India And The Contemporary World Ii Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World

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. 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. Yet such guesswork suggests the possibilities of long-distance cultural contact even in the pre-modern world.

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.

The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonisation of America was decisively under way by the mid-sixteenth century.

(i)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.

(ii)Because of their long isolation, America’s original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that came from Europe.

(iii)Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer.Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent, ahead even of any Europeans reaching there

(iv)It killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for conquest. 

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

The effects of British Government’s decision to abolish the Corn Laws:

The coming of rinderpest to Africa:

(i) Entering Africa in the East, rinderpest moved West ‘like a forest fire’, streached around Africa’s Atlantic coast in 1892. Cape (Africa’s southernmost tip) was also infested by that lethal disease just after five years. Along the way, rinderpest killed 90 per cent of the total cattle.

(iii) The loss of cattle made African unemployed and starving. Planters, mine owners and  colonial governments now successfully monopolised what scarce cattle resources remained, to strenghten their power and to force Africans into labour market.

(iii)Control over the scarce resource of cattle enabled European colonisers to conquer and subdue Africa.

The effects:
(i)Most of the killed and maimed were men of working age. These deaths and injuries reduced the able-bodied workforce in Europe.

(ii)With fewer numbers within the famly, household income declined after the great war.

(iii)Entire societies were also reorganised for war – as men went to battle, women stepped in to undertake jobs that earlier only men were expected to do.

Effects of the Great Depression on the Indian economy:
(i) The depression immediately affected Indian trade. India’s exports and imports recorded nearly halved between 1928 and 1934. As international prices crashed, prices in India were also plunged. Between 1928 and 1934, wheat prices in India fell by 50 per cent.

(ii)Peasants and farmers suffered more than urban dwellers. Though agricultural prices fell sharply, the colonial government refused to reduce revenue demands. Peasants producing for the world market were the worst hit.

(iii)Across India, peasants’ indebtedness increased. They used up their savings, mortgaged lands, and sold whatever jewellery and precious metals they had to meet their expenses.

(iv)In these depression years, India became an exporter of precious metals, notably gold. The famous economist John Maynard Keynes thought that Indian gold exports promoted global economic recovery.

(v)In these depression years, India became an exporter of precious metals, notably gold. The famous economist John Maynard Keynes thought that Indian gold exports promoted global economic recovery.

Faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped move food more cheaply and quickly from faraway farms to final markets.

First Example:Till the 1870s, animals were shipped live from America to Europe and then slaughtered when they arrived there. But live animals took up a lot of ship space. 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. High prices in turn kept demand and production down until the development of a new technology, namely, refrigerated ships, which enabled the transport of perishable foods over long distances

Second Example:Now animals were slaughtered for food at the starting point – in America, Australia or New Zealand – and then transported to Europe as frozen meat. This reduced shipping costs and lowered meat prices in Europe. The poor in Europe could now consume a more varied diet. To the earlier monotony of bread and potatoes many, though not all, could now add meat (and butter and eggs) to their diet.

The meaning of the Bretton Woods Agreements:
(i) This agreement was signed between the world powers in July 1944 at Mount Washington Hotel situated in Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.

(ii)The Bretton Woods conference established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations.

(iii)The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (popularly known as the World Bank) was set up to finance postwar reconstruction. The IMF and the World Bank are referred to as the Bretton Woods institutions or sometimes the Bretton Woods twins.

(iv)The post-war international economic system is also often described as the Bretton Woods system. The IMF and the World Bank commenced financial operations in 1947. 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.

(v)The international monetary system is the system linking national currencies and monetary system. The Bretton Woods system was based on fixed exchange rates. In this system, national currencies, for example the Indian rupee, were pegged to the dollar at a fixed exchange rate. The dollar itself was anchored to gold at a fixed price of $35 per ounce of gold.

Dear father,
‘… in spite of my best efforts, I could not properly do the works that were allotted to me ... In a few days I got my hands bruised all over and I could not go to work for a week for which I was prosecuted and sent to jail for 14 days. ... new emigrants find the tasks allotted to them extremely heavy and cannot complete them in a day. ... Deductions are also made from wages if the work is considered to have been done unsatisfactorily. Many people cannot therefore earn their full wages and are punished in various ways. In fact, the labourers have to spend their period of indenture in great trouble …’

Your son,
XYZ

Three types of movements or flows in international trade and commerce:

(i)Trade in goods like cloth and wheat.

(ii)Migration of people in search of employment.

(iii)Short and long term investments over long distances.

Examples: each type of flow from India and Indians:

(i)Trade in goods:Here the British Indian government built a network of irrigation canals to transform semi-desert wastes into fertile agricultural lands that could grow wheat and cotton for export. The Canal Colonies, as the areas irrigated by the new canals were called, were settled by peasants from other parts of Punjab. Britain took wheat and cloth—cotton, silken and woollen of extraordinary quality and having demand in European countries from India. 

(ii)Migration of people in search of employment: In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and in road and railway construction projects around the world.

(iii)Short and long term investments over long distances: Hyderabadi Sindhi traders ventured beyond European colonies. From the 1860s they established flourishing emporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels.

The causes of Great Depression:

(i)Fagricultural overproduction was made worse by falling agricultural prices. As prices slumped and agricultural incomes declined, farmers tried to expand production and bring a larger volume of produce to the market to maintain their overall income. This worsened the glut in the market, pushing down prices even further. Farm produce rotted for a lack of buyers.

(ii)In the mid-1920s, many countries financed their investments through loans from the US. While it was often extremely easy to raise loans in the US when the going was good, US overseas lenders panicked at the first sign of trouble.

(iii)In the first half of 1928, US overseas loans amounted to over $ 1 billion. A year later it was one quarter of that amount. Countries that depended crucially on US loans now faced an acute crisis.

Centre for gold and diamond making was an African colony of the Britishers currently known as Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia. These two countries that time were under control of the British Government as colony.

The gold and diamond companies were controlled by Britisher.
The miners were people from India, South Asia and Africa. People in Africa were compelled for working as labourers in mines. 

A.

Exchange of goods

B.

Trade between common countries

C.

Export and Import

B.

Japan

B.

The Portuguese

C.

The Spanish

A.

They were passed by the British Government to restrict the import of corn

C.

The Slaves from Africa

C.

Both (a) and (b) are correct

A.

World Trade Organisation

B.

India

C.

D.

Japan

C.

Refrigerated ships

A.

 A cattle disease in Africa

Tips: -

M. Imp.

B.

South American states of Trinidad and Guyana

B.

In 1995

A.

New International Economic Order

C.

1960s

A.

It was a group of 77 developing countries which did not benefit from the fast growth which the Western economies experienced in 1950s.

B.

In 1929

C.

Russia

B.

Germany

A.

About 60 million people were killed in this war

D.

All of these

D.

all of these

D.

all of these

C.

germs such as those of small pox

A.

The germs killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for conquest.

B.

Due to the vast resources of land and minerals

D.

all of these

B.

Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey

C.

cultural fusion of different communities

A.

Goa

A.

They are descended from indentured labour migrants from India.

B.

G-77

A.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank

D.

all of these

C.

wages were relatively low

C.

Canada, America and Australia

A.

The US and the Soviet Union

C.

Mass production

A.

T-Model Ford

A.

 Agricultural regions and communities

B.

West-bound Chinese silk cargoes

C.

El Dorado

D.

Irrigated areas

B.

Riotous carnival

D.

Noodles

A.

Henry Ford

B.

Post war international economic system

It refers to all processes specially commercial relations developed among countries of the world. 

The difference between exports and imports is known as balance of trade.

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. But 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.

Growing food and other crops for the world market required capital. Large plantations could borrow it from banks and markets. 

(i)The Indian bankers were Shikaripuri Shroffs and Nattu Kottai Chettiars. 

(ii)They were amongst the many groups of bankers and traders who financed export agriculture in Central and Southeast Asia, using either their own funds or those borrowed from European banks.

(ii)They had a sophisticated system to transfer money over large distances, and even developed indigenous forms of corporate organisation.

(iv)Indian traders and moneylenders also followed European colonisers into Africa. Hyderabadi Sindhi traders, however, ventured beyond European colonies.

(v)From the 1860s they established flourishing emporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels.

In the late nineteenth century, Europeans were attracted to Africa: 

(i)Due to its vast resources of land and minerals.

(ii)Europeans came to Africa hoping to establish plantations and mines to produce crops and minerals for export to Europe.

(iii) Employers used many methods to recruit and retain labour. Heavy taxes were imposed which could be paid only by working for wages on plantations and mines.

(iv)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.

(v)Mineworkers were also confined in compounds and not allowed to move about freely.

The Group 77 countries demanded a New International Economic Order to: 

(i)get real control on their own natural resources

(ii)get more development assistance from advanced or western countries.

(iii)obtain fairer price for raw material and better access for their manufactured goods in developed countries’ markets.

The implication of trade:
(i)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.

(ii)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.

(iii)Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among the world’s richest countries. They were also pre-eminent in Asian trade. However, from the fifteenth century, China is said to have restricted overseas contacts and retreated into isolation. China’s reduced role and the rising importance of the Americas gradually moved the centre of world trade westwards. Europe now emerged as the centre of world trade.

Rinderpest was fast-spreading disease of cattle.

(i)Rinderpest 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 East Africa.

(ii)Entering Africa in the east, rinderpest moved west ‘like forest 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 per cent of the cattle.

(iii)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.

(iv)Control over the scarce resource of cattle enabled European colonisers to conquer and subdue Africa.

The reasons:

(i)Due to high population the demands for foodgrains went up. To fulfil the need for eatables, foodgrains, vegetables, fruits etc., land was cleared for agriculture.

(ii) It was not enough merely to clear lands for agriculture. Railways were needed to link the agricultural regions to the ports. New harbours had to be built and old ones expanded to ship the new cargoes.

(iii)People had to settle on the lands to bring them under cultivation. This meant building homes and settlements

The First World War, as you know, was fought between two power blocs.

(i)The First World War was a war like no other before. The fighting involved the world’s leading industrial nations which now harnessed the vast powers of modern industry to inflict the greatest possible destruction on their enemies.

(ii)This war was thus the first modern industrial war. It saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc. on a massive scale. These were all increasingly products of modern largescale industry. To fight the war, millions of soldiers had to be recruited from around the world and moved to the frontlines on large ships and trains. The scale of death and destruction – 9 million dead and 20 million injured – was unthinkable before the industrial age, without the use of industrial arms.

(iii)Most of the killed and maimed were men of working age. These deaths and injuries reduced the able-bodied workforce in Europe. With fewer numbers within the family, household incomes declined after the war.

(iv)During the war, industries were restructured to produce war-related goods. Entire societies were also reorganised for war – as men went to battle, women stepped in to undertake jobs that earlier only men were expected to do.

(v)The war led to the snapping of economic links between some of the world’s largest economic powers which were now fighting each other to pay for them. Thus the war transformed the US from being an international debtor to an international creditor. In other words, at the war’s end, the US and its citizens owned more overseas assets than foreign governments and citizens owned in the US.

Tips: -

M. Imp.

Tips: -

M. Imp.

These forms of cultural fusion are part of the making of the global world, where things from different places get mixed, lose their original characteristics and become something entirely new.

(i)In Trinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called ‘Hosay’ (for Imam Hussain) in which workers of all races and religions joined.

(ii)Similarly, the protest religion of Rastafarianism (made famous by the Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley) is also said to reflect social and cultural links with Indian migrants to the Caribbean.

(iii)‘Chutney music’, popular in Trininad and Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the post-indenture experience.

Small pox

El Dorado

Chutney Music

Potatoes

Rinderpest or the cattle plague.

(a) Cowries were a form of currency in the Maldives and later on it was use in China and East Africa also.

(b) With the introduction of Corn Laws restrictions were imposed on the import of corn in Britain.

(c) The system of fixed exchange rate led to a growth in the purchase of consumer durables.

(d) During the nineteenth century British manufactured goods flooded the Indian markets.

C.

Duke Metternich