The Making of Global World Class 10 Notes Social Science History Chapter 4
The Pre-Modern World
Human societies developed links among each other through travellers, traders, priests and Pilgrims. These people travelled vast distances for knowledge, opportunity and spiritual fulfilment, or to escape persecution of their actions. Goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, and even germs and diseases were exchanged on their journeys.
An active coastal trade linked the Indus Valley Civilisation with West Asia (present) even in 3000 BC. Evidence like cowries from the Maldives found in China and East Africa prove the presence of international trade.
Silk Routes Link the World:
Silk routes was the name given to land and sea routes, which carried West-bound Chinese silk cargo to distant countries of the western world. They knit together vast regions of Asia, and linked Asia with Europe and northern Africa. The silk route has been predominant even before the Christian Era and was in existence till the 15th Century. Chinese pottery, Indian textiles and South-East Asian spices were transported through the same routes. Precious metals such as gold and silver were sent back to Asia from Europe. They are examples of the vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural links between distant parts of the world.
However, culture and trade went hand in hand. Trade flourished using these routes and cuLtural representatives of the East and West, for example Christian missionaries, Muslim preachers and Buddhist monks travelled along the same routes.
Frequently Asked
Native Americans were popularly known as American- Indians.
Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato:
The pre-modern world also saw long-distance cultural exchange through food.
- Travelling merchants carried their native food to the places they visited. Noodles came from China to the West and became spaghetti. Similarly, pasta travelled from Arab to Sicily in Italy.
- Even readymade foods found in a region of the world may owe its origin to another place in the world.
- Common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, and sweet potatoes were introduced in Europe and Asia after Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the Americas.
- We owe the origin of various everyday foods to the American Indians.
- Introduction of new food items made the lives of people easier. They became dependent on their growth for their sustenance.
- The humble potato became the staple food for Europeans, so much so that when the crop failed hundreds and thousands of people died of starvation.
Frequently Asked
Due to heavy dependence on potatoes (introduced in Ireland by travellers from America), around 1,000,000 people died of starvation in Ireland, and double the number emigrated in search of work during the Great Irish Potato Famine (1845 to 1849) when the potato crop was destroyed by a disease.
Conquest, Disease and Trade:
The discovery of sea routes to Asia and America brought the world closer during the sixteenth century.
The Indian Ocean steered a bustling trade, exchange of ideas, goods and customs for centuries prior to this discovery and the Indian subcontinent had been a crucial metaphorical bridge in this exchange. With the discovery of this route, trade flows were successfully directed towards Europe.
Example 1.
Explain what we mean when we say that the world ‘shrank’ in the 1500s.
Answer:
The world shrank after the discovery of sea routes to Asia and the Americas. The physical distances between continents were reduced metaphorically due to the now available transportation facilities. What seemed like the end of the world could now be visited and viewed hence making the vague image of how large our world was, more lucid and exact.
The world was now interconnected. This made it appear accessible and hence “smaller” in those terms.
America, which had been cut off from the rest of the world before the discovery of this route, transformed lives and trade through its products after the sixteenth century.
Places like present-day Peru and Mexico had reserves of precious metals, especially silver, which enhanced the wealth of Europe and made trade with Asia possible. Many legends about the wealth of South America and the city of gold, El Dorado were popular among seventeenth century Europeans triggering various expeditions to find these reserves and mines.
Example 2.
Explain how the global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world helped in the colonisation of the Americas.
Answer:
The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonisation of America was underway by the mid-sixteenth century. With these expeditions, exchange of food and goods, exchange and introduction of germs and diseases like smallpox also began. Americans encountering these diseases for the first time were non- immune to them and- died in large numbers decimating their own communities even before European conquest. Hence, it was not their superior firepower or military strength, but the germs helped Europeans to conquer America.
Cities in Europe until the nineteenth century were crowded where poverty and hunger were rampant. This led to widespread diseases which along with religious conflicts killed many. Fear of punishment due to religious dissent also encouraged Europeans to flee to America. America had by then become a colony where slaves captured from Africa grew cotton and sugar for European markets.
China and India, pre-eminent in Asian trade, had been the richest countries until the eighteenth century. China’s tendencies of isolation from overseas contact and the rising importance of the Americas changed the world’s economic order- making Europe- the centre of world trade.
Frequently Asked
The introduction of diseases and germs into colonies to destroy their civilisation can be termed as biological warfare or biological weapons.
The Nineteenth Century (1815 -1914)
Momentous changes in economic, political, social, cultural and technological factors during the nineteenth century transformed societies and reshaped external relations.
Economists identify three types of movement or ‘flows’ within international economic exchanges.
- Flow of trade – trade of goods like wheat etc.
- Flow of labour – the migration of people in search of employment.
- Movement of capital in the form of investments over long distances.
These flows were usually interconnected and interdependent. Trade of slaves was restricted and rare as compared to exchange of goods or capital. However, the three flows together shaped the world economy.
A World Economy Takes Shape:
Changes in food production and consumption patterns can be observed as the first changes experienced due to the changing economic order of the world.
Population growth and high demand due to an increase in the number of urban centres and industries pushed up food grain prices. British government restricted the import of corn through the ‘Corn Laws’ under pressure of the landed aristocracy which was dominant in the British society.
Example 3.
Write a note to explain the effects of the British government’s decision to abolish the Corn Laws.
Answer:
- Industrialists and urban dwellers forced the government to abolish these laws, post which import of food became drastically cheap.
- This destroyed the native British agriculture and threw large numbers of men out of work who in turn migrated to cities or overseas for work.
- Fall in prices encouraged consumption and food imports grew as a consequence. Food imports also grew due to faster industrial growth during the mid-nineteenth century.
Around the world – In Eastern Europe, Russia, America and Australia – lands were cleared and food production expanded to meet the British demand. This was accompanied by the construction of houses and settlements of farming communities. There was a spurt in construction of railways, harbours, communication Infrastructure etc., for transporting of the cultivated products.
People had to settle on the lands to bring them under cultivation.
- Capital was facilitated from London and Labour was supplied in Australia and America through migration.
- By 1890, a global agricultural economy had taken shape, accompanied by complex changes in labour movement patterns, capital flows, ecologies and technology.
Similar changes could be noticed in India. The British Indian government built a network of irrigation canals to transform semi-desert wastes into fertile agricultural lands to grow wheat and cotton for export. These canal colonies were settled and inhabited by workers and farmers swiftly. Similar things happened to cotton and rubber growing areas.
World trade multiplied 25 to 40 times during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most of this trade comprised primary agricultural products like wheat and cotton, and minerals such as coal.
Role of Technology:
Technological advances were often the result of larger social, political and economic factors and the colonisation stimulated new investments and improvements in transport, equipment and communication etc. The trade in meat changed completely due to this transformation. Earlier animals were slaughtered after reaching the destination in Europe, which made it an expensive commodity. Most of the time the animals arrived malnourished unfit for human consumption, or they fell ill and died on board the ships. All this led to a demand for meat. The Europeans found it difficult to consume meat due to high prices.
The answer to this was refrigerated ships, which were built enabling transportation of slaughtered animals from their starting point – in America, Australia or New Zealand – and then transported to Europe as frozen meat. Prices fell tremendously due to this and meat became widely available. Diets became richer due to its inclusion, promoting healthier living conditions and social peace within the country and support for imperialism abroad grew.
Late nineteenth-century Colonialism:
Trade flourished and markets expanded in the late nineteenth century. However, the expansion of trade led to loss of freedom and livelihoods to some people. European conquests produced economic, social and ecological changes through which the third world countries (other name for colonised nations) were born. For example, Europeans looked to Africa and carved up the continent for economic gain.
Frequently Asked
Cattle trade was widely prevalent. The livestock market in London at Smithfield was one of the oldest livestock markets.
In 1885, big European powers carved up Africa between them. They drew almost straight borders between countries demarcating their territories. Most territories were taken up by Britain and France.
Belgium, Germany and the US also became colonial powers.
Rinderpest- A Cattle Plague:
In Africa, cattle plague or the Rinderpest, affected the local economy and livelihoods of people. Widespread European imperial power drastically impacted colonised societies.
Africa had abundant land and a relatively small population. Land and livestock sustained African livelihoods. There was no reason to work for wages because there were not many consumer goods available and land and livestock fulfilled all the requirements. Europeans were attracted to Africa due to its vast resources of land and minerals in the late 19th century. They planned to establish plantations and mines to produce crops and minerals for export to Europe.
However, the labour was not willing to work for wages. They were forced through these methods:
- Employers had to impose heavy taxes which could be paid only by working for wages on plantations and mines to recruit and make them work.
- Inheritance laws were changed, only one was allowed to inherit and the rest were pushed to the labour market.
- Mineworkers were also confined in compounds and not allowed to move about freely.
Rinderpest-a cattle disease- 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. It reached Africa’s Atlantic coast in the west in 1892 and in the Cape five years later, killing 90% of the cattle. Livelihoods were destroyed and planters, mine owners and colonial governments monopolised the remaining cattle resources to strengthen their power and to force Africans into the Labour market. This is how Europeans subdued cattle-infected Africa
Indentured Labour Migration from India:
The nineteenth-century world was a world of faster economic growth as well as great misery,
higher incomes for some and poverty for others, technological advances and new forms of coercion in various areas. In the nineteenth century, many Indian and Chinese labourers were working on plantations, in mines, and road and railway construction projects around the world. In India, indentured labourers were hired with promises to return to travel to India after they had worked five years on their employer’s plantation.
Most Indian indentured workers came from the present-day regions of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districts of Tamil Nadu. The mid-nineteenth century decline of cottage industries, rise of land rents and clearing of land for mining purposes affected the lives of the poor; they were forced to migrate in search of work due to these conditions. Indian indentured migrants were mainly stationed in tea plantations in Assam, Caribbean islands (usually in Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam), Mauritius and Fiji. Tamil migrants went to Ceylon and Malaya to work in tea and rubber plantations. Recruitment was done by agents who were paid a small commission.
Migrants were forced to take up the work by providing false information about final destinations, modes of travel, the nature of the work, and living and working conditions. Migrants took up these jobs to escape poverty and oppression. Sometimes, migrants were even abducted.
Important:
Nineteenth-century indentured labour has been described as a ‘New system of slavery’.
In plantations, living and working conditions were harsh, and there were few legal rights. Workers who escaped into the wilds were punished severely when found.
The immigrants found new forms of individual and collective self expression. These developed and blended in a whole new and different culture.
- The annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called ‘Hosay’ in Trinidad.
- The protest religion of Rastafarianism reflected social and culturaL Links with Indian migrants to the Caribbean.
- ‘Chutney music’, popular in Trinidad and Guyana, is another creative contemporary expression of the post-indenture experience.
These forms of cultural fusion represented the spirit of the global world, where things from different places get mixed, lose their original characteristics and transform into something entirely new.
Indentured workers either stayed or Left to their new homes after a short spell to their original lands. This resulted in the formation of communities of people of Indian descent in foreign lands.
Frequently Asked
V.S.Naipaul, West Indies cricketers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are few examples of people of Indian descent. Their ancestors and families were sent to their countries as indentured labourers.
After several protests from Indian leaders, the system was abolished in 1921. Despite that, descendants of Indian indentured workers remained a minority in the Caribbean islands who felt isolated, alienated and out of place.
Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad:
The growing food and agricultural crops were always in need of capital. Although banks did finance the large land holders, the humble peasants borrowed capital from bankers and traders like Shikaripuri shroffs and Nattukottai Chettiars who financed export agriculture in Central and Southeast Asia, using either their own funds or those borrowed from European banks. They had a sophisticated system to transfer money over large distances, and indigenous forms of corporate organisation helped transfer the capital.
By the 1860s, Indian traders and moneylenders also followed European colonists into Africa. Hyderabadi Sindhi traders, established flourishing emporia at various ports worldwide and sold local and imported curios to growing numbers of tourists.
The Indian Trade, Colonialism and Global System
Fine cottons produced in India were exported to Europe. Industrialists pressurised the government to restrict cotton imports to protect the local industries after industrialisation. Tariffs were imposed on cloth imports into Britain. This led to decreased inflow of fine Indian cotton.
From the early nineteenth century, British manufacturers also began to seek overseas markets for their cloth. Indian textiles now faced stiff competition in other international markets after being excluded from English markets.
Between 1812 to 1871, while exports of manufactures declined rapidly, export of raw materials increased equally fast.
- Raw cotton exports rose from 5 per cent to 35 per cent.
- Indigo used for dyeing cloth was another important export for many decades.
- Opium shipments to China grew rapidly and became India’s single largest item of export.
Britain grew opium in India and exported it to China which financed its tea and other imports from China.
Over the nineteenth century, British manufacturers flooded the Indian market. Food grain and raw material exports from India to the world increased. Britain had a ‘trade surplus’ with India because its exports to India were greater than the value of British imports from India.
Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries, because of which India played a crucial role in the late-nineteenth-century world economy.
Britain’s trade surplus in India also helped pay the so-called ‘home charges’ that included:
- Private remittances home by British officials and traders
- Interest payments on India’s external debt
- Pensions of British officials in India
The Inter-War Economy
Although the First World War (1914-18) was fought in Europe, its impact was felt around the world. It plunged in the first half of the twentieth century and recovery took a long time. This led to widespread economic and political instability, and another catastrophic war.
Important
The First World War was fought between Britain, France and Russia (later joined by the US) called the Allies and the other side by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey called the Central Powers.
During the First World War, the countries used their modern industries to inflict destruction on other countries, making it the first modern industrial war ever fought. The war saw the usage of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc. on a massive scale. There was massive destruction and huge scale recruitment of soldiers. Millions of people were killed and most of them were young able-bodied men reducing the workforce in Europe drastically. Societies had to be rearranged because men were away at the war and women had to step in to play their roles. Industries were also restructured to produce war-related goods.
World’s largest economic powers fought against each other and used most of their funds for that. Every country was borrowing from the US. The US was transformed from an international debtor to an international creditor. The US possessed more assets after the war than before it.
Post-War Recovery:
Post-war economic recovery took decades. Britain, which was otherwise the world’s leading economy, faced a prolonged crisis. It could not capture its position and compete with Indian and Japanese industries again. Due to excessive borrowing, by the end of the war Britain was burdened with huge external debts.
The war had caused an economic by which led to a large increase in demand, production and employment. With the end of the war, the boom also ended, production contracted and unemployment increased. Peacetime has also led the governments to reduce bloated war expenditures. Jobs were lost. People were anxious and uncertain. Agricultural economies were in crisis. Grain prices fell, rural incomes declined, and farmers fell deeper into debt.
Rise of Mass Production and Consumption:
After the war, the US economy recovered the fastest. Mass Production was a feature of the US economy in the 1920s during its recovery. It was pioneered by car manufacturer Henry Ford who adapted the assembly line of a Chicago slaughterhouse to his new car plant in Detroit. The assembly line method which enabled faster production of vehicles, forced workers to repeat a single task mechanically and continuously at a pace dictated by the conveyor belt. The TModel Ford was the world’s first mass-produced car.
Many workers were unable to cope with this system of work on the conveyor belt. So, left jobs in large numbers. To earn their loyalties, Ford increased their wages and recovered these high wages by repeatedly speeding up the production line and forcing workers to work even harder. Mass production lowered costs and prices of engineered goods. Higher wages led to an increase in demand of luxury goods. There was a spurt in the purchase of refrigerators, washing machines, radios, gramophone players, all through a system of ‘hire purchase’, through a credit repaid in weekly or monthly instalments. Loans which led to surge in construction of houses, fueLLed the demand of these products too.
Large investments in housing and household goods created a cycle of higher employment and incomes, rising consumption demand, more investment, employment and incomes.
In 1923, the US became the largest overseas lender. Its imports and trade boosted European recovery, world economy and income growth over the next six years.
However, the world was hit by a severe economic depression in 1929.
The Great Depression
During the Great Depression. the world experienced major declines in production, employment, incomes and trade. Every country experienced the depression differently. The agricultural regions and communities were the worst affected due to greater fall in prices of agricultural goods.
The depression was caused by a combination of several factors.
- The economy was fragile after the world war. Agricultural prices fell and overproduction was a problem. Farmers produced more to earn the bare minimum, which led to extra supply. Prices fell further.
- Most countries financed their investments through loans from the US. US overseas loans lenders were hesitant to loan money which further destroyed the economy of these countries. It caused the failure of banks, slumping of agricultural prices etc.
- The US attempted to save its own economy and hence doubled import duties. This made it even worse for other economies.
- The industry of the US was also severely affected. Farmers of the US could not sell their harvests, households were ruined, and businesses collapsed because its banks called back loans.
- People had to sell their property to repay their loans. Unemployment soared and the US banking system collapsed.
- The Great Depression had wider negative implications on society, politics and international relations.
- Countries could only recover slightly by 1935.
India and the Great Depression:
India was solely affected by the Depression due to its interconnectedness with the global economy, affecting lives, economies and societies worldwide.
Depression affected India’s exports and imports which nearly halved between 1928 and 1934. Agricultural prices fell drastically. The British government however continued with the same revenue demands despite the fall in prices and this added to the misery of farmers. For example, gunny exports collapsed, the price of raw jute crashed more than 60 per cent. Peasants who borrowed in the hope of better times or to increase output fell deeper and deeper into debt.
Example 4.
Source Based:
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow:
Faced with falling incomes, many households in the US could not repay what they had borrowed and were forced to give up their homes, cars and other consumer durables. The consumerist prosperity of the 1920s now disappeared in a puff of dust. As unemployment soared, people trudged long distances looking for any work they could find.
Ultimately, the US banking system itself collapsed. Unable to recover investments, collect loans and repay depositors, thousands of banks went bankrupt and were forced to close. The numbers are phenomenal: by 1933 over 4,000 banks had closed and between 1929 and 1932 about 110,000 companies had collapsed. By 1935, a modest economic recovery was underway in most industrial countries. But the Great Depression’s wider effects on society, politics and international relations, and on peoples’ minds, proved more enduring.
(A) Which of the following statements are true about the Great Depression?
(a) The Great Depression occurred in African countries only.
(b) Industrial nations were worst affected.
(c) Countries that borrowed loans from the UK and Australia were severely affected.
(d) By 1935, a modest economic recovery was under way in most industrial countries.
Answer:
(c) Countries that borrowed loans from the UK and Australia were severely affected.
Explanation: The US was the universal lender for all the countries. Countries across the world borrowed money from the US since their economies were recovering after the First World War.
(B) Which of the following were the results of the Great Depression?
(I) Catastrophic declines in production, employment and prices.
(II) Fall in agricultural prices
(III) The US called back its loans.
(IV) Trade doubled and loans could be borrowed easily.
(a) (II) & (IV) only
(b) (I) only
(c) (I), (II) & (III) only
(d) (I), (II), (III) & (IV)
Answer:
(c) (I), (II) & (III) only
Explanation: Depression resulted in catastrophic declines in production, employment and severe fall in agricultural prices. The US called back its loans because it realised that countries would not be able to pay them back. It also required money to support its economy.
(C) Mention one effect of the Great Depression upon the USA.
Answer:
The US banking system collapsed as a result of the Depression.
(D) Assertion (A): With the fall in prices and the prospect of a depression, US banks had also slashed domestic lending.
Reason(R): The consumerist prosperity of the 1920s now disappeared in a puff of dust.
(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
(b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
(c) (A) is correct but (R) is wrong
(d) (A) is wrong but (R) is correct.
Answer:
(b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
Explanation: The US was most severely affected by the depression. To save its economy, it had to stop lending and call back loans.
Example 5.
Who profits from jute cultivation according to the jute growers’ lament? Explain.
Answer:
Due to severe fall of agricultural prices worldwide, jute growers were miserable. They had to grow more to earn their livelihood since prices had reduced. They lamented that the fruits of their hard work were reaped by traders who were getting more goods for a lesser price. However during these years, India became an exporter of precious metals like gold which helped British to recover but the Indian peasant had to still sell or mortgage his property to pay his debts.
The Depression proved less grim for urban India. Falling prices profited salaried professionals with fixed incomes. Goods could be bought cheaper than before. Industrial investment grew.
Rebuilding A World Economy- The Post War Era
The Second World War, fought between Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy (Axis powers) and Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the US (the Allies) broke out in 1939. There was mammoth destruction. 3% of the population in the world in 1939 was killed and millions were injured.
Bombs and artillery attacks devastated cities, killing major parts of civilisation of the regions. There was immense social unrest and disruption.
After the peace returned, the world order saw a new morning characterised by dominance of two nations:
- The USA emerged as an economic, political and military power in the post-war Western world.
- On the other hand, Soviet Union, which had defeated Nazi Germany by humongous efforts and transformed itself from a backward agricultural country into a world power during years of the Great Depression, became dominant.
Post-War Settlement and The Bretton Woods Institutions:
Economists and politicians learnt that an industrial society based on mass production required mass consumption to sustain and flourish.
1. High consumption could only come from stable jobs and regular incomes which required steady, full employment. Governments had to intervene to support the falling economies because markets alone could not provide the stability among fluctuations of price, output and employment.
2. It also learnt that to achieve full employment, it was necessary for the government to control flows of goods, capital and labour to preserve economic stability and full employment in the industrial world was the main purpose of the post-war Industrial system.
3. Charged by this ambition, at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA, twin institutions, also called as the Bretton Woods Twins was formed; the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank were founded.
(4) International economic system post-war is described as the Bretton Woods System due to this monumental development.
5. Commencing its operations in 1947, these institutions began to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations (the IMF) and to set up to finance post-war reconstruction (the World Bank). Western industrial powers, especially the US, have an effective right of veto over key IMF and World Bank decisions.
6. The international monetary system Linked national currencies and monetary systems.
7. The Bretton Woods economic system was based on fixed exchange rates.
8. National currencies were changed to the dollar (currency of the US was the international standard due to hegemony of the US) at a fixed exchange rate. The dollar was anchored to gold at a fixed price of $35 per ounce of gold.
The Early Post-War Years:
With the birth of the Bretton Woods system, unprecedented growth of trade and income was experienced in Western industrial nations and Japan. Growth remained stable and unemployment remained low.
Technology and enterprise grew with developing countries investing capital, importing industrial plants and equipment featuring modern technology to compete with Western developed economies.
Decolonisation and Independence:
With the end of the Second World War, many European colonies in Asia and Africa emerged as free, independent nations.
Their handicapped and overburdened economies needed monetary support and aid. They could not be aided by the IMF and the World Bank because they were designed to look after the requirements of the industrial countries.
Europe and Japan rapidly rebuilt their economies and required less attention from the Bretton Woods twins. These institutions shifted their attention more towards developing countries. Countries which had been parts of powerful Western countries had to receive aid from institutions which were run by their colonial rulers.
Ruling colonial powers still controlled their resources indirectly. They exploited this opportunity by using these resources very cheaply. For their interests, developing countries, by forming a group of 77 nations, demanded a new international economic order. With the new international economic order (NIEO) they expected better control over their natural resource, fairer price for their raw materials, and better access to their manufactured goods in foreign markets.
Important:
Most developing countries could not cash in on any benefits from the unprecedented growth experienced by Western economies. Grieved, they organised themselves as the group of 77 (or G-77) – to demand a new international economic order (NIEO).
End of Bretton Woods and the Beginning of ‘Globalisation’
- The finances and competitive strength of the USA was weakened by the rising costs of its overseas employment. Havoc once again wrecked the stable growth period.
- The US dollar became weaker and lost confidence in the market
- The Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates collapsed and a new system of floating exchange rates was introduced in the world economy. Now that the international financial system collapsed, developing countries had to borrow from Western commercial banks and private lending institutions. This led to more poverty in Africa and Latin America.
- Unemployment remained high till the 1990s. MNCs also began to shift production operations to low-wage Asian countries.
- Industries were relocated to low-wage countries which stimulated world trade and capital flows. India, China and Brazil have undergone a rapid economic transformation and emerged as most developing economies.
Important:
China became an attractive destination for investment by foreign MNCs due to its lower wages. Lower wages reduced the cost of production and made trade beneficiaL New economic policies in China (who had been away from world economics, trade or financial system) and the collapse of the Soviet Union and philosophy of communism, prevalent in Eastern Europe brought many countries back into the fold of the world economy.
→ Cowries: Seashells used as an Indian currency
→ Cargo: Freight; goods carried on a ship, aircraft, or motor vehicle
→ Caribbean: Area surrounding the Caribbean sea between the two Americas
→ Dissenters: One who refuses to accept established customs
→ Eminent: Famous within a sphere
→ Livestock: Domesticated animals in an agricultural setting
→ Tariff. Tax or duty to be paid off on exports and imports.
→ Indentured labour: A bonded labourer under contract to work for an employer to pay off his movement to a new country.
→ Home charges: Expenditure incurred in England by the Secretary of State on behalf of India in all spheres.
→ Economic boom: Large increase in demand and business
→ Hire repurchase: Credit repaid in weekly or monthly instalments
→ Consumerist: Related to a consumer
→ Unprecedented: Never experienced before
→ Communism: A theory that supports a classless, stateless society.
→ Christopher Columbus: An Italian explorer and navigator who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. His exploration paved the way for colonization of the Americas.
→ Sir Henry Morton Stanley: He was a Welsh-American journalist, explorer, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of central Africa
→ Imam Hussain: Grandson of Prophet Muhammad, religious Islamic Figure
→ Bob Marley: Jamaican musician, song writer.
→ V. S. Naipaul: Nobel Prize winner, Trinidad and Tobago-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English.
→ Shivnarine Chanderpaul: Guyanese cricketer of Indian descent and former West Indian international cricketer.
→ Ramnaresh Sarwan: Cricketer of Indo-Guyanese origin and former captain of the West Indies cricket team
→ Henry Ford: American industrialist and business magnate who founded Ford Motor Company,
→ John Maynard Keynes: English economist, whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics.
→ 1885: European powers met in Berlin to carve up Africa between them. 1880-1892: Rinderpest strikes Africa.
→ 1914-1918: First World War
→ 1921: Indentured Labour is Abolished in India
→ 1923: The US resumes exporting capital to the rest of the world.
→ 1929-1935: Great Economic Depression
→ 1939-1945: Second World War