The Making of a Global World

Globalisation is not new. For centuries, traders, travellers and pilgrims carried goods, money, skills, ideas and even germs across vast distances. This chapter begins with the pre-modern world: the silk routes linking China to Europe, food like noodles and potatoes travelling between continents, and the conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century, when smallpox germs devastated native populations. It then examines the nineteenth century, when the world economy was shaped by flows of trade, labour and capital, the abolition of the Corn Laws in Britain, technologies such as railways, steamships and refrigerated ships, and colonisation of Africa. You will learn about Indian indentured labourers who went to the Caribbean, Mauritius and Fiji, and about Indian traders and bankers such as the Shikaripuri shroffs and Nattukottai Chettiars. The chapter then covers the inter-war economy, from the First World War to the Great Depression of 1929 and its effect on Indian farmers. Finally, it explains the post-war settlement at Bretton Woods in 1944, the creation of the IMF and the World Bank, decolonisation, and the start of modern globalisation.

Detailed Worksheet: The Making of a Global World Section A - Definitions (10 marks) 1. What were the silk routes? (2 marks) 2. What were the Corn Laws? Why were they abolished? (2 marks) 3. What is indentured labour? (2 marks) 4. What was rinderpest? How did it affect Africa? (2 marks) 5. What is the Bretton Woods system? (2 marks) Section B - Calculations and Applications (15 marks) 6. In the Great Depression, wheat prices in India fell by about 50% between 1928 and 1934. If a farmer sold 20 quintals of wheat at Rs 10 per quintal in 1928, calculate his income in 1928 and in 1934 at the reduced price. Why did his land revenue burden become heavier? (3 marks) 7. In the nineteenth century, about 50 million people emigrated from Europe to America and Australia. If about 150 million people worldwide left their homes in this period, calculate the share of European emigrants. Give two reasons for this migration. (3 marks) 8. Under the Bretton Woods system the US dollar was fixed to gold at 35 dollars per ounce. Calculate the value of 200 ounces of gold in dollars. If the Indian rupee was fixed at 4.76 rupees per dollar (illustrative), calculate this value in rupees. (3 marks) 9. Arrange in chronological order and give the years: the abolition of the Corn Laws; the Berlin Conference to divide Africa; the end of indentured labour migration from India; the Wall Street crash; the Bretton Woods conference. (3 marks) 10. India's exports fell from about Rs 330 crore in 1928 to about Rs 160 crore in 1934 (illustrative). Calculate the fall and the percentage fall. How did this affect Indian peasants? (3 marks) Section C - Diagrams (10 marks) 11. Draw an outline map of the world and mark the main destinations of Indian indentured labourers: Trinidad, Guyana, Surinam, Mauritius and Fiji. (4 marks) 12. Draw a flowchart showing the three flows within the nineteenth-century world economy. (3 marks) 13. Draw a flowchart showing the chain of events that led to the Great Depression. (3 marks) Section D - Analysis and Higher-order Thinking (15 marks) 14. 'The world changed profoundly with the discovery of new sea routes to the Americas.' Explain how the conquest of the Americas changed the lives of people in Europe and America. (5 marks) 15. Explain how technology such as railways, steamships and refrigerated ships transformed the nineteenth-century world economy, with the example of the meat trade. (5 marks) 16. Explain the main features of the Bretton Woods system. Why did developing countries demand a New International Economic Order? (5 marks) Instructions: Time allowed 2 hours. Attempt all sections. Use dates and examples carefully. Draw maps and flowcharts neatly with labels.