Q.1. ‘The pre-modern world shrank greatly in the 16th century.’ Explain.
Ans. (i) Because the European sailors found a sea route to Asia and successfully crossed the western ocean to America.
The Portuguese and the Spanish conquests and colonization of America was decisively under way by the mid-16th century.
Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines located in presently Peru and Mexico enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia.
Q.2. What were Corn Laws ? Why were these Laws abolished ? [CBSE 2009 (F) Sept. 2010, 2014]
Ans. The Corn Laws were British trade laws to regulate the export or import of corn.
(i) These laws were abolished :
(ii) Because restriction of imports lead to high food prices.
(iii) These laws restricted the free trade. Landlords, industrialists and urban dwellers were against these laws
Q.3. Highlight three main features of life of African people before the coming of Europeans. [CBSE 2013]
Ans. (i) Africa had abundant land and a relatively small population.
(ii) For centuries, land and livestock sustained African livelihoods. Agriculture and animal rearing was the main occupation of the people. Most of the villages and families were self-sufficient.
(iii) People rarely worked for a wage. There were few consumer goods that wages could buy.
Q.4. What were the main reasons for the attraction of Europeans to Africa ? [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2014]
Ans. (i) Europeans were attracted to Africa in search of valuable minerals like gold, coal, silver, etc.
(ii) They were attracted to Africa due to its vast resources of land.
(iii) They went to Africa hoping to establish plantations and mines.
Q.5. Give three examples to show that the world changed with the discovery of new sea routes to America. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011, 2012]
Ans. (i) Before the discovery of the sea routes, America had been cut off from regular contact with the rest of the world for millions of years. But from the sixteenth century, its vast lands and abundant crops and minerals began to transform trade and lives everywhere.
(ii) Precious metals, particularly silver, from mires located in present day Peru and Mexico also enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia. Legends spread in seventeenth-century Europe about South America’s fabled wealth. Many expeditions set off in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold
(iii) With the discovery of sea routes three types of movements or flows became prominent. i.c\. the flow of goods, labour and capital.
Q.6. “India played a crucial role in the late 19th century world economy”. Explain. [CBSE 2014]
Ans. (i) Britain had a ‘trade surplus’ with India. Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries.
(ii) Britain’s trade surplus in India also helped pay the so-called ‘home charges’ that included private remittances home by 3ntish officials and traders, interest payments or. India’s external debt, and pensions of British officials in India.
(iii) in the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian and Chinese labourers went to work on plantations in mines anc in rood and railway construction projects around the world.
(iv) India also provided raw material to the developing industries of the world.
(v) India become a major market for the final goods: especially cotton textile.
Q.7. Name any two world institutions which were established under the Bretton Woods. Also mention one objective of each.
Ans. (i) International Monetary Fund.
(ii) World Bank.
Objective :
(a) IMF To deal with external surpluses and deficits o! its member nations.
(b) IBRD – To finance post-war reconstruction.
Q.8. 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. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Ans. (i) Until the 19th century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe.
(ii) Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread.
(iii) Religious conflicts were common and religious dissenters were persecuted So people migrated from Europe to America.
Q.9. “Economists of the 19th century identify three types of movements or ‘flows’ within international economic exchanges.” Explain. [CBSE Sept. 2011. 2012]
Ans. (i) The flow of trade : The flow of trade refers largely to trade in goods. For example, wheat travelled from Russia, America and Australia to Britain.
(ii) The flow of labour : This includes the migration of people in search of employment. For example, more than 50 million people migrated from Europe to America and Australia In search of jobs.
(iii) The movement of capital : This covers the movement of capital for short-term or long-term investments over long distances. For example, capital flowed from financial centres such as London to other parts of the world.
Q.10. Explain indentured labour with lire help of an example.
Ans. A bonded labourer under contract to work for an employer tor a specific period of rime, to pay off a passage a new country or home. In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands o: Indian and Chinese labourers went to work on plantations, in mines and ill roads and railway construction projects around the world.
In India, indentured labourers were hired under contracts which promised the return travel to India after they had worked five years on their employer’s plantation.
Q.11. Why did the European employers find it difficult to recruit labour in Africa ? Give two methods they used to recruit and retain labour. [CBSE 2011)
Or
Why was there a shortage of labour willing to work for wages in Africa in the 1890s ? How did Europeans try to recruit and retain labour ? Explain any two methods. [CBSE 2012]
Or
What methods were used by the European employers to recruit and retain the African labourers ?
Ans. The European employers found it difficult to recruit labour in Africa because historically. Africa had abundant land and a relatively small population. For centuries, land and livestock sustained African livelihood and people rarely worked for wages.
Methods to recruit and retain labour :
(i) Heavy taxes : Tile colonial government started imposing heavy taxes which could be paid only by working for wages on plantations and mines.
(ii) New inheritance laws : Inheritance laws were changed so that the peasants were displaced from land: only one member of a family was allowed to inherit land, others were pushed into the labour market
(iii) Restriction on movement : Miners were also enclosed in compounds, and were not allowed to move about freely.
Q.12. Mention any four factors responsible for indentured labour.
Ans. (i) Decline of cottage industry in India.
(ii) Increase in land rents.
(iii) Loss of cattle wealth due to rinderpest in Africa.
(iv) Unemployment and poverty.
Q.i3. What was the impact of industrialisation in Britain on Indian economy ?
Ans. (i) With industrialisation, the British cotton manufacturers began to expand and industrialists pressurised the government to restrict the cotton imports, and protect the local industries. Tariffs were imposed on doth imports into Britain. Consequently, the inflow of fine Indian cotton began to decline.
(ii) From the early nineteenth century. British manufacturers also began to search the overseas markets for their cloth.
(iii) The British machine-made textile products started giving a tough competition to the Indian textile industry at home.
So there was a decline in the share of cotton textiles from some 30 per cent around 1800 to 15 per cent by 1815. By the 1870s, this proportion had dropped to below 3 percent.
Q.14. “India played a crucial role in the late 19th century world economy.” Explain by giving an example.
Or
What was the importance of the Indian trade for the Britishers ?
Or
How did India play a crucial role in the nineteenth century world economy ? Explain with examples. [CBSE Comp. (O) 2008]
Ans. fi) Trade Surplus : Britain had a trade surplus with India, i e., a situation under which the value of exports is more than the imports. Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficit with other countries.
(ii) Home charges : Britain’s trade surplus in India also helped to pay the so called ‘home charges’ that included private remittances home by British officials and traders, interest payments on India’s external debts and pensions of the British officials in India.
(iii) Major supplier of cotton : India remained a major supplier of raw cotton to Britain which was required to feed the cotton textile industry of Britain.
(iv) Supplier of indentured workers: Many indentured workers from Bihar. Uttar Pradesh, Central India migrated to other countries to work in mines and plantations.
Q.15. Name the countries involved in the First World War.
Ans. The war was the outcome of the rivalry between the two strong armed camps or the European powers, i.e.. Triple Alliance and Triple Entente or the Central Powers.
On the one side were the Allies – Britain. France and Russia (later joined by the US) and on the opposite side were the Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Turkey.
Q.16. What is NIF.O ?
Or
Why did Group 77 countries demand a New International Economic Order ? Explain. [CBSE 2009 (D). Sept, 2010]
Or
Why did most of the developing countries organise themselves as a group — the Group of 77 (G-77) ? [CBSE 2012)
Ans. NIEO is the New International Economic Order. NIEO was a set of proposals put forward during the 1970s by the developing countries with the following main objectives:
(i) To revise the international economic system in favour of the developing countries.
(if) The developing nations wanted a system that would give them a real control over their natural resources.
(iii) The developing countries wanted to set up a system under which they could get a fairer price for raw materials, and better access for their manufactured goods in the developed countries markets.
(iv) Developing countries must be entitled to regulate and control the activities of the Multinational Corporations (MNCs) .
Q.17. Mention the impact of the First World War on agricultural economies.
Ans. (i) The agricultural economies also suffered because of First World War.
(ill Before the War. Eastern Europe was a major supplier of wheat in the world market.
{iii) When this supply was disrupted during the First World War. wheat production of Canada. America and Australia expanded dramatically. But once the War was over, production in Eastern Europe revived and created a glut in the wheat output. Grain prices fell, rural income declined and farmers fell deeper into debt.
Q.18. ‘The First World War was modern industrial war’. Explain.
Or
Explain how the First World War was so horrible a war like none other before. [CBSE 2010 (0)]
Or
How far is it correct to say that “The First World Wax was the First modem industrial war”? Explain. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Ans. i) The First World War saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc. on a massive scale.
(ii) These were all increasingly products of modern large-scale industry. To fight the war. millions of soldiers had to be recruited from around the world. and moved to the front lines on large ships and trains.
(iii) 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.
Q.19. What is the difference between fixed exchange rate and floating exchange rate ?
Ans. Difference table (Image)
Q.20. “The First World War was fought between two power blocs” Explain.
Ans. The First World War was fought from 1914 – 1918. On the one side were the Allies – Britain. France and Russia (later joined by the US): and on the opposite side were the Central Powers – Germany. Austria – Hungary and Ottoman Turkey.
Q.21. What was mass production? Explain its impact on the world economy of earlier 20th century.
Ans. Production of goods on large-scale with the help of machines is known as mass production.
Impact :
(i) Mass production lowered costs and prices of engineered goods Thanks to higher wages, more workers could now afford to purchase durable consumer goods such as cars. Car production in US rose from 2 million in 1919 to more than 5 million in 1929.
(ii) The demand for refrigerators, washing machines, etc. was also fuelled by a boom in house construction and home ownership, financed once again by loans.
(iii) The housing and consumer boom of the 1920s created the basis of prosperity in the US. 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.
Q.22. Write any three factors responsible for indentured labour migration from India. [CBSE Sept. 2010. 2013]
Ans. (i) 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. All this affected the lives of the poor, they failed to pay then rents, became deeply indebted.
(ii) On the other hand workers were required in other countries for plantations, mines, road and railway construction projects.
(iii) In hope for better future in other countries many workers from India started migrated in other countries.
