CLASS 10 CH 3

THE MAKING OF A GLOBAL WORLD (Section 1)

Questions from QB

1. How did the Silk routes link the world? Explain with three suitable examples./
“The silk-routes are a good example of trade and culture link between distant parts
of the world.” Explain with examples./
“Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand.” Explain the statement in
the light of the Silk Route.
3

All through history, human societies have become steadily more interlinked. From
ancient times, travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast distances for
knowledge, opportunity and spiritual fulfilment, or to escape persecution. They
carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, and even germs and diseases.

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’ points to the importance
of West-bound Chinese silk cargoes along this route.

Historians have identified several silk routes, over land 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
fifteenth century. Chinese pottery also travelled the same route, as did textiles and
spices from India and Southeast Asia. In return, precious metals – gold and silver –
flowed from Europe to Asia.

Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand. Early Christian missionaries
almost certainly travelled this route to Asia, as did early Muslim preachers a few
centuries later. Much before all this, Buddhism emerged from eastern India and
spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk routes.

Look at Pg 54 first para (old book Pg 78)

2. 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. 3

a) Textiles, spices and Chinese pottery were exchanged by China, India and
Southeast Asia in return for gold and silver from Europe.
b) Gold, Potato, Soya, groundnuts, tomatoes and chillies were exported from the
Americas to Europe.
Refer to Pg 54-55 (old book Pg 78-79)
3. Explain how the global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world helped in the
colonisation of the Americas/’The Spanish conquest and colonisation of America
was decisively underway by the mid-sixteenth century.’ Explain with example. 5

a) The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonisation of America was decisively
under way by the mid-sixteenth century.
b) European conquest was not just a result of superior firepower. In fact, the most
powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a conventional military
weapon at all. It was the germs such as those of smallpox that they carried on
their person.

c) Because of their long isolation, America’s original inhabitants had no immunity

against these diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox, in particular, proved a
deadly killer. Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent, ahead even of
any Europeans reaching there. It killed and decimated whole communities, paving
the way for conquest and colonisation.

d) Guns could be bought or captured and turned against the invaders. But not
diseases such as smallpox to which the conquerors were mostly immune.

Refer to Pg 55 (under heading-Conquest, Disease and Trade) till first two lines of Pg
56 (old book Pg 79-80)

4. Explain with the help of any three suitable examples how the pre-modern world
changed with the discovery of new sea routes to America. 3

a) 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. These foods were only introduced in Europe and Asia after
Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the vast continent that would later
become known as the Americas. In fact, many of our common foods came from
America’s original inhabitants – the American Indians.

b) Sometimes the new crops could make the difference between life and death.
Europe’s poor began to eat better and live longer with the introduction of the
humble potato.

c) Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines 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.

d) Until the nineteenth century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe. Cities
were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread. Religious conflicts were
common, and religious dissenters were persecuted. Thousands therefore fled Europe
 for America. Here, by the eighteenth century, plantations worked by slaves captured
in Africa were growing cotton and sugar for European markets.

(any three points) (Pg 54-56) (old book Pg 78-80)

Extra Qs-:
1. What kinds of cultural exchanges were made through silk routes? (2)

The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural links
between distant parts of the world. Historians have identified several silk routes,
over land and by sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia, and linking Asia with
Europe and northern Africa.

Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand. Early Christian missionaries
almost certainly travelled this route to Asia, as did early Muslim preachers a few
centuries later. Much before all this, Buddhism emerged from eastern India and
spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk routes.

(Pg 54)

2. How did food travel from one country to another? Give some examples. (3)
Or
How did food offer long distance cultural exchanges?
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 origins.

a) Take spaghetti and noodles. It is believed that noodles travelled west from China to
become spaghetti. Or, perhaps Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily, an
island now in Italy. Similar foods were also known in India and Japan, so the truth
about their origins may never be known.

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. These foods were only introduced in Europe and Asia after
Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the vast continent that would later
become known as the Americas. In fact, many of our common foods came from
America’s original inhabitants – the American Indians.

c) Sometimes the new crops could make the difference between life and death.
Europe’s poor began to eat better and live longer with the introduction of the
humble potato.

(Pg 54-55)
3. State how America’s trade enhanced after its discovery. (3)

a) Before its ‘discovery’, 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. This is
when European sailors successfully crossed the western ocean to America.
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. These foods were only introduced in Europe and Asia after
Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the vast continent that would later
become known as the Americas. In fact, many of our common foods came from
America’s original inhabitants – the American Indians.
c) Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines located in presentday 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.

(Pg 54-55)

4. Why did so many people migrate from Europe to America? (3)

a) Until the nineteenth century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe. Cities
were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread.
b) Religious conflicts were common, and religious dissenters were persecuted.
Thousands therefore fled Europe for America.
c) Here, by the eighteenth century, plantations worked by slaves captured in Africa
were growing cotton and sugar for European markets.

5. ‘New crops could significantly impact survival and well-being.’ Provide evidence to
support this statement.

‘The new crops could make the difference between life and death.’ Explain the above
statement in context of the Irish Potato Famine. (2)

a) Sometimes the new crops could make the difference between life and death.

b) Europe’s poor began to eat better and live longer with the introduction of the humble
potato.

c) Ireland’s poorest peasants became so dependent on potatoes that when disease

destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands died of starvation.
d) Known as the Great Irish Potato Famine, around ten lakh people died of starvation and
double the number emigrated in search of work.