NCERT Questions & Answers + Important Extra Questions
NCERT Textbook Questions
Give two examples of different types of global exchanges which took place before the seventeenth century, choosing one example from Asia and one from the Americas.
Answer
From Asia: The Silk Route connected China and the West for centuries. Along these routes, Chinese silk, pottery, and spices were traded with India, Central Asia, and Europe. Ideas, inventions (like paper, gunpowder), and even religions (Buddhism from India to China) travelled through these routes. Traders, scholars, and pilgrims enriched cultures they came in contact with.
From the Americas: After Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas (1492), a massive exchange of crops, animals, and diseases occurred — called the Columbian Exchange. Crops like potatoes, tomatoes, chillies, maize, and tobacco were introduced from the Americas to Europe, Asia, and Africa. In return, diseases like smallpox were carried to the Americas by European colonisers, killing millions of indigenous people who had no immunity.
Explain how the global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world helped in the colonisation of the Americas.
Answer
When European colonisers (Spanish and Portuguese) arrived in the Americas, they unknowingly carried deadly diseases like smallpox, measles, and influenza. The indigenous populations of the Americas had lived in isolation and had no immunity to these diseases. The result was catastrophic — entire communities were wiped out. It is estimated that diseases killed up to 90% of the native population in some areas. This massive depopulation made military conquest much easier for the Europeans, as there were too few survivors to resist. Without this "biological weapon" (unintentional as it was), a small number of Europeans could not have conquered vast civilisations like the Aztecs and Incas. The depopulation also created a labour shortage, which the Europeans later filled by bringing enslaved Africans to the Americas.
Write a note on: (a) The role of technology (b) The Corn Laws
Answer
(a) Role of Technology: Technology played a crucial role in the 19th-century globalisation:
(i) Railways, steamships, and telegraph transformed trade and communications — goods could be transported faster and cheaper over long distances.
(ii) Refrigerated ships (developed in the 1870s) allowed perishable goods like meat to be shipped from distant countries (Australia, New Zealand, Argentina) to Europe. This reduced food prices in Europe, improved diets, and enabled countries far from Europe to supply its demand.
(iii) Canals and harbours were built to facilitate trade.
(iv) Technology was not just about machinery — it was linked to colonialism and trade. For example, railways in colonies were built primarily to transport raw materials to ports for export to Europe, not for the benefit of local populations.
(b) The Corn Laws: The Corn Laws were British laws that restricted the import of cheap foreign grain (corn/wheat) into Britain by imposing high import duties. This protected British landlords and farmers from foreign competition and kept food prices artificially high. After widespread protests by industrialists and urban consumers who wanted cheaper food, the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. After repeal, food could be imported freely into Britain at lower prices. British agriculture could not compete with cheap imports, so vast areas of farmland were left uncultivated, thousands of agricultural workers became unemployed and migrated to cities or abroad, and food imports from countries like Russia, America, and Australia increased dramatically, integrating these regions into the global food market.
Give two examples from history to show the impact of technology on food availability.
Answer
(i) Refrigerated ships: Before refrigeration, perishable foods like meat, butter, and eggs could not be transported over long distances. The invention of refrigerated ships in the 1870s allowed countries like Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand to export meat to Europe. This increased food supply in Europe, lowered meat prices (making it affordable for the poor), and integrated distant economies into the global food market.
(ii) Railways in India: The British built extensive railway networks in colonial India, connecting the interior to port cities like Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. While this enabled export of Indian food grains (wheat, rice) to Britain and other markets, it also meant that during famines (like the Bengal Famine of 1943), food was being exported even as millions starved. Railways thus had a dual impact — they increased food availability globally but could worsen local food crises due to the colonial drain.
What is meant by the Bretton Woods Agreement?
Answer
The Bretton Woods Agreement was established in July 1944 at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA. It created the framework for the post-World War II international economic system:
(i) It established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external trade imbalances and balance of payments crises.
(ii) It established the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) to finance post-war reconstruction and development projects.
(iii) It created a system of fixed exchange rates — national currencies were pegged to the US dollar at fixed rates, and the dollar itself was pegged to gold at $35 per ounce.
(iv) The US dollar effectively became the principal currency of the global economy.
(v) The system inaugurated an era of unprecedented economic growth and trade expansion (1950s-1970s), with Western industrial nations and Japan growing rapidly.
(vi) However, developing nations had little influence — the decision-making power in the IMF and World Bank was dominated by Western industrial nations, particularly the United States.
Important Extra Questions
What was the impact of the Great Depression on India?
Answer
The Great Depression (1929-1930s) had devastating effects on India:
(i) Agricultural prices collapsed: India was a major exporter of raw materials (jute, cotton, wheat). Between 1928 and 1934, India's exports and imports nearly halved in value.
(ii) Peasants suffered terribly: Prices of agricultural commodities fell by 50% or more, but the British government did not reduce taxes or land revenue. Peasants went into debt and many lost their lands.
(iii) Jute producers in Bengal were severely hit — jute prices crashed while they still had to pay the same rent to landlords.
(iv) India became a net exporter of gold — to meet their obligations, Indians were forced to sell gold and precious metals. Between 1931 and 1938, about 3111 tonnes of gold flowed out of India.
(v) The Depression fuelled the nationalist movement — people's anger at economic hardship was directed at the colonial government, boosting support for the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Explain the system of indentured labour and its impact.
Answer
Indentured labour was a system where workers were hired under a contract (indenture) to work on plantations, mines, and railways in distant colonies. After slavery was abolished in the 1830s, plantation owners needed cheap labour. They recruited workers from India, China, and other countries under contracts that:
(i) Bound workers for 3-5 years to work on plantations in the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius, Ceylon, Malaya, etc.
(ii) Paid extremely low wages with harsh working and living conditions.
(iii) Workers had few legal rights and could be punished for not completing their contracts.
(iv) Recruitment was often through deception — agents (maistries) lured desperate people with false promises of high wages and easy work.
Most indentured workers came from eastern UP, Bihar, central India, and Tamil Nadu — regions of poverty and oppression. Over 1.3 million Indians went abroad as indentured workers. The system was finally abolished in 1921. These workers created new cultural forms — like chutney music (Trinidad), Hosay (Muharram) festivals in the Caribbean, and the Rasta movement influenced by Indian indentured culture.
What were the effects of the First World War on the global economy?
Answer
WWI (1914-1918) had profound economic consequences:
(i) The war was extremely expensive — it was financed by borrowing and raising taxes. Britain borrowed heavily from the US, transforming the US from a debtor to a creditor nation.
(ii) Industries were restructured for war production — factories that made civilian goods switched to producing weapons, uniforms, and military supplies.
(iii) Women entered the workforce in large numbers to replace men who had gone to fight.
(iv) After the war, European economies struggled with massive debts, unemployment, and inflation. Industries found it difficult to reconvert to peacetime production.
(v) The global centre of economic power shifted from Britain to the United States.
(vi) Agricultural production collapsed in many areas — post-war oversupply caused prices to crash.
(vii) The economic instability eventually contributed to the Great Depression of 1929.
How did the MNCs come to play a major role in the global economy from the 1950s onwards?
Answer
After WWII, Multinational Corporations (MNCs) from the US and Europe expanded rapidly:
(i) MNCs spread their operations worldwide, setting up factories and offices in multiple countries to take advantage of low-cost labour, raw materials, and new markets.
(ii) They dominated trade in manufactured goods, technology, and services.
(iii) The Bretton Woods system provided a stable economic framework (fixed exchange rates, regulated capital flows) that encouraged international investment.
(iv) From the 1950s to 1970s, the global economy grew at an unprecedented rate — world trade expanded, technology advanced, and incomes rose in Western nations and Japan.
(v) However, most developing countries did NOT benefit equally from this growth — they remained suppliers of raw materials and cheap labour, with MNCs often extracting profits that flowed back to wealthy nations.