Chapter 3 The Making of Global World Class 10th Notes History
Chapter 3 The Making of Global World Class 10th Notes History Social Science
Chapter 3, "The Making of a Global World", from Class 10 History, explores the historical processes that shaped globalization. It discusses how trade, migration, and colonization connected different parts of the world, the role of industrialization in expanding global networks, and the impact of world wars on economies. The chapter also examines the Great Depression, decolonization, and the rise of modern globalization.
Globalisation
Globalisation is a rich economic and cultural process marked by the free flow of technology, goods, services, people, and ideas around the world. Globalisation is a heightened interdependence of the world's population, cultures, and economies driven by expansion in international trade, investment, and improvement of communications and transport technologies. This process has reshaped societies by putting national economies into a mass global market, raising the economic value of indigenous production and setting the stage for widespread development. Historically, globalisation is not new but a process conditioned by centuries of formative events from ancient trade routes to colonial empire building and industrial revolutions through which the world has become increasingly interconnected in deep ways. For example, Indian or Chinese silk commerce with Europe centuries ago established some early foundations for such world interdependence.
First World War (1914-1918)
The First World War was a huge global war that took place between 1914 and 1918 between more than 30 countries. It was a conflict between two wonderful sets of powers: the Allies, comprised of Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, Italy, and subsequently the United States, and the Central Powers, comprised of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. It had been provoked by Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination and intensified due to a complicated web of alliances and colonial ambitions. The war released unprecedented levels of devastation with new technologies such as machine guns, tanks, and poison gases, enlisting millions of soldiers and civilians into their maelstrom. The global implications of the war reconfigured economies, societies, and world relations, contributing to heightened economic and political turbulences in the 20th century.
Silk Routes
Silk Routes was a vast network of trade routes between Asia, Europe, and parts of Africa centuries prior to the Christian Era and prospering successfully up to the 15th century. The routes got their name from the very profitable silk trade that had its origin in China. The routes covered miles of sea, mountains, and deserts linking far-off civilizations. They enabled not just the trade of goods like silk, spices, cloth, gold, and porcelain but also for the trade of ideas, religions, and cultures. Buddhist monks, Christian missionaries, and Islamic scholars traveled along these routes and spread their faiths and began cross-cultural interactions. Trade overland, like via Central Asia, and trade by sea, like across the Indian Ocean, were important. Urban centres like Samarkand and Venice flourished as thriving hubs of trade and intellectual debate, monuments to their enduring significance.
Conquest, Trade, and Disease
Spanish and Portuguese created expansionist colonisation campaigns at the time of discovery, most notoriously perhaps in the Americas after Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492. Their conquest dominated world trade and populations.
The Spanish, for example, used smallpox a disease to which the native populations of America had no immunity as a biological weapon deliberately. This resulted in ghastly depopulation, with millions dying, before the European ascendancy. Discovery of the New World unveiled enormous resources: enormous tracts of arable land for farming, deposits of precious metals such as silver and gold of Mexico and Peru, and new crops such as maize and tobacco that found their way into world markets. The silver from the mines entered Europe, profiting Spain and funding its Asian trade, especially via Manila. India, one of this world system's pillars, exchanged textiles, spices, and ideas outward, solidifying its conventional position as a trading great and cultural bridging nation.
Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato
Food trade throughout the globe is a confirmation of the cultural effect of globalisation. Spaghetti, born from Italian culinary traditions (if possibly with Asian reinterpretations of millennia-old noodle preparation), and the potato, originally farm-bred by Andean South Americans, appeared on plates everywhere. They propagated in explorers, traders, and colonizers, who carried over crops and dishes across seas. Potatoes, for instance, transformed European agriculture and foodstuffs following their arrival in the 16th century, while spaghetti became the symbol of Italy. These examples demonstrate how food transcends geography and culture, blending cuisines and affecting what people eat globally across centuries of exchange.
Nineteenth Century
The 19th century was a time of transformation in globalisation since it was fuelled by Europe's demographic and industrial revolution.
In Britain, there was an increase in population due to improved healthcare and living standards demanding food grains. Food imported, often from colonies or regions like the Americas, was less expensive than food grown domestically, and this created economic shifts. The Corn Laws, passed in an attempt to safeguard British farmers by limiting the importation of corn into Britain, were contentious and ultimately repealed in 1846, a move toward free trade. Parallel to this, industrialization brought with it urbanization and food shortages, requiring higher dependence on imports. Transportation technology improvements railroads and steamships allowed commodities such as rubber, cotton, coal, and cereals to be cheap and quick to transport over oceans and continents and connected the world.
Late Nineteenth Century: The Shadow of Globalisation
Globalisation enriched some but left a shadow of exploitation hanging over others. European traders and colonists held territories in the continent of America, Africa, and Asia, plundering the resources and enslaving the locals. African colonial regimes charged them heavy taxes and discriminatory inheritance laws, compelling the Africans to plantation or mine work. In the same way, tens of millions of Indians were coerced or enticed into indentured labor and their emigration to distant colonies such as the Caribbean, Mauritius, and Fiji to labor in squalid conditions on sugar or rubber plantations. In Britain, the Industrial Revolution revolutionised traditional economies: British machine-made goods swamped Indian markets, cutting down Indian textile exports, and making India a raw material producer of such goods as cotton and jute, depriving India of her wealth and accelerating colonial exploitation.
Role of Technology
The 19th century witnessed a revolution in technology that accelerated globalisation. Technologies such as the telegraph cut communication times to minutes from weeks, railways linked inland areas to seaports, and steamships crossed oceans more quickly and predictably than sailing ships. The breakthrough was the refrigerated ship, which enabled perishable commodities such as frozen Australian or Argentine meat to be shipped to Europe, altering diets and trade patterns. These innovations enabled industries, enhanced learning and access to health, and paved the way for contemporary networks of communication, in effect altering the way that societies communicated and prospered.
Rinderpest (1880s)
Rinderpest, a fatal disease of cattle, devastated Africa during the 1880s, leaving devastation in its path. It had been brought to the continent by infected Asian-dominion cattle, which transmitted to the African herds very quickly, killing massive numbers of livestock. The plague interfered with pastoral economies, especially in societies such as the Maasai in East Africa, who had established their source of food, wealth, and status in cattle, which led to the tragedies of colonial occupation.
Indentured Labor Migration of India
Indentured labor was an exploitative practice following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833. Indian workers were usually lured by the promise of wealth and forced to sign contracts of attachment with particular employers in colonies such as Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Mauritius, and the Caribbean.
Indian laborers were treated poorly, poorly remunerated, and possessed very little rights at the plantations or mines in their destinations upon arrival. Described as a "new slavery," the practice continued until it was abolished in 1921, leaving a lasting legacy of diaspora communities and a testament to the economic colonial imperative at human cost.
Inter-War Economic Crisis
The interwar period between World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) was marked by political turmoil and economic crisis, with the center of World War I devastation being in Europe.
There was mass production of war equipment tanks, machine guns, chemical weapons, and warplanes while millions of men in their prime were drafted all over the world and economies ground to a halt. Reconstruction after the wars did not occur as debts, reparations, and inflation ravaged states, laying the groundwork for subsequent world wars and economic collapses such as the Great Depression.
Post-War Settlement
World War I Consequences: The 1919 Treaty of Versailles put Germany under humiliating reparations and economic penalty, creating economic misery and resentment that ultimately led to the beginning of World War II. The League of Nations, which was founded on the idea of preventing war, collapsed due to the failure of effective powers of enforcement and exclusion of great powers such as the US.
World War II Aftermath: In 1945, the United Nations was established with a vision to foster world unity and avoid another war. The Cold War was a guarded confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, politically splitting the world. Decolonisation quickened, and Asian and African countries such as India (1947) became independent. The Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 established the IMF and World Bank to stabilise world finances, opening for business in 1957 under a fixed exchange rate regime to stimulate economic recovery and development.
Wartime Transformations
Wars had triggered initial changes: industries grew to fulfill military needs, governments had promulgated overall measures such as rationing or conscription, and social roles were restructured as women entered workforces in numbers. Post-war eras altered political landscapes, began economic reconstruction, and changed societies, as witness the creation of new states and world institutions since 1945.
Great Depression (1929 - mid-1930s)
The Great Depression was an economic crisis that had started with the crash of the US stock market in 1929.
It brought mammoth unemployment, collapse of trade, and massive loss of income. Overproduction of cereals above all of cereals led to price collapses, and bank failure in the US set off a chain reaction, disintegrating the world's economies. Imports and exports collapsed in India, ruining cultivators such as Bengal's jute growers, which were confronted with declining prices and debt. The crisis further increased rural poverty, producing city migration for work and revealing fault lines of markets interdependence.
Decolonisation and Independence
After World War II, decolonisation ruined Asia and Africa as colonial empires collapsed.
India, Indonesia, and Ghana became independent, usually with the assistance of the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as it coordinated non-Cold War-aligned states. The Third World created the Group of 77 (G-77) in a bid to pursue a New International Economic Order (NIEO), demanding improved terms of trade, control over raw materials, and control over their factories and resources, breaking under the stranglehold of the industrial powers.
Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad
Indian business leaders diversified across boundaries and set up firms that benefited world markets and raised the economic profile of India. The Tatas and Birlas, amongst others, diversified into steel, textiles, and trade and formed cross-cultural alliances. Success not only speeded up economic growth but also enhanced the image of India as a location for innovation and business, enhancing diplomacy with nations such as Southeast Asia and East Africa.
Food Spreads to New Areas
Wherever human beings migrated merchants, priests, or conquerors along went food and culture. New foods such as the tomato of the New World or the pepper of Mexico spread across Asia and Europe, and noodles, if it started in China, continued to Italy and farther. Food trade within commercial networks brought ready-to-eat foods and changed diets across the world by fusing flavors and methods of various continents.
Land Up for Grabs
Transportation technology, including the railway and steamship, stimulated discovery and the growth of commerce.
The Indian Ocean had long been a profitable commerce route prior to the 19th century, connecting Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. America was opened and new continents and new lands discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, and opened up to Spain and Portugal, which went on to colonize the region and exploit its resources. European invaders unintentionally introduced illness such as smallpox, wiping out native people and facilitating conquest. Prior to the 19th century, Asian economies particularly India and China outshone Europe, boasting sophisticated trade systems and wealth that drew explorers westward. This elaborated version provides a detailed, narrative-rich exploration of each topic, offering historical context, examples, and explanations to deepen understanding. Let me know if you’d like further expansion on any section!