The Making of a Global World · Class 10 History: quick revision, 34 bites

Globalisation Has a Long History

Older than you think.

Not just the last 50 years: **trade, migration, work and capital** have linked the world for thousands of years.

Takeaway. The global world was made over centuries.

Who Travelled, and Why

People on the move.

**Travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims** — for knowledge, opportunity, spiritual fulfilment, or to escape persecution.

Takeaway. Movement had many motives.

What They Carried

More than goods.

Goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions — and **germs and diseases**.

Takeaway. Links carried both gifts and dangers.

From the Indus to the Maldives

Very early links.

Takeaway. The world was linked long ago.

The Silk Routes

Why 'silk'?

**Several land and sea routes** linking Asia with Europe and northern Africa, named after **west-bound Chinese silk**. Existed before the Christian Era; thrived till about the **15th century**.

Takeaway. A network, not one road.

What Moved Each Way

Two-way trade.

Takeaway. Asian goods for European metals.

Faith on the Silk Routes

Ideas travel with goods.

**Buddhism** spread from eastern India; **Christian missionaries** and later **Muslim preachers** used the same routes.

Takeaway. Trade and culture went hand in hand.

A Food Mystery

Noodle or spaghetti?

Noodles may have gone west from China to become spaghetti — or **Arab traders** took pasta to **Sicily** in the 5th century. The truth may never be known.

Takeaway. Evidence of long-distance contact.

Foods From the Americas

Only 500 years in Asia.

**Potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes** reached Europe and Asia only after **Columbus**, from America's original inhabitants.

Takeaway. Much of 'our' food came from America.

The Potato in Europe

A crop that saved lives.

With the potato, **Europe's poor ate better and lived longer**.

Takeaway. New crops can transform lives.

The Irish Potato Famine

Danger of dependence.

When disease destroyed the potato crop in the **mid-1840s**, Ireland's poor starved: about **1,000,000 died** (1845-1849) and twice as many emigrated.

Takeaway. One-crop dependence is risky.

Exam Focus

What the board asks.

Takeaway. Only subtopics 1 to 1.3 are examined.

The World Shrinks

Smaller world, same size.

In the **1500s**, European sailors found a **sea route to Asia** and crossed the **western ocean to America** — distant lands became closely linked.

Takeaway. Shrinking = closer connection.

Indian Ocean Trade

India at the centre.

For centuries a **bustling trade** crossed the Indian Ocean; the **Indian subcontinent was central** to it. Europeans **expanded or redirected** some flows towards Europe.

Takeaway. Europeans joined an existing network.

America Joins the World

Isolated for ages.

Cut off for **millions of years**, America's **lands, crops and minerals** began to transform trade from the **sixteenth century**.

Takeaway. A new continent in world trade.

Silver From Peru and Mexico

Silver pays for Asia.

American **silver** enhanced **Europe's wealth** and **financed its trade with Asia**.

Takeaway. American metal, Asian goods.

El Dorado

The city of gold.

Legends of South America's wealth sent many **expeditions** in search of **El Dorado** in the seventeenth century.

Takeaway. Greed drove exploration.

The Deadliest Weapon: Germs

Not guns.

Spanish conquest was **not just superior firepower**. **Smallpox** and other germs they carried did the most damage.

Takeaway. Disease paved the way for conquest.

How Smallpox Spread

Why smallpox was so deadly.

Takeaway. Isolation made them vulnerable.

Why Disease Beat Weapons

Guns vs germs.

Takeaway. A one-sided weapon.

Why Europeans Left for America

Push factors.

Takeaway. Thousands fled across the Atlantic.

Slave Plantations

The human cost.

By the **eighteenth century**, plantations worked by **slaves captured in Africa** grew **cotton and sugar** for European markets.

Takeaway. Global trade built on slavery.

China and India

Once the richest.

Well into the **eighteenth century** the **wealthiest countries on earth** included China and India, and they **dominated trade across Asia**.

Takeaway. Asia was the old centre.

Europe Becomes the Centre

The shift west.

Takeaway. Two causes, one shift.

Not on the Board Paper

Project, not paper.

Subtopics **2 to 4.4** are assessed through a **5-mark interdisciplinary project**, not the board exam.

Takeaway. Board questions come only from 1 to 1.3.

Three Flows

T-L-C.

Takeaway. The shape of the 19th-century world economy.

The Corn Laws

Cheap food, empty fields.

Once Britain scrapped its **Corn Laws**, cheap imported food replaced British farming and new lands abroad were cleared to feed Britain.

Takeaway. Food became a global trade.

Technology

Faster, colder, cheaper.

**Railways, steamships, telegraph** and **refrigerated ships** carried goods and news across the world.

Takeaway. Technology linked markets.

Berlin and Rinderpest

Africa divided.

**1885**: Europe divides Africa at Berlin. **Rinderpest** kills about **90%** of cattle, pushing Africans into wage labour.

Takeaway. Colonialism and disease reshaped Africa.

Indentured Labour

New homes, new cultures.

Indians went to the **Caribbean, Mauritius, Fiji**; created **Hosay** and **chutney music**. Abolished in **1921**.

Takeaway. Migration created new cultures.

War and Mass Production

Debtor to creditor.

The **First World War** made the US a creditor. **Ford's assembly line** made cars cheap; wages rose to **5 dollars a day** in 1914.

Takeaway. The US became the leading economy.

The Great Depression and India

1929 onward.

India's exports and imports **nearly halved (1928-1934)**; **wheat prices fell 50%**; peasants in debt; India exported **gold**.

Takeaway. A global crisis reached Indian villages.

Bretton Woods, 1944

The twins.

Created the **IMF** and **World Bank**. US veto; **fixed exchange rates**; dollar tied to gold at **35 dollars an ounce**.

Takeaway. The post-war economic order.

G-77 and the End of Bretton Woods

From Bretton Woods to today.

Takeaway. The road to modern globalisation.