The Making of a Global World — Questions & Answers

Sample questions from The Making of a Global World

1. Q1. What major monetary shift occurred in the early 1970s that marked the formal demise of the Bretton Woods system?

   • A.The collapse of the fixed exchange rate system and the introduction of floating exchange rates.✓
   • B.The worldwide ban on foreign direct investment in manufacturing.
   • C.The complete replacement of the US dollar with the Euro across world trade.
   • D.The total closure of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
   Solution

   A is correct because the NCERT text states: 'From the 1960s the rising costs of its overseas involvements weakened the US’s finances and competitive strength. The US dollar now no longer commanded confidence as the world’s principal currency... The system of fixed exchange rates collapsed and was replaced by a system of floating exchange rates.' Mistake C is chronologically wrong (the Euro emerged in 1999). Mistake B contradicts globalization trends. Mistake D is false as IMF/World Bank continued operating.

2. Q2. The chapter dates the beginning of the European conquest of the Americas to the mid sixteenth century. Which two powers led it?

   • A.Portugal and Spain✓
   • B.Britain and France
   • C.Britain and the Netherlands
   • D.France and Germany
   Solution

   A is correct: Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonisation of America began in the mid sixteenth century. B names the powers that dominated colonial expansion much later and mainly elsewhere. C makes the same error for the two later trading powers of the Atlantic and Asia. D names the rivals of the late nineteenth century scramble for Africa, which is a different episode in this chapter.

3. Q3. Before the nineteenth century, which two Asian nations were among the world’s richest countries and dominated international trade across the Indian Ocean?

   • A.Japan and Korea
   • B.Vietnam and Sri Lanka
   • C.Persia and Thailand
   • D.China and India✓
   Solution

   D is correct because the NCERT textbook explicitly specifies: 'Until well to 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 to isolation.' Mistakes A, C, and B select other Asian countries not credited with this historical global trade primacy.

4. Q4. Foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes and chillies were introduced to Europe and Asia only after:

   • A.The Silk Routes opened
   • B.Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas✓
   • C.The First World War
   • D.The Industrial Revolution
   Solution

   Many common foods came from the Americas, which were discovered by Columbus; only after that did potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies and sweet potatoes reach Europe and Asia.

5. Q5. What were the home charges that India had to meet in the nineteenth century?

   • A.The private remittances of British officials in India, the interest on India of the external debt, and the pensions of British officials, all met out of the Indian trade surplus✓
   • B.The customs duties Indian merchants paid on goods landed at British ports
   • C.The cost of famine relief inside India, charged to the provinces
   • D.The rent paid by Indian tenants to the zamindars
   Solution

   A is correct, and it is why India of the trade surplus still gained little from it. B describes tariffs, which were a separate burden on Indian goods and not the home charges. C confuses a charge paid to Britain with spending inside India. D confuses a colonial transfer abroad with a land relationship inside India.

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