The Making of a Global World Questions and Answers CBSE Class 10 Board Exam

1 Mark Questions

Question 1. Why did big European powers meet in Berlin in 1885?

Answer : The big European powers met in Berlin for completing the carving up of the territories in Africa among them in the year 1885.

3 Marks Questions

Question 2. Describe the impact of ‘Rinderpest’ on people’s livelihoods and local economy in Africa in the 1890s.

Describe briefly the effects of rinderpest in Africa in the 1890s.

Answer : Rinderpest was a disease of cattle plague spreading fastly in Africa in the 1880s. It had terrible impact on the livelihood and the local economy in Africa.

This disease was carried by the infected cattle which were imported from the British Asia in order to feed the Italian soldiers who were deputed for invading Eritrea in the east Africa.

Rinderpest spread from the east Africa to the West Africa and reached the Atlantic coast of Africa in the year 1892 and the southernmost tip of Africa (the Cape) in 1897.

Along the way from East to West Africa this rinderpest killed 90% of the cattle which destroyed the livelihoods of the Africans.

Now the leftover or scarce cattle was monopolized by the planters, mine owners and the colonial governments. This incident helped the European powers to conquer and subdue Africa and easily forced the Africans into the labour market.

Question 3. Describe any three problems faced by Indian cotton weavers in the nineteenth century.

Answer : The three problems faced by Indian cotton weavers in the nineteenth century were:

(a) Earlier, India was the main exporter of fine cotton to Britain but when the British cotton industries began to expand after industrialisation, they put pressure on the government to restrict the import of cotton to Britain.

(b) As a result, tariffs were imposed on the import of cotton cloth from India which protected the local manufacturers in Britain.

Question 4. Why is it said that there was no other war earlier like the First World War? State in three points.

Explain how the First World War was so horrible a war like none other before.

Answer : There was no other war earlier like the First World War because of the following reasons:

(a) The First World War which took place mainly in Europe from 1914 to 1918 had a profound impact on economic and political stability which took over three decades to overcome.

(b) The leading industrial nations of the world were taking part, they wanted to harness the vast powers of the modern industries for the greatest possible destructions. Modern weapons like tanks, aircrafts, machine guns and chemical weapons were used, large ships and trains were used to move the recruited soldiers.

(c) Around 9 million died and 20 million injured, the industries were restructured to produce war-related goods and also the societies were reorganized for war.

Question 5. Why did Europeans flee to America in the 19th century? Give three reasons.

Answer : Europe was facing the problems like poverty, hunger, deadly diseases, religious conflicts, slave traders etc. and therefore many Europeans shifted to America by the 18th century.

Question 6. “The relocation of industry to low-wage countries stimulated world trade and capital flows.” Justify the statement.

Answer : It is true to say that the relocation of industry to low wage countries stimulated the world trade and capital flows. From the 1970s the MNCs shifted their production operations in the low wage Asian countries where they could maximize their profits. This step of the MNCs again stimulated the world trade and capital flows.

Question 7. Why did the household incomes decline after the First World War? Give two reasons.

Answer : The various reasons for the decline in the family income after the First World War were:

(a) The large scale deaths and injuries in the First World War reduced the working age people in Europe, declined the family income and the women had to undertake jobs to run the family.

(b) The First World War led to an economic boom which means large increase in demand, production and employment but the production decreased and the unemployment increased when the war ended. In the year 1921, there was huge job losses, almost 1/5th of the British workers were out of job.

(c) Again after the War, Eastern Europe revived the wheat production. Due to this there was tremendous supply of wheat in the world market which resulted in falling prices, decline of the rural income and the farmers fell in debt.

Question 8. “China became an attractive destination for investment by foreign MNCs in the nineteenth and twentieth century.” Justify the statement.

Answer : It is true to say that in the 19th and 20th century, China became an attractive destination for investment by the foreign MNCs. This is due to the following reasons:

(a) MNCs shifted their production units to low wage countries like China by the late 1870s.

(b) Due to the highly skilled people in large numbers it was easy to get the skilled labour at low cost in China.

(c) The new economic policy in China and better opportunity for the MNCs to maximize their profit also played an important role in this.

Question 9. Explain the following:

(a) G-77 (b) The Great Depression

Answer : (a) G-77: The developing countries were not benefitted from the fast growing western economies so they organized together and formed a group of 77 which is commonly referred to as G-77 and demanded a new international economic order. Their demand for NIEO was to get the real control over their own natural resources, development assistance, and fairer prices for the raw materials and access for their manufactured goods in the markets of the developed nations.

(b) The Great Depression: The year 1929 was called the year of Great Depression which lasted till mid-1930s. Production, employment, income and trade declined all over the world due to which the agricultural regions and communities were worst affected because the prices of the agricultural products declined sharply and for long period than the Price fall in the industrial goods.

The two main reasons for this Great Depression were the overproduction in the US and the withdrawal of US loans which caused the failure of some major banks and collapse of currencies in Europe.

Question 10. Explain any three benefits of refrigerated ships.

Answer : The three benefits of refrigerated ships were:

(a) There was trade in meat till the 1870s from America to Europe. The cattle were slaughtered after they reach the destination. There were number o f problems in carrying the live animals into the ships such as they took lot of space, many died on the way, fell ill, lost their weight, became inedible.

(b) To solve the problems of this meat trade, refrigerated ships were developed for carrying these for a longer distance. The animals were slaughtered at the starting point and then transported as frozen meat to Europe which solved the problems of space, shipping cost and the price of the meat in the European market.

(c) As the price of the meat reduced in the market, the European poor could also consume butter, eggs and meat which helped in better living conditions and social peace in the country. This condition supported for imperialism abroad.

Question 11. How did the withdrawal of US loans during the phase of the Great Depression affect the rest of the world? Explain in three points.

Answer : During the First World War, the US financed through loans a number of countries. The withdrawal of US loans affected the rest of the world in the following three ways:

(a) It caused the failure of some major banks and collapse of currencies in Europe.

(b) The banks in US slashed domestic lending and called back loans but many households were unable to repay the loan due to decline in sale of agricultural products.

(c) Collapse of business and falling income which finally resulted into collapse of the US banking system. To protect its economy, the US doubled the import duties which led to another severe blow to the world trade.

Question 12. How did rinderpest become instrumental in subjugating the Africans?

Answer : Rinderpest was a disease of cattle plague spreading fastly in Africa in the 1880s. It had terrible impact on the livelihood and the local economy in Africa.

This disease was carried by the infected cattle which were imported from the British Asia in order to feed the Italian soldiers who were deputed for invading Eritrea in the east Africa.

Rinderpest spread from the east Africa to the West Africa and reached the Atlantic coast of Africa in the year 1892 and the southernmost tip of Africa (the Cape) in 1897.

Along the way from East to West Africa this rinderpest killed 90% of the cattle which destroyed the livelihoods of the Africans.

Question 13. Explain any three types of flows within the international economy in exchanges.

Answer : There were three types of movements or flows noticed by the economist in the international market.

(a) Flow of trade in which there was large scale trade of goods such as clothes and food stuffs.

(b) Flow oflabour in which the people migrated from one place to another in large numbers in search of employment.

Question 14. How did technology help to solve hardship of food availability throughout the world in the late-nineteenth century? Explain with example.

What was the impact of technology on food availability?

Answer : Railways, ports, harbours and settlements were developed in America and Australia for the smooth supply of food stuffs and for the industrial raw materials.

Now the food was grown by the low paid agricultural workers and transported from thousands of miles through railways and ships.

To solve the problems of this meat trade, refrigerated ships were developed for carrying these for a longer distance. The animals were slaughtered at the starting point and then transported as frozen meat to Europe which solved the problems of space, shipping cost and the price of the meat in the European market.

As the price of the meat reduced in the market, the European poor could also consume butter, eggs and meat which helped in better living conditions and social peace in the country.

Question 15. Explain the impact of First World War on the British economy.

Answer : The First World War which took place mainly in Europe from 1914 to 1918 had a profound impact on the economy of Britain.

(a) The large scale deaths and injuries in the First World War reduced the working age people in Europe, declined the family income and the women had to undertake jobs to run the family.

(b) During the First World War the US became the international creditor from being international debtor because, to finance the war, Britain borrowed huge sums of money from the US banks and US public.

Question 16. Describe the canal colonies. Where and why were they introduced?

Answer : A network of irrigation canals was built in India in the Punjab region for converting the semi-arid wastelands into fertile cultivable lands. The peasants settled near the canal were from other parts of Punjab and thus the area was called the canal colonies.

Question 17. Describe the effects of abolishing the Corn Laws.

Answer : According to the Corn Laws in Britain, the government restricted the import of the corn which increased the prices of food items in Britain. The industrialists and the urban dwellers forced the government to abolish the Corn Laws.

The abolition of Corn Laws was responsible for the movement of people to the cities and overseas because the imported corn was much cheaper which the British farmers were unable to compete as a result they either left the cultivation or were thrown out of the farm.

Question 18. When was the Brettonwoods conference convened? State the main aim of the conference.

Answer : The framework for preserving the economic stability and full employment was agreed upon at the UN monetary and financial conference which was held in 1944 July, at Brettonwoods in New Hampshire (USA). The Brettonwoods twins or the Brettonwoods institutions are – the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which commenced its financial operations in the year 1947.

Though these two institutions are controlled by the western industrial powers, the US has right of veto over the key decisions.

The IMF was established at the Brettonwoods Conference for dealing with the external surpluses and deficits of its member Countries whereas the World Bank was setup to finance the post war reconstruction.

The Brettonwoods system was based on fixed exchange rates in which the national currencies were pegged to the dollar at a fixed rate of exchange.

Question 19. Define trade surplus. Why did Britain have a trade surplus with India?

Answer : Trade surplus is a condition in which the value of export exceeds the value of import. Earlier, India was the main exporter of fine cotton to Britain but when the British cotton industries began to expand after the industrialisation they put pressure on the government to restrict the import of cotton to Britain.

As a result, tariffs were imposed on the import of cotton cloth from India which protected the local manufacturers in Britain and thus the inflow of the fine cotton from India declined.

Even though Britain had a trade surplus with India which means that the value of British exports to India was more than the value of British imports from India.

Question 20. Before the arrival of outsiders, most of the Africans had a little reason to work for a wage. Explain three reasons.

Answer : (a) Earlier, Africa had vast land resources and minerals which attracted the European powers to establish plantations and mines which could be exported to Europe. But there was shortage of labour because the African people rarely worked for a wage because they had abundant land and enough livestock for the livelihood of the small population.

(b) To solve the problem of labour shortage, recruitment and retaining the labour, heavy taxes were imposed, inheritance laws were changed and confined the mineworkers in the compound itself.

(c) To pay the heavy taxes, the Africans were bound to work for wages on plantations and mines. According to the new inheritance law, only one member in the family was allowed to inherit the land and thus the other members of the family were displaced from the land and pushed into the labour market. The mine workers also did not have the freedom of movement.

Question 21. Explain three effects of the abolition of Corn Laws.

Answer : The three effects of the abolition of the Corn Laws were:

(a) It led to the movement of people to the cities and overseas.

(b) The imported corn was much cheaper which the British farmers were unable to compete.

Question 22. Describe in brief the world economic condition in the post first world war period.

Answer : Before the First World War, Britain was the world’s leading economy but after the war Britain was over burdened with external debts.

In the meantime, industries in India and Japan developed a lot. Due to these conditions it became difficult for Britain to get its dominance over India back and compete with Japan internationally.

The First World War led to an economic boom which means large increase in demand, production and employment but the production decreased and the unemployment increased when the war ended. In the year 1921, there was huge job losses, almost 1/5th of the British workers were out of job.

Eastern Europe was the major supplier of wheat in the world which was disrupted when Europe was busy with the First World War. During this war period the production of wheat rose in Canada, US and Australia. Again after the war Eastern Europe revived the wheat production. Due to this there was tremendous supply of wheat in the world market which resulted in falling prices, decline of the rural income and the farmers fell in debt.

Question 23. Describe in brief the destruction caused during the Second World War.

Answer : The Second World War took place from 1939 to 1945 between the Axis powers (which included Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy) and the Allies (which included Britain, France, Soviet Union and US). 60 million people were killed and millions were injured in this war in which civilian deaths were more than the soldiers. Many European and Asian cities were destroyed due to the aerial bombardment and artillery attacks.

This war had caused great social and economic fracture. The post war reconstruction was long and difficult.

Question 24. How was the food problem solved in Britain after scrapping the Corn Laws? Explain.

Answer : The abolition of Corn Laws was responsible for the movement of people to the cities and overseas because the imported corn was much cheaper which the British farmers were unable to compete as a result they either left the cultivation or were thrown out of the farm.

The consumption of food crops rose in Britain due to the fall in prices. The food imports increased due to the higher income caused by the faster industrial growth in Britain.

This increased demand of food crops in Britain was fulfilled by the countries in Western Europe, Russia, America and Australia where the lands were cleared for the expansion of the food grain production.

5 Marks Questions

Question 25. Explain giving examples,the role played by technological inventions in transforming 19th century world.

Answer : Railways, ports, harbours and settlements were developed in America and Australia for the smooth supply of food stuffs and for the industrial raw materials. A network of irrigation canals was built in India in the Punjab region for converting the semi-arid wastelands into fertile cultivable lands.

All these developments throughout the world was possible due to the development in technologies such as railways, steamships, telegraph etc. which were the results of socio-economic and political factors.

Improvement in faster means of transport for the quicker delivery of goods and people from the supply areas to the demand areas. To solve the problems of meat trade, refrigerated ships were developed for carrying these for a longer distance. The animals were slaughtered at the starting point and then transported as frozen meat to Europe which solved the problems of space, shipping cost and the price of the meat in the European market.

Question 26. The Spanish conquest and colonization of America was decisively underway by the mid sixteenth century. Explain with examples.

Answer : The Portuguese and the Spanish conquered America not just with the conventional military weapons but also with the germs such as the small pox.

The small pox was carried on their person (Spanish invaders were immune to this disease) to America for which the American Indians were not immune to and proved a deadly weapon as it killed the whole community there.

These diseases could not be bought or captured and turned against the European invaders unlike the guns and other conventional weapons.

Question 27. Describe the circumstances responsible for the formation of G-77.

Answer : The developing countries were not benefitted from the fast growing western economies so they organized together and formed a Group of 77 which is commonly referred to as G-77 and demanded a new international economic order.

Their demand for NIEO was to get the real control over their own natural resources, development assistance, and fairer prices for the raw materials and access for their manufactured goods in the markets of the developed nations.

Question 28. “Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand.” Explain the statement in the light of Silk Route.

Answer : There were several silk routes over land and sea which helped in trade and cultural links between the different countries of the world especially Asia, North Africa and Europe.

The silk routes got its name due to the Chinese silk cargoes along these routes which were actively functional before the Christian era and upto the 15th century. Chinese pottery, Indian spices

and precious metals like gold and silver from Europe had travelled through these silk routes. These silk routes were also used for the cultural exchange by the Christian missionaries, Muslim preachers and the Buddhist.

Question 29. 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 : There were three types of movements or flows noticed by the economist in the international market.

(a) Flow of trade in which there was large scale trade of goods such as clothes and food stuffs.

(b) Flow oflabour in which the people migrated from one place to another in large numbers in search of employment.

Railways, ports, harbours and settlements were developed in America and Australia for the smooth supply of food stuffs and for the industrial raw materials. All this required capital and labour which flowed from the financial centres such as London. During this period, around 50 million people migrated from Europe to America and Australia and around 150 million people migrated all over the world in search of their better future.

The indentured labourers were hired from India (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and dry districts of Tamilnadu) for a period of five years to work on plantations.

Question 30. How did the Great Depression of 1929 affect the farmers and the middle classes in India in different ways?

Answer : The great depression of US also affected India severely. The exports and imports fell down almost by 50%.

The peasants who were producing for the world market were hit hard than the urban dwellers because of the sharp decline in the price of the agricultural products in the international market and also the colonial government refused to reduce the revenue.

The jute producers of Bengal fell into debt due to the collapse of the gunny exports and decline in the price of the raw jute. To come out ofthe situationofindebtedness, Indian peasants used their savings, mortgaged lands and sold their jewellery and precious metals.

During this depression period, India became an important exporter of Gold which helped Britain to speed up its recovery and also helped in promoting the global economic recovery.

The urban India people were not much affected as their income was fixed. Either they were dependent on rental income or they were salaried employees.

Question 31. How did the global transfer of disease in pre-modern world helped in colonisation of the Americas?

Answer : The Portuguese and the Spanish conquered America not just with the conventional military weapons but also with the germs such as the small pox.

These diseases could not be bought or captured and turned against the European invaders unlike the guns and other conventional weapons.