The making of a global world: 10th SST

Question: What were the main reasons for the attraction of Europeans to Africa?

Answer:

1. Europeans were attracted to Africa in search of valuable minerals like gold, coal, silver etc.
2. They were attracted to Africa due to its vast resources of land.
3. They went to Africa hoping to establish plantations and mines.

Question: Give three examples to show that the world changed with the discovery of new sea routes to America.

Answer:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. With the discovery of sea routes three types of movements or flows became prominent. i.e. the flow of goods, labour and capital.

Question: “India played a crucial role in the late 19th century world economy”. Explain.

Answer:

1. Britain had a ‘trade surplus’ with India. Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries.
2. Britain’s trade surplus in India also helped pay the so-called ‘home charges’ that included private remittances home by British officials and traders, interest payments or. India’s external debt, and pensions of British officials in India.
3. In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian and Chinese laborers went to work on plantations in mines and in road and railway construction projects around the world.
4. India also provided raw material to the developing industries of the world.
5. India become a major market for the final goods: especially cotton textile.

Question: Name any two world institutions which were established under the Bretton Woods. Also mention one objective of each.

Answer: (1). International Monetary Fund. (2). World Bank.
Objective:
(i) IMF To deal with external surpluses and deficits o! its member nations.
(ii) IBRD – To finance post-war reconstruction.

Question: 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.

Answer:

1. Until the 19th century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe.
2. Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread.
3. Religious conflicts were common and religious dissenters were persecuted So people migrated from Europe to America.

Question: “Economists of the 19th century identify three types of movements or ‘flows’ within international economic exchanges.” Explain.

Answer:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 centers such as London to other parts of the world.

Question: Explain indentured labour with lire help of an example.

Answer: A bonded laborer 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 laborers went to work on plantations, in mines and ill roads and railway construction projects around the world.

In India, indentured laborers were hired under contracts which promised the return travel to India after they had worked five years on their employer’s plantation.

Question: Why did the European employers find it difficult to recruit labour in Africa? Give two methods they used to recruit and retain labour.
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.
Or
What methods were used by the European employers to recruit and retain the African labourers?

Answer: 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:

1. Heavy taxes: Tile colonial government started imposing heavy taxes which could be paid only by working for wages on plantations and mines.
2. 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.
3. Restriction on movement: Miners were also enclosed in compounds, and were not allowed to move about freely.

Question: Mention any four factors responsible for indentured labour.

Answer: 

1. Decline of cottage industry in India.
2. Increase in land rents.
3. Loss of cattle wealth due to rinderpest in Africa.
4. Unemployment and poverty.

Question: What was the impact of industrialisation in Britain on Indian economy?

Answer:

1. 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.
2. From the early nineteenth century. British manufacturers also began to search the overseas markets for their cloth.
3. The British machine-made textile products started giving a tough competition to the Indian textile industry at home.
4. 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.

Question: “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.

Answer:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Supplier of indentured workers: Many indentured workers from Bihar. Uttar Pradesh, Central India migrated to other countries to work in mines and plantations.

Question: Name the countries involved in the First World War.

Answer: 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 Center Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Turkey.

Question: What is NIEO?
Or
Why did Group 77 countries demand a New International Economic Order? Explain.
Or
Why did most of the developing countries organize themselves as a group – the Group of 77 (G-77)?

Answer: 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:

1. To revise the international economic system in favour of the developing countries.
2. The developing nations wanted a system that would give them a real control over their natural resources.
3. 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.
4. Developing countries must be entitled to regulate and control the activities of the Multinational Corporations (MNCs).