AP Board 10th Class Social History Notes 3rd Lesson The Making of a Global World
→ Globalisation is an economic activity associated with the free movement of goods, technology, ideas and people across the globe.
→ There are several silk routes, over land and by sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia and linking Asia with Europe and North Africa.
→ Noodles travelled west from China to become spaghetti.
→ Common fol such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize tomatoes, chilies, sweet potatoes were Introduced in Europe and Asia after Christopher Columbus discovered America.
→ Precious metals, particular silver, from mines Located in present day Peru and Mexico enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia.
→ Spanish conquerors carried germs such as those of small pox on their person. Once It spçead deep in to the continent, ahead of even of any Europeans reaching there. It killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for conquest.
→ Until the 19th century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe. Until well into the 18th century, China and India were among the world’s richest countries.
→ In the late 18th century, growth in the population increased the demand for food : grains in Britain.
→ After the Corn Laws were scrapped, food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than It could be produced within the country.
→ Industrial growth took place In Britain which led to higher Incomes meaning more food imports.
→ It is to be transported by railways and ship. New harbours had to be built and old ones excpanded to ship the new cargoes.
→ People had to settle on the lands to bring them under cultivation. This meant building homes and settlements.
→ Food is one of the examples. Products such as cotton, rubber, wheat also had same market.
→ Railways, steamships and the telegraphs were.the important Inventions that transformed 19th century world.
→ High prices in turn kept demand and production down until the development of a new technology. Example: Development of refrigerated ships enabled the transport of perishable foods over long distances. Animals were slaughtered for food at the starting point in America, Australia or New Zealand and the transported to Europe as frozen meat.
→ European conquests produced many painful economic, social and ecological changes through which the colonised societies were brought Into the world economy.
→ In 1885 the big European powers met In Berlin to complete the carving up of Africa between them. Belgium and Germany new colonial powers.
→ The US became a colonial power in the late 1890s by taking over some colonies earlier held by Spain.
→ Rinderpest was a fast-epreadlng disease of cattle plague which hit Africa in the 1890s.
→ Loss of cattle destroyed the livelihoods of Africans. Planters, mine owners and colonial governments monopoilsed and forced Africans Into the labour market.
→ Indentured labour was a bonded labourer under contract to work for an employer.
→ In the 19th century hundreds of thousands of indian and Chinese labourers went to work on plantations, in mines and in road and railway construction projects around the world.
→ From india most indentured workers migrated from present day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Central India and’ dry districts of Tamil Nadu. Their poorness forced them to migrate In search of work.
→ Recruitment was done by agents by providing false information about their work and location.
→ On arrival at the plantations, labourers found conditions to be different from what they had Imagined.
→ In Trinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called Hosay (for Imam Hussain).
→ Chutney music was popular In Trinidad and Guyana. These forms of cultural fusion are part of making of the global world.
→ From The 1900s India’s nationalist leaders began opposing the system of indentured labour migration as abusive and cruel. It was abolished in 1921.
→ Indian entrepreneurs like Shikaripuri Shrof is and Nattukottal Chettiars financed export agriculture in Central and South-East Asia.
→ Indiag traders and moneylenders followed European colonisers into Africa.
→ Industrial Revolution in England changed the balance of trade between England and India.
→ Indian handicrafts and agriculture were destroyed and Britain enjoyed a trade surplus with India.
→ Britain exports increased and imports decreased.
→ The First World War was the first modern industrial war.
→ During the war period, industries were restucted to produce war related goods.
→ The war transformed the US from being an International debtor to an International creditor.
→ After the war was over, the production reduced and unemployment Increased.
→ In the US, war recovery was quicker.
→ Assembly line method was introduced by Henry Ford. Fordist industrial practices soon spread In the US. They were also widely copied In Europe in the 1920s.
→ Mas production lowered the cost and prices of engineered goods.
→ In 1923 the US resumed exporting capital to the rest of the world and became the largest overseas lender.
→ There was a housing and consumer boom In the 1920s, which ultimately led to the Great Depression of 1929.
→ Markets crashed In 1929 and ft led to the failure of banks and the crisis affected other countries.
→ By 1933 over 4,000 banks had closed and between 1929 and 1932 about 1,10,000 companies had collapsed.
→ India was also affected by the Great Depression.
→ India’s exports and Imports nearly halved between 1928 and 1934. As international prices crashed, prices in India also plunged. Bengal jute growers suffered the most.
→ Laige scale migration took place from villages to towns and cities.
→ The Second World War broke out a mere two decades after the end of the First World War. Once again It led to destruction.
→ Two crucial influences shaped post-war reconstruction. The first was the US’s emergence as the dominant economic, political and military power in the western world. The second was dominance of the Soviet Union.
→ To ensure a stable economy a framework was agreed upon at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held In July 1944 at Bretton Woods In New Hampshire, USA.
→ The Bretton Woods Conference established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (popularly known as the world bank) to finance post-war reconstruction.
→ The IMF and the World Bank commenced financial operations in 1947.
→ Bretton Wood system was based on a fixed exchange rate.
→ National currencies were pegged to the America’s dollar at a fixed rate.
→ Decision making in these institutions is controlled by the Western Industrial powers largely by USA.
→ Over the next two decades after the Second World War most colonies in Asia and Africa emerged as free, independent nations.
→ Most developing countries did not benefit from the fast growth the western economies experienced In the 1950s and 1960s. They organised themselves as a group – the Group of 77 (or G-77) to demand a New International Economic Order (MEO).
→ By the NIEO they meant a system that would give them real control over their natural resources, more development assistance, fairer prices for raw materials and better access for their manufactured goods in developed countries markets.
→ MNCs or Multi National Companies were established in the 1950s and they spread world-wide.
→ Dissenter : One who refuses to accept established beliefs and practices.
→ Indentured : A bonded labourer under contract to work for an employer for a labour specific amount of time, to pay off his passage to a new country or home.
→ Tariff : Tax imposed on a countrys imports from the rest of the world. Tariffs are levied at the point of entry, I.e., at the border or the airport.
→ Exchange rates : They link national currencies for purposes of international trade. There are broadly two kinds of exchange rates : fixed exchange rate and floating exchange rate.
→ Fixed exchange : When exchange rates are fixed and governments intervene to rates prevent movements In them.
→ Flexible or floating exchange rates : These rates fluctuate depending on demand and supply of curren-:
cies in foreign exchange markets, in principle without interference by the governments.
→ Globalisation : Globalisation generally associated with the economy as the free movement of capital, goods, technology, ideas and people across the globe. Globalisation in a broader sense also includes cultural exchanges between different countries of the world.
→ Silk Route : The route taken by traders to carry silk cargoes from China to the west, which affected the cultures of China, Central Asia and the west.
→ Cattle Plague or Rinderpest : This was a disease caused by the rinderpest virus which primarily infected cattle and buffalo.
→ Colonisation : Colonisation occurs when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while forcing its own language and cultural values upon it’s people.
→ Colonial powers : A country which possesses, or formerly possessed, colonies in different parts of the world.