CBSE Class 10 Social Science History Revision Notes Chapter 3

Q.1 Explain the three types of movement or flows within international economic exchange.

Answer

The economists have identified three types of movement or ‘flows’ within international economic exchanges.

1.The first is the flow of trade i.e. goods specially wheat.

2. The second is the flow of labour i.e. migration of labour in search of employment.

3. The third is the movement of capital for short term investments over long distances. All three flows were closely interwoven and had a deep impact on their lives.

Q.2 Explain what is referred to as the G-77 countries and what were its main objectives?

Answer

Group of 77 or G-77 was a loose coalition of developing countries, organised in the late 20^th century, to demand a New International Economic Order (NIEO). There were seventy-seven founding member countries of the organization, but the organization has since then expanded to a membership of one hundred and thirty member countries. The main objectives of the G-77 countries were as follows:

1. To establish a new system, whereby the developing countries get real control over their natural resources.

2. To obtain more assistance in their development

3. To establish fairer prices for raw-materials

4. To have better access for their manufactured goods in the market of the developed nations

Q.3 Explain the terms:
1. Tarrifs
2. Exchange Rates
3. Multinational Corporations

Answer

1. Tarrifs: They are taxes imposed on a country’s imports from the rest of the world. Tariffs are levied at the point of entry, i.e., at the border or at the airport.
2. Exchange Rates: Exchange rates link national currencies for purposes of international trade. There are broadly two kinds of exchange rates: Fixed Exchange Rate and Floating Exchange Rate.
3. Multinational Corporations: MNCs are large companies that operate in several countries at the same time. The first MNCs were established in the 1920s.

Q.4 Who were Shikaripuri shroffs and Nattukottai Chettiars?

Answer

Capital was required for growing food and other crops for the world market. In India, this capital was provided by Shikaripuri shroffs and Nattukottai Chettiars to the peasants.

1.They were amongst the many groups of bankers and traders who financed export agriculture in Central and Southeast Asia,

2. They used either their own funds or those borrowed from European banks.

3.They had a sophisticated system to transfer money over large distances, and even developed indigenous forms of corporate organization.

Q.5 What do you mean by Globalisation?

Answer

Globalisation is an ongoing process which means:

1. Reduction of trade barriers, with a view to allow free flow of goods to and from the country. It practically removes all hindrances and restrictions on foreign trade.

2. Free flow of capital, in terms of investment, by ensuring conducive atmosphere and easy approval of proposals. It encourages foreign trade, private and institutional foreign investment.

3. Free flow of technology and free movement of labour and manpower.

Q.6 Mention about problems of the post-war economic recovery.

Answer

Problems of post-war economic recovery were:

1. Britain, the world’s leading economic power in the pre-war period in particular faced a prolonged crisis. After the war British found it difficult to recapture its earlier position of dominance in the Indian market, and to compete with Japan internationally.

2. The war had led to an economic boom, that is, to a large increase in demand, production, and employment.

3. Many agricultural economies were also in crisis. Before the war, Eastern Europe was a major wheat supplier and when this supply disrupted, wheat production expanded dramatically.

4. Once the war was over, production in Eastern Europe revived and created an increase in wheat production. Grain prices fell and the farmers fell deeper into debt.

Q.7 Explain the different kinds of exchange rates?

Answer

An exchange rate is the current market price for which one currency can be exchanged for another. There are broadly two kinds of exchange rates:

1. Fixed exchange rates: When exchange rates are fixed and governments intervene to prevent movements in them.

2.Floating or flexible exchange rates: These rates fluctuate depending on demand and supply of currencies in foreign exchange markets, in principle without interference by governments.

Q.8 What do you mean by the Silk Routes? What was their importance?

Answer

The Silk Routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural links between distant parts of the world. The name silk routes point to the importance of west bound Chinese silk cargoes along this route. Historians have identified several silk routes overland and by sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia, and linking Asia with Europe and northern Africa. They are known to have existed since before the Christian era and thrived almost till the 15th C. The Silk routes led to the social, cultural and economic growth.

1.Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk routes.

2.The Chinese pottery also travelled the same route, as did textiles & spices from India & south-east Asia. In return, precious metals-gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.

Q.9 Describe the coming of Rinderpest to Africa.

Answer

Rinderpest had a terrifying impact on people’s livelihoods and local economy.

1.Rinderpest, devastating cattle disease, arrived in Africa in the late 1880s. It was carried by infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers invading Eritrea in Eastern Africa.

2.Entering Africa in the east, rinderpest moved west ‘like wild fire”, reaching Africa’s Atlantic coast in 1892. It reached the Cape (Africa’s southernmost tip) five years later. Along the way rinderpest killed 90 percent of the cattle.

3.The loss of cattle destroyed African livelihoods. Planters, mine owners and colonial governments now successfully monopolised what scarce cattle resources remained, to strengthen their power and to force Africans into the labour market.

4.Control over scarce resource of cattle enabled European colonizers to conquer and subdue Africa.

Q.10 What forced the British Government to abolish the Corn Laws?

Answer

The laws passed by the British Parliament in the 19th century to restrict and control the import of less expensive corn were known as ‘Corn Laws’. The British Parliament restricted the import of corn so that the interests of land owners, who dominated Parliament, might be protected. As a result of these Laws, prices of food items went up many times. The Corn Laws were strongly opposed by the industrialists and the urban dwellers as they were benefiting wealthy landowners at the expense of the ordinary consumer. They were also unhappy due to the high prices of food. So the British government was forced to abolish Corn Laws.

Q.11 What were the effects of the abolition of the ‘Corn Laws’?

Answer

The abolition of Corn Laws had many effects:

1.Food items could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country.

2.British agriculture was unable to compete with foreign imports.

3.Vast areas of land were left uncultivated and thousands of men and women were thrown out of work.

4.Unemployed people flocked to the cities and migrated overseas.

Q.12 Explain briefly the impact of technology on food availability.

Answer

1. During the 19th century, several inventions like The railways, steamships, the telegraph, etc. were important inventions as without them we cannot imagine the transformed nineteenth-century world.
2. Colonisation stimulated new investments and improvements in transport. Faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped move food more cheaply and quickly from faraway farms to final markets.
3. Refrigerated ships, which entered the scene since the 1870s, enabled the transport of perishable foods, especially meat, over long distances. This reduced shipping costs and lowered meat prices in Europe, where the poor could now buy and consume meat, which was once an expensive item and beyond their reach.

Q.13 Give two examples of global exchange which took place before 17^th Century. The examples should be beneficial as well as harmful.

Answer

From ancient times, travelers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast distances for knowledge, opportunity and spiritual fulfillment, or to escape persecution.

One beneficial example: All of these people who were pioneer of global exchange carried with them goods, ideas and inventions, moral values etc.

One harmful example: The travelers, traders, priests & pilgrims also carried with them germs and diseases which proved very harmful for local residents who died in thousands.

Q.14 Explain the effects of Great Depression on Indian economy.

Answer

The Great Depression had an immediate effect on the Indian economy. Peasants and farmers suffered more than the urban dwellers.

1.Between 1928 and 1934, India’s imports and export nearly halved.

2.As international prices crashed, prices in India also plunged. Between 1928 and 1934, wheat prices in India fell by 50 per cent.

3.Jute producers of Bengal were hard hit by the depression. With the collapse in gunny export, the price of raw jute crashed more than 60 per cent.

All this led to an increase in peasants’ indebtedness.

Q.15 Briefly explain the term ‘Bretton Woods Institutions’.

Answer

The IMF and the World Bank are referred to as the Bretton Woods institutions, or sometimes as the Bretton Woods twins:

1.The IMF and the World Bank commenced financial operations in 1947.

2.Decision-making in these institutions is controlled by the Western industrial powers. The US has an effective right of veto over key IMF and World Bank decisions.

3.The post-war international economic system is also often described as the Bretton Woods system.

Q.16 What methods were used by the European employers to recruit and retain labour in Africa?

Answer

European employers used the following methods to recruit and retain labour in Africa:

1.Heavy taxes were imposed which could be paid only by working for wages on plantations and mines.

2.Mineworkers were also confined in compounds and not allowed to move about freely

3.Inheritance laws were changed so that peasants were displaced from land: only one member of a family was allowed to inherit land, as a result of which the others were pushed into the labour market.

Q.17 Name the main destinations of Indian indentured migrants.

Answer

Caribbean island, Mauritius and Fiji.

Q.18 Which city is called as the fabled city of gold?

Answer

El Dorado, is called as the fabled city of gold. In 17^th century many expeditions were set off in search of El Dorado.

Q.19 Which region was called Canal Colonies?

Answer

The semi-waste areas of Punjab, after being irrigated by new canals, began to be called Canal Colonies. They were created to grow more wheat and cotton for export.

Q.20 Mention the advantages of an Assembly line.

Answer

The advantages of the assembly line were as follows:

1.It allowed a faster and cheaper way of producing engineered goods.

It forced workers to repeat a single task mechanically and continuously,

at a pace dictated by the conveyor belt. This was a way of increasing the output per worker by speeding up the pace of work.

2.It also increased the output of the workers. No worker standing in front of a conveyor belt could afford to delay the motions, take a break, or even have a friendly word with a workmate.

3.It made mass production possible.

Q.21 Define an Assembly Line.

Answer

When different parts of a machine like cars are manufactured at different places but are assembled at one single place such as a system is called an assembly line.

Q.22 Mention the reason for the migration of Indian indentured labour to other countries.

Answer

Most Indian indentured workers came from the present-day regions of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districts of Tamil Nadu. The reasons for their migration to other countries were:

1.Cottage industries declined in India and they got in debts.

2.Land rents rose and they failed to pay them.

3.Their lands were forcibly cleared for mines etc.

Q.23 Mention in brief about indentured labour.

Answer

Indentured labour is a form of labour widely used in plantations from the mid 19^th century. These labourers worked on contracts where their rights were not specified and the employers had all the power and could even jail them for non-fulfillment of contracts.

Q.24 Mention the positive changes brought by Colonisation.
Answer

It stimulated new investments in foreign lands and improvements in transport such as faster railways, large ships etc. which transported raw materials & finish products quickly and cheaply.

Q.25 Why did Europeans flee to America in the 19th Century?

Answer

Poverty and hunger, crowded cities, deadly diseases and religious persecutions were very common in Europe till 19^th century. As a result thousands fled Europe for America.

Q.26 Which commodity was exported by India in the depression days?
Answer

India became the exporter of precious metal, notably gold in the depression days.

Q.27 Bretton Woods system was based on what type of exchange rate?

Answer

Bretton Woods system was based on fixed exchange rates.

Q.28 Given below is a picture of merchants exchanging goods in the fifteenth century. This practice was prevalent due to the escalated travel by sailors and merchants. Answer the questions related to this.

a. Give two examples of food as long distance cultural contact in the pre-modern world.
b. When were foods like potatoes, soya and tomatoes introduced in Europe?

Answer

a. Food offers many examples of long-distance cultural exchange. Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands they travelled. Even ready foodstuff, in distant parts of the world, might share common origin. Noodles travelled west from China to become spaghetti. Some Arab traders took pasta to Sicily, an island now in Italy.

b. Many of our common foods; such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes, and so on were not known to our ancestors, until about five centuries ago. They were only introduced in Europe and Asia after Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the continent we now know as the Americas, many of these foods were transported and sold in Europe. Hence, people there began to eat better.

Q.29 What do you understand by mass production? Explain with an example.

Answer

Mass production was an important feature of the U.S. economy in the 1920s. A well known example of this is the Ford car, which was developed by Henry Ford. He set up a car manufacturing unit in Denver where, with the help of a conveyor belt and the assembly line production, cars were manufactured in large numbers and in lesser time. Henry Ford’s T-Model car was the world’s first mass produced car.

Q.30 Discuss how Britain had a trade surplus with India in the nineteenth century?

Answer

1. In the nineteenth century, goods from Britain flooded the Indian market and simultaneously food grain and raw material export increased from India to Britain.

2. The value of British exports to India was much more than the value of British exports from India leading to a trade surplus.

3. Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries.

Q.31 Why is the First World War known as the world’s first modern industrial war?

Answer

1. The WWI was the world’s first modern industrial war as it involved the leading industrial nations of the world. These nations had the capacity to inflict great damage on other nations.

2. It saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft and chemical weaponry on a large scale.

3. Millions of soldiers around the world were recruited and they moved to frontlines on large ships and trains.

The war led to breaking up of economic ties between the largest of nations.

Q.32 What was the Great Depression of 1929?
Answer

The Great Depression was a phenomenon that occurred in most parts of the World. Catastrophic declines in production, employment, incomes and trade were experienced, leading to a fall in world economy.

Q.33 What were the two crucial influences that shaped the post World War II reconstruction?

Answer

Two crucial influences that shaped the post war reconstruction were the emergence of U.S. as a dominant power in the Western World and the dominance of the Soviet Union, which had also emerged as a world power.

Q.34 What do you understand by the term ‘Exchange rate’?

Answer

The method of linking up national currencies for purposes of international trade is called exchange rate. There are broadly two kinds of exchange rates: fixed and floating.

Q.35 Given below is the picture of meat being loaded on a ship in 1878. Answer questions related to this picture.

a. What was the sales route of meat as a commodity?

b. What was the benefit of technology assisting in the transportation of meat to far off places?

Answer

a. Till the 1870s, animals were shipped live from America to Europe and then slaughtered when they arrived there. After the introduction of refrigerated ships, animals were slaughtered for food at the starting point – in America, Australia or New Zealand – and then transported to Europe as frozen meat.

b. Earlier animals were shipped live to Europe and slaughtered there. They took up a lot of place on ships and many died on the way. 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. With advancements in technology, ships became refrigerated and the slaughtered meat could be transported and sold in the markets of Europe. This reduced shipping costs and lowered meat prices in Europe. The poor in Europe could now consume a more varied diet.

Q.36 Given below is the picture of nineteenth century Indian indentured labourers in the cocoa plantations in Trinidad.

a. What were the main destinations of Indian indentured migrants in the early nineteenth century?
b. Why was this indenture described as the ‘New Form of Slavery’?

Answer

a. The main destinations of Indian indentured migrants were the Caribbean islands (mainly Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam), Mauritius and Fiji. Tamil migrants went to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Malaya. Indentured workers were also recruited for tea plantations in Assam.

b. Indentured migrants were recruited by agents who were paid a small fee. They were provided with false information of final destinations, mode of travel and working and living 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. On arrival, conditions were difficult from what they had imagined. Living and working conditions were difficult with few legal rights.