The Making of a Global World

Ans. (i) It was the first modern industrial war which involved industrial nations.

(ii) Machine guns, tanks, aircrafts, chemical weapons, etc. are used on a massive scale.

(iii) Unthinkable death and destruction.

(iv) Most of the people killed and injured were man of working age.

(v) Declined the household income.

(vi) Men were forced to join in the war.

(vii) Women slapped into undertake jobs which they were not used to.

Ans. (i) The economy depression immediately affected Indian Trade, as India’s exports and imports nearly halved between 1928-1934.

(ii) Agriculture prices fell sharply, but the colonial government refused to reduce revenues. Peasants producing for the world markets were worst hit.

(iii) Raw jute was produced, processed in the industries to make gunny bags. Its exports collapsed and prices fell by 60% peasants of Bengal fell into debt traps.

(iv) Peasants used up their savings mortgaged lands and sold their previous jewellery to meet their expenses.

Ans. (i) A well-known pioneer of mass production was the car manufacturer, ‘Henry Ford’.

(ii) He adopted an assembly line technique of a slaughter house.

(iii) He realized that the ‘Assembly line’ method would allow a Faster and cheaper way of producing vehicles.

(iv) This method forced workers to repeat a single task mechanically and continuously.

(v) This was a way of increasing output per worker by speeding up the pace of work.

(vi) This doubling go daily wages was considered ‘best cost –cutting decision’ he had ever made.

Ans. (i) Population growth from the late 18^th century had increased the demand for good grains in Britain pushing up the prices.

(ii) Under pressure from farmers, the government restricted the import of corn. These laws were commonly known as the Corn Laws.

(iii) The industrialists and people living in cities forced the government to abolish Corn Laws.

Ans. (i) After the Corn Laws were abolished, food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country.

(ii) British agriculture was unable to compete with imports.

(iii) Vast areas of land were now left cultivated, and thousands of men and women were thrown out of work.

(iv) They flocked to the cities or migrated overseas.

Ans. (i) The first is the flow of trade which in the nineteenth century referred largely to trade.

(ii) The second is the flow of labour – the migration of people in search of employment.

(iii) The third is the movement of capital for short term or long term investments over long distance.

Ans. (i) Indian imports as well as exports almost halved between 1928 and 1934

(ii) As international prices crashed prices in India also plunged.

(iii) Wheat prices fell by 50%

(iv) Although agricultural prices fell sharply yet the colonial government refused to reduce revenue demands.

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 a few consumer goods that wages could buy.

Ans. (i) Cultural fusion is a phenomenon which emerges when two or more cultures intermingle and produce a new culture.

(ii) Indentured labour used to live and work in very harsh conditions. This forced them to seek new avenues of comforts and relaxations.

This balanced different cultural form.

Ans. (i) As a result of this fatal disease, 90% of the cattle in Africa died.

(ii) Completely impoverished and broken Africans were forced into the labour market, which they were resisting for long.

(iii) The loss of cattle destroyed livelihood of many Africans.

Ans. (i) It stimulated new investment in foreign lands.

(ii) It led to improvement in transport and communication.

Faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships to move food more quickly and cheaply from faraway places to final market were introduced.

Ans. (i) The first was the Industrial Revolution in England. As a result of which England stopped all imports of textiles from India.

(ii) It flooded the Indian market with machine made clothes which were cheaper and more attractive.

(iii) The East India Company bought almost all the cotton from the Indian bazaars and sent to England to feed the cotton factories there. Almost no or very little cotton as a raw material was left for the Indian textile industries.

Ans. (i) Recruiting agents gave false information to tempt the labourers.

(ii) Labourers were some time, forcibly abducted.

(iii) On arriving at the plantation, they found conditions to be different from but they had imagined.

(iv) Their living conditions were very harsh.

(v) Their payments were very little. Deductions were made from wages if the work was found unsatisfactory.

The workers had no legal rights.

Ans. (i) Rinderpest is a cattle plague that affected the cattle of Africa. It was carried by infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers invading Eritrea in East Africa.

(ii) In the late nineteenth century Europeans were attracted to Africa due to its vast resources of land and minerals and hoping to establish plantations and mines.

(iii) But they faced a problem of shortage of labour willing to work for wages.

(iv) Africans had livestock and were not were not ready and willing to work for wages.

(v) Rinderpest, the cattle plague was brought into the country by imported cattle and had a devastating effect on the indigenous cattle wiping out 90% of Africa’s cattle.

(vi) The loss of cattle forced the Africans to come into the labour market and work in plantation and mines.

Ans. (i) Technology in the form of improvements in transport-faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped to move food more cheaply and quickly from far away farms to final markets.

(ii) Earlier animals were shipped alive from America to Europe and then slaughter when they arrived there. Meat was hence an expensive luxury beyond the reach of the European poor.

(iii) Then came a technology namely refrigerated ships, which enabled to transport of perishable foods over long distances.

(iv) Now animals were slaughtered for food and then transported to Europe as frozen meat. This reduced shipping cost and lowered meat prices in Europe.

(v) To the earlier monotony of bread and potatoes many, though not all, could now add meat to their diet.

Ans. (i) The fighting involved the world’s leading in lowered nations which now harnessed the vast powers of modern industry to inflict the greatest possible destruction on their enemies.

(ii) It saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircrafts and chemical weapons on a massive scale. These were all increasingly products of modern large scale industry.

(iii) The scale of death and destruction was vast that is nine million dead and twenty million injured.

(iv) It was unthinkable before the industrial age, without the use of industrial arms.

(v) During the war, industries were restricted to produce war related goods.

Ans. (i) Food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it would be produced within the country.

(ii) British agriculture was unable to compete with imports. Vast areas of land were left uncultivated and people started migrating to cities or other countries.

(iii) As food prices fell, consumption in Britain rose. Faster industrial growth in Britain also led to higher incomes and therefore more food imports.

(iv) Around the world in Eastern Europe, Russia, America and Australia land were cleared and food production expanded to meet the British demand.