEO means a International economic system that would give developing countries a real control over their natural resources, more development assistance, fairer prices for raw materials, and better access for their manufactured goods in developed countries markets.

Exchange rates is the international mechanism for trade in which national currencies are linked for purposes of international trade. There are broadly two kinds of exchange rates: fixed exchange rate and floating exchange rate. 

Fixed exchange rate is exchange rate system of international trade in which exchange rates are fixed and governments intervene to prevent movements in them that is to reduce fluctuations in exchange rate.

As colonies, many of the less developed regions of the world had been part of Western empires. Now, ironically, as newly independent countries facing urgent pressures to lift their populations out of poverty, they came under the guidance of international agencies dominated by the former colonial powers. Even after many years of decolonisation, the former colonial powers still controlled vital resources such as minerals and land in many of their former colonies.

The Portuguese and Spanish conquest of America was not just a result of superior firepower. The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors were diseases like smallpox that they carried with them. Because of their long isolation, Americas original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox proved to be a deadly killer of the native inhabitants. It spread deep into the continent and killed and decimated whole communities. Guns could be bought or captured and turned against the invaders. But not diseases such as smallpox to which the conquerors were mostly immune.

Food offers many examples of long-distance cultural contact. Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands they travelled. As a result, foodstuffs in distant parts of the world share common origins. Traders took the noodles which originated in China to the West, where they became spaghetti. Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily. Similarly, some foods known in India and Japan might have common origin.

Till the 1870s, animals were shipped live from America to Europe and then slaughtered when they arrived there. But live animals took up a lot of ship space. Many also died in voyage, fell ill, lost weight, or became unfit to eat. Meat was hence an expensive luxury beyond the reach of the European poor. High prices in turn kept demand and production down. These were the disadvantages of shipping live animals from America to Europe to be slaughtered there.

From the 1900s India's nationalist leaders began opposing the system of indentured labour migration as abusive and cruel. It was abolished in 1921. Yet for a number of decades afterwards, descendants of Indian indentured workers were often thought of as 'coolies'. They remained an uneasy minority in the Caribbean islands. Some of V.S. Naipaul's early novels capture their sense of loss and alienation.

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 such as cottage industries declined, land rents rose, lands were cleared for mines and plantations. All this affected the lives of the poor. The result was that they failed to pay their rents, became deeply indebted and were forced to migrate in search of work.

There are large communities of people of Indian descent in the countries where Indian indentured labour was employed. The Nobel Prize-winning writer V.S. Naipaul, West Indies cricketers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are some of the prominent descendants of indentured labour migrants from India who settled in the Caribbean.

The British grew opium in India to export it to China and with the money earned through this sale, Britain financed its tea and other imports from China. Opium exports to China grew rapidly from the 1820s. Opium was India's single largest export for some time after that.

The First World War was a war like no other before. It war was the first modern industrial war and involved the world's leading industrial nations. They harnessed the powers of modern industry to inflict destruction on their enemies. The war saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc. on a massive scale. All of these weapons were products of large-scale industry. 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, with 9 million dead and 20 million injured, was not possible without the use of industrial arms.

The three types of movements or flows within the international economic exchange are trade flows, human capital flows and capital flows or investments. These can be explained as—the trade in agricultural products, migration of labour, and financial loans to and from other nations.

India was a hub of trade in the pre-modern world, and it exported textiles and spices in return for gold and silver from Europe. Many different foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies and sweet potatoes came to India from the Americas after Columbus discovered it.
In the field of labour, indentured labour was provided for mines, plantations and factories abroad, in huge numbers, in the nineteenth century. This was an instrument of colonial domination by the British.
Lastly, Britain took generous loans from USA to finance the World War. Since India was an English colony, the impact of these loan debts was felt in India too. The British government increased taxes, interest rates, and lowered the prices of products it bought from the colony. Indirectly, but strongly, this affected the Indian economy and people.