The Making of a Global World Class 10: Notes and Explanations

What The Making of a Global World is about

Weightage: History carries 20 of the 80 theory marks; this chapter shares them with The Rise of Nationalism in Europe, Nationalism in India and Print Culture and the Modern World. Only part of this chapter is in the board exam: Board exam covers only sections 1 to 1.3 (pre-modern world to conquest, disease and trade). The rest is an internally assessed project.Source: CBSE Social Science syllabus 2026-27, History

In real board papers: asked in 21 of the 21 board papers we hold (2023 to 2026), on average 2.7 marks per paper. See the questions

Key concepts

Globalisation has a long history

NCERT section 1 The Pre-modern World

When people say 'globalisation', they usually mean the economic system of roughly the last 50 years. NCERT asks you to look much further back. Human societies have become steadily more interlinked all through history.

Who did the linking? Travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims. They crossed vast distances for knowledge, opportunity or spiritual fulfilment, or to escape persecution. They carried far more than goods. Money, values, skills, ideas and inventions travelled with them, and so did germs and diseases.

Four markers prove how old these links are:

• As far back as 3000 BCE, trade along the coast joined the Indus valley civilisations to what is now West Asia.
• For more than a thousand years, cowries from the Maldives, used as money, reached China and East Africa.
• From the ninth century, ships carved on memorial stones of the western coast show how much oceanic trade mattered.
• Disease germs spread over long distances from the seventh century. By the thirteenth century this had become an unmistakable link.

This is the base idea of the chapter. Every later section is a new phase of the same interlinking.

Worked example

(2 marks) 'Global interconnection began long before the sixteenth century.' Support the statement with two examples.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Point 1 (1 mark): As far back as 3000 BCE, busy trade along the coast joined the Indus valley civilisations to what is now West Asia.
2. Point 2 (1 mark): For more than a thousand years, cowries (seashells used as currency) from the Maldives reached China and East Africa. Other valid points: the long-distance spread of disease germs from the seventh century, or ship images on memorial stones of the western coast from the ninth century.

Answer: - By 3000 BCE, coastal trade connected the Indus valley civilisations with present-day West Asia.
- For over a thousand years, Maldivian cowries used as currency travelled to China and East Africa.
So distant regions were linked long before Europeans arrived.

Silk routes link the world

NCERT section 1.1 Silk Routes Link the World

The silk routes are the best-known example of busy pre-modern trade and cultural links. They got their name because Chinese silk cargoes moving west were so important along them. But there was not just one road. Historians have found several silk routes, over land and by sea. They joined vast regions of Asia and linked Asia with Europe and northern Africa. They existed before the Christian Era and thrived almost till the fifteenth century.

Silk was not the only cargo. Chinese pottery used the same routes, and so did textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia. In return, gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia. Get this direction right: goods went west and precious metals came east.

Why does NCERT say trade and culture 'went hand in hand'? People who travel to trade also carry beliefs. Early Christian missionaries almost certainly used these routes to reach Asia, and early Muslim preachers followed a few centuries later. Much earlier, Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through meeting points on the silk routes.

Worked example

(3 marks) Explain how the silk routes linked distant parts of the world both economically and culturally.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Point 1 (1 mark): Several land and sea routes joined vast regions of Asia and linked Asia with Europe and northern Africa. They existed before the Christian Era and lasted almost till the fifteenth century.
2. Point 2 (1 mark): Economic link: Chinese silk and pottery, and Indian and Southeast Asian textiles and spices, moved west. Gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.
3. Point 3 (1 mark): Cultural link: early Christian missionaries and, later, early Muslim preachers travelled these routes. Earlier, Buddhism spread from eastern India through meeting points on the routes.

Answer: - Many land and sea silk routes joined Asia with Europe and northern Africa, from before the Christian Era till almost the fifteenth century.
- Chinese silk and pottery, and Indian and Southeast Asian textiles and spices, went west. Gold and silver came to Asia.
- Christian missionaries, Muslim preachers and Buddhism from eastern India spread along them.

Food travels: spaghetti and noodles

NCERT section 1.2 Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato

Food is a quiet but powerful record of contact between distant peoples. Traders and travellers brought new crops to the lands they visited. Even ready-made dishes in faraway places may share a common origin.

Take noodles and spaghetti. One belief is that noodles travelled west from China and became spaghetti. Another is that Arab traders took pasta to Sicily, an island now in Italy, in the fifth century. Similar foods were also known in India and Japan. So historians admit the real origin may never be known.

Why does NCERT still use this example if the answer is uncertain? The guesswork itself is the point. Each possible route needs long-distance cultural contact in the pre-modern world. Whichever theory is true, people far apart were exchanging foods and ways of cooking.

In an exam, never write that the origin is proven. Write that it is uncertain, give both theories, and then explain what the example shows: cultural exchange across long distances even before the modern age.

Worked example

(1 mark) Which one of the following statements about the origin of spaghetti is supported by the NCERT textbook?
(a) Spaghetti began in Italy and was later carried to China by Italian traders.
(b) Noodles may have travelled west from China to become spaghetti, or Arab traders may have taken pasta to Sicily.
(c) Japanese sailors first carried noodles to Europe.
(d) The origin of spaghetti has been fully proved by historians.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Recall the text: it is believed noodles travelled west from China, or perhaps Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily.
2. Similar foods were known in India and Japan, so the truth may never be known. This rules out (d). Options (a) and (c) are not in the text.
3. Correct option (1 mark): (b).

Answer: (b) Noodles may have travelled west from China to become spaghetti, or Arab traders may have taken pasta to Sicily.

New crops from America and the potato

NCERT section 1.2 Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato

Many foods you eat daily, such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies and sweet potatoes, were unknown to our ancestors until about five centuries ago. They reached Europe and Asia only after Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the continent later called the Americas. These crops came from America's original inhabitants, the American Indians. (NCERT uses 'America' to mean North America, South America and the Caribbean.)

Why does this matter? New crops could decide between life and death. The humble potato helped Europe's poor eat better and live longer. That is the positive side.

There is a warning side too. Ireland's poorest peasants came to depend so heavily on potatoes that disaster followed when disease destroyed the crop in the mid-1840s. Hundreds of thousands died of starvation. The picture caption in NCERT dates the Great Irish Potato Famine to 1845 to 1849. It says around 1,000,000 people died and double that number emigrated in search of work.

The lesson to write in answers is this: global exchange of crops brought benefits, but heavy dependence on one crop made people vulnerable.

Worked example

(5 marks) 'Sometimes the new crops could make the difference between life and death.' Explain this statement with reference to the crops that came from America.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Point 1 (1 mark): Common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies and sweet potatoes were unknown to our ancestors until about five centuries ago.
2. Point 2 (1 mark): They reached Europe and Asia only after Columbus accidentally discovered the Americas. They came from the American Indians.
3. Point 3 (1 mark): Life: with the potato, Europe's poor began to eat better and live longer.
4. Point 4 (1 mark): Ireland's poorest peasants became completely dependent on the potato.
5. Point 5 (1 mark): Death: a disease wiped out the potato crop in the mid-1840s, and in the Irish Potato Famine (1845 to 1849) hundreds of thousands starved to death.

Answer: - Potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies and sweet potatoes were unknown to our ancestors until about five centuries ago.
- They reached Europe and Asia after Columbus accidentally discovered the Americas. They came from the American Indians.
- The potato helped Europe's poor eat better and live longer.
- But Ireland's poorest peasants came to depend almost wholly on potatoes.
- When disease destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands starved to death in the Irish Potato Famine (1845 to 1849), and many emigrated.
So a new crop could save lives, but total dependence on it could cost lives.

The world shrank in the sixteenth century

NCERT section 1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade

Why does NCERT say the world 'shrank' in the 1500s? The earth did not get smaller. Contact became much easier and more frequent. European sailors found a sea route to Asia and successfully crossed the western ocean to America. Distant lands were now linked by regular voyages.

The Indian Ocean was not empty before this. For centuries goods, people, ideas and customs had moved across it, and the Indian subcontinent sat at the heart of this busy network. The Europeans did not create this trade. Their entry expanded some of these flows and redirected others towards Europe.

America's entry was even more dramatic. For millions of years it had had no regular contact with other parts of the world. From the sixteenth century, its vast lands, abundant crops and minerals began to transform trade and lives everywhere. Silver from mines in present-day Peru and Mexico increased Europe's wealth and paid for its trade with Asia. In seventeenth-century Europe, legends of South America's wealth sent many expeditions in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold.

Worked example

(1 mark) Read the statements and choose the correct option.
Assertion (A): The entry of Europeans in the sixteenth century expanded or redirected some Indian Ocean trade flows towards Europe.
Reason (R): Before the sixteenth century, there was hardly any trade across the Indian Ocean.
(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 true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Check A: European sailors found a sea route to Asia, and their entry helped expand or redirect some flows towards Europe. A is true.
2. Check R: for centuries before, the Indian Ocean had a bustling trade in goods, people, knowledge and customs, with the Indian subcontinent at its centre. R is false.
3. Correct option (1 mark): (c).

Answer: (c) A is true but R is false.

Conquest and disease: smallpox in America

NCERT section 1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade

By the middle of the sixteenth century, Portugal and Spain were firmly set on conquering and colonising America. Do not assume guns won it. NCERT says conquest was not just a result of superior firepower. The Spanish conquerors' most powerful weapon was not a military weapon at all. It was the germs they carried on their bodies, especially smallpox.

Follow the chain of reasoning:

• America had been isolated for a very long time.
• So its original inhabitants had no immunity against diseases that came from Europe.
• Smallpox spread deep into the continent, often ahead of any Europeans.
• It killed and wiped out whole communities, and this paved the way for conquest.

NCERT also compares germs with guns. Guns could be bought or captured and turned against the invaders. A disease could not be turned back, because the conquerors were mostly immune to it.

This links back to the first idea of the chapter. Travellers carried germs as well as goods. Here the global transfer of disease decided the fate of a whole continent.

Worked example

(4 marks) Read the source and answer the questions.

When the Portuguese and Spanish arrived in America in the sixteenth century, they brought more than ships and guns. They also carried germs on their bodies, especially those of smallpox. For a very long time America had had no regular contact with other parts of the world. Its original inhabitants had never faced these diseases and had no immunity to them. Once smallpox entered the continent, it moved deep inland, often reaching communities before any European did. Whole communities were wiped out. A gun could be seized and used against the invaders. A disease could not be turned back on the conquerors, who were mostly immune to it.

(i) Why did America's original inhabitants have no immunity to European diseases? (1)
(ii) Name the disease that proved the deadliest killer. (1)
(iii) Explain why germs were a more powerful weapon than guns for the Spanish conquerors. (2)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. (i) 1 mark: because of their long isolation from the rest of the world, they had never been exposed to these diseases.
2. (ii) 1 mark: smallpox.
3. (iii) 1 mark: smallpox spread deep into the continent even ahead of the Europeans and wiped out whole communities, clearing the way for conquest.
4. (iii) 1 mark: guns could be captured and used against the invaders, but disease could not, as the conquerors were mostly immune.

Answer: (i) Their long isolation meant they had never met these diseases, so they had no immunity.
(ii) Smallpox.
(iii) Smallpox travelled ahead of the Europeans and destroyed whole communities, making conquest easy. Guns could be captured and turned against the invaders, but disease could not, because the conquerors were mostly immune to it.

Migration from Europe and slave plantations

NCERT section 1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade

Why did so many Europeans leave home for America? You need to see the conditions they were escaping. Right up to the nineteenth century, many Europeans lived in poverty and went hungry. Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread. Quarrels over religion were frequent, and people who dissented from the official faith were punished. A dissenter is someone who refuses to accept established beliefs and practices. Thousands therefore fled to America in search of a better and safer life.

America's new economy had a cruel side. By the eighteenth century, plantations there were worked by slaves captured in Africa. These plantations grew cotton and sugar for European markets.

Put these together and you see three continents tied into one system. People moved from Europe. Enslaved Africans were forced to work the land. The crops were sent back to Europe to be sold.

This is a good point for 'two-sided' answers. For European migrants, America meant escape and opportunity. For enslaved Africans, it meant forced labour. For America's original inhabitants, as you saw with smallpox, it meant death and conquest.

Worked example

(3 marks) 'For some people America meant escape; for others it meant bondage.' Justify the statement with reference to the period before the nineteenth century.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Point 1 (1 mark): Escape: Europe suffered poverty, hunger, crowded cities and deadly diseases, so many sought a better life in America.
2. Point 2 (1 mark): Escape: religious conflicts were common and dissenters were persecuted, so thousands fled to America.
3. Point 3 (1 mark): Bondage: by the eighteenth century, American plantations growing cotton and sugar for European markets were worked by slaves captured in Africa.

Answer: - Poverty, hunger, crowded cities and deadly diseases pushed many Europeans to America for a better life.
- Persecuted religious dissenters also fled there, so America meant escape for them.
- But by the eighteenth century, slaves captured in Africa were forced to work American plantations growing cotton and sugar for Europe. For them, America meant bondage.

The centre of world trade moves westwards

NCERT section 1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade

Do not imagine Europe was always the centre of world trade. Till late in the eighteenth century, China and India ranked among the richest countries in the world and led Asian trade.

Two changes moved the centre west:

• From the fifteenth century, China is said to have restricted overseas contacts and withdrawn into isolation, so its role in trade shrank.
• At the same time, the Americas grew in importance. Their lands, crops and minerals, above all silver from present-day Peru and Mexico, increased Europe's wealth and paid for its trade with Asia.

Europeans now controlled the new sea routes to Asia and America, and Indian Ocean flows were partly redirected towards Europe. As a result, Europe emerged as the centre of world trade.

This concept ties the whole board portion together. Old Asian networks, the silk routes, the opening of America, conquest and silver all lead to one outcome: a world economy whose centre had shifted to Europe. A 5-mark question here rewards you for linking causes in order, not for listing random facts.

Worked example

(5 marks) 'Europe emerged as the centre of world trade after the sixteenth century.' Explain the factors that led to this shift.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Point 1 (1 mark): Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among the richest countries and leaders in Asian trade, so the shift was a real change.
2. Point 2 (1 mark): From the fifteenth century, China is said to have cut down its contacts overseas and turned inward, so its part in world trade shrank.
3. Point 3 (1 mark): In the sixteenth century, European sailors found a sea route to Asia and crossed to America. Their entry expanded or redirected Indian Ocean flows towards Europe.
4. Point 4 (1 mark): America's vast lands, crops and minerals, especially silver from Peru and Mexico, increased Europe's wealth and financed its trade with Asia.
5. Point 5 (1 mark): China's reduced role and the rising importance of the Americas together moved the centre of world trade westwards, to Europe.

Answer: - Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among the richest countries and led Asian trade.
- From the fifteenth century, China restricted overseas contacts and withdrew into isolation.
- In the sixteenth century, Europeans found a sea route to Asia and reached America. They redirected some Indian Ocean trade towards Europe.
- Silver from Peru and Mexico increased Europe's wealth and paid for its trade with Asia. America's lands and crops transformed trade.
- With China's reduced role and the rise of the Americas, the centre of world trade moved westwards and Europe became that centre.

The Making of a Global World in real life

Each concept, met in an everyday situation. Read the situation, answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.

Topics in this chapter

• The Pre-modern WorldComing soon
• Silk Routes Link the World
• Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato
• Conquest, Disease and Trade

The Making of a Global World: key facts

3000 BCE

Active coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilisations with present-day West Asia.

Use as your oldest example of global links in 2-mark and 3-mark 'before the sixteenth century' questions.

Cowries

Seashells from the Maldives used as currency; reached China and East Africa for more than a thousand years.

Good example of money itself travelling long distances.

Germs and disease links

Long-distance spread of disease germs traced to the seventh century; an unmistakable link by the thirteenth century.

Use for 'how trade spread disease' questions and to set up the smallpox answer.

Ships on memorial stones

From the ninth century, ship images appear regularly on memorial stones of the western coast.

Evidence for the importance of oceanic trade; useful in MCQs and source questions.

Silk routes: name and span

Named after West-bound Chinese silk cargoes; several land and sea routes; before the Christian Era to almost the fifteenth century.

Statement-based MCQs test the reason for the name and the time span.

Silk routes: what moved

Westward	Chinese silk and pottery, Indian and Southeast Asian textiles and spices
Eastward (Europe to Asia)	gold and silver
Also	Christian missionaries, Muslim preachers, Buddhism from eastern India

Write both trade and culture in any silk-route answer.

Spaghetti theory

Theory 1	noodles went west from China to become spaghetti
Theory 2	Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily
Verdict	true origin uncertain

Always say 'uncertain' and explain that it still shows long-distance contact.

Crops from America

Crops	potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes
Origin	the American Indians
Spread	to Europe and Asia after Columbus, about five centuries ago

List at least three in food questions; mention Columbus's accidental discovery.

Irish Potato Famine, 1845 to 1849

Disease destroyed the potato crop; around 1,000,000 died of starvation and double that number emigrated.

The standard example of crops meaning life or death. The MCQ answer is Ireland.

The world 'shrank'

Sixteenth century: European sailors found a sea route to Asia and crossed the western ocean to America.

Explain 'shrank' as easier, more regular contact, not smaller size.

Indian subcontinent in Indian Ocean trade

Central to the bustling flows of goods, people, knowledge and customs for centuries before Europeans came.

Used in assertion-reason questions; Europeans expanded or redirected flows, they did not start them.

Silver and El Dorado

Silver	from Peru and Mexico
Effect	enhanced Europe's wealth, financed its trade with Asia
17th century	expeditions sought El Dorado, the fabled city of gold

Use to show how America changed world trade.

Mid-sixteenth century conquest

Portuguese and Spanish conquest of America decisively under way; smallpox, not firepower, was the most powerful weapon.

Key fact for assertion-reason questions on why the conquest succeeded.

Cause and effect: smallpox

Long isolation, so no immunity; smallpox spread ahead of Europeans; whole communities wiped out; conquest made easy.

Write the chain in order for 3-mark and 5-mark answers.

Dissenter

One who refuses to accept established beliefs and practices.

Use when explaining why people fled Europe for America.

Westward shift of trade

Fifteenth century China restricted overseas contacts, and the Americas rose in importance; Europe became the centre of world trade.

Core of any 5-mark question on the changing centre of world trade.

How the board asks The Making of a Global World

The question patterns to expect, and the method that works for each.

Tricks to remember The Making of a Global World

Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.

• Timeline ladder of centuries

  Climb the ladder: 3000 BCE Indus–West Asia trade, 5th century pasta to Sicily, 7th century germs travel, 9th century ships on memorial stones, 13th century disease link is clear, 15th century silk routes fade and China withdraws, 16th century world shrinks and conquest of America, 17th century El Dorado, 18th century slave plantations, 1845 to 1849 Irish famine.

  Use it when: Fixes the dates for MCQs and keeps your long answers in the right order.

• Silk route directions: 'Goods go West, Gold goes East'

  Silk, pottery, textiles and spices travel west. Gold and silver travel from Europe to Asia. Add 'and faith rode along' for missionaries, preachers and Buddhism.

  Use it when: Stops the most common direction error in statement-based MCQs.

• American crops: 'Please Send Good Maize, Tomatoes, Chillies, Sweets'

  Potatoes, Soya, Groundnuts, Maize, Tomatoes, Chillies, Sweet potatoes.

  Use it when: Lets you list three or more crops quickly in food questions.

• Smallpox chain: I-N-S-D-C

  Isolation, No immunity, Smallpox spreads ahead, Decimation of communities, Conquest.

  Use it when: Gives you five ready points for a 5-mark answer on disease and conquest.

• Quick check: 'Did Europeans start it?'

  Whenever a statement says Europeans created a trade network, check it. The Indian Ocean was already bustling, with India at its centre. Europeans expanded or redirected it.

  Use it when: Catches false Reasons in assertion-reason questions.

The Making of a Global World: board-level solved questions

Ordered from board level to HOTS. Cover the solution, write your own, then compare step by step.

Case-study practice (Section E style)

Read the situation, then answer every part. In the board paper this is a 4-mark question split into 1 + 1 + 2 marks.

Where the marks are

How a typical answer is split into step marks. Show every step: a right final answer alone rarely earns full marks.

Where students lose marks in The Making of a Global World

The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.

• ✗Mistake: Saying the Spanish conquered America mainly because of superior guns

  Students assume military power always decides wars and skip NCERT's main argument.

  Wrong working

  The Spanish won because they had better weapons and firepower than the American natives.

  Right working

  Conquest was not just a result of firepower. Germs such as smallpox, to which the natives had no immunity because of their long isolation, spread ahead of the Europeans and wiped out whole communities.

  ✓Do this: In any conquest answer, make smallpox and immunity the centrepiece. Mention guns only to contrast them: guns could be captured, diseases could not.

  Usually costs: 1 mark in assertion-reason; 2 to 3 marks in a long answer.

• ✗Mistake: Reversing the direction of gold and silver on the silk routes

  Students think the rich East sent its gold to the West.

  Wrong working

  China sent silk, and gold and silver flowed from Asia to Europe.

  Right working

  Silk, pottery, textiles and spices went west. In return, gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.

  ✓Do this: Remember 'Goods go West, Gold goes East'.

  Usually costs: 1 mark in an MCQ; 1 mark per wrong point in a short answer.

• ✗Mistake: Writing that the silk routes carried only silk, or only trade

  The name misleads students, and they forget the cultural half.

  Wrong working

  The silk route was a road on which Chinese silk was sold to Europe.

  Right working

  There were several land and sea routes carrying silk, pottery, textiles, spices and precious metals. Missionaries and preachers travelled them, and Buddhism spread along them.

  ✓Do this: Always write one trade point and one culture point, and say 'routes' (plural), over land and sea.

  Usually costs: 1 to 2 marks in a 3-mark answer.

• ✗Mistake: Stating the origin of spaghetti as a proven fact

  Students want a single clear answer and drop the uncertainty.

  Wrong working

  Spaghetti was invented in China and taken to Italy.

  Right working

  It is believed noodles went west from China to become spaghetti, or Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily. As similar foods were known in India and Japan, the true origin may never be known.

  ✓Do this: Use words like 'it is believed' and 'perhaps', then explain what the example shows: long-distance cultural contact.

  Usually costs: 1 mark in an MCQ or a short answer.

• ✗Mistake: Treating globalisation as a recent or European-made process

  Everyday use of the word refers to the last few decades.

  Wrong working

  Globalisation began when Europeans discovered new sea routes.

  Right working

  The making of the global world has a long history. Coastal trade linked the Indus valley with West Asia by 3000 BCE, and the Indian Ocean had bustling trade long before Europeans arrived.

  ✓Do this: Open answers on early links with a pre-European example from section 1.

  Usually costs: 1 to 2 marks in a 2-mark or 3-mark answer.

• ✗Mistake: Filling board answers with nineteenth-century or later content

  Students revise the whole chapter and mix in the Corn Laws, rinderpest or the Great Depression.

  Wrong working

  Answering 'How did trade change the world?' with the Corn Laws and refrigerated ships.

  Right working

  For the board, use only sections 1 to 1.3: early links, silk routes, food travel, the sixteenth-century voyages, silver, smallpox, migration and the westward shift of trade.

  ✓Do this: Keep sections 2 to 4.4 for your school project and stay inside the pre-modern world in board answers.

  Usually costs: Points outside the asked period often earn no credit, which can mean 1 to 3 marks.

NCERT exercise guide: The Making of a Global World

What each exercise in the NCERT chapter tests, how to approach it, and a question of the same kind solved step by step. Questions here are written in our own words.

The Making of a Global World: previous year questions

• Asked in 21 of the 21 board papers we hold (2023 to 2026), on average 2.7 marks per paper; 42 questions in all, counting OR alternatives. In 4 of 4 sample papers.

Counted from the real papers on our previous year papers page, not estimated. Average marks are over every board paper we hold, with an OR pair counted once. Chapter tags are ours.

Solved board questions from The Making of a Global World

Real questions from recent papers. Try each one first, then open our step-by-step solution with marks per step.

Every The Making of a Global World question, by year

Practice questions on The Making of a Global World

Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.

1. Q1 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level

   What was El Dorado, which many expeditions set out to find?
   (a) A silver mine in Mexico
   (b) A fabled city of gold
   (c) A port on the silk routes
   (d) A spice island near Southeast Asia

   Hint

   Think of the legends about South America's wealth that spread in seventeenth-century Europe.

   Answer

   (b) A fabled city of gold. Legends of South America's wealth sent many expeditions in search of it.

2. Q2 · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonBoard level

   Assertion (A): The silk routes thrived almost till the fifteenth century.
   Reason (R): Precious metals flowed from Asia to Europe along these routes.
   (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 true but R is false.
   (d) A is false but R is true.

   Hint

   Check the direction in which gold and silver moved.

   Answer

   (c) A is true but R is false. The routes did thrive till about the fifteenth century, but gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia, not from Asia to Europe.

3. Q3 · 2 marks · Very short answerBoard level

   What were cowries? How do they show that distant regions were linked in the pre-modern world? (2 marks)

   Hint

   Name what they were used as, and where they travelled from and to.

   Answer

   • Cowries (cowdi) were seashells used as a form of currency.
   • For more than a millennium, cowries from the Maldives reached China and East Africa, showing long-distance trade links.

4. Q4 · 2 marks · Very short answerHarder board level

   Why can we say that the global world had begun to take shape long before the sixteenth century? (2 marks)

   Hint

   Use one trade example and one other kind of link.

   Answer

   • Coastal trade linked the Indus valley with present-day West Asia as early as 3000 BCE.
   • Silk routes joined Asia, Europe and northern Africa from before the Christian Era, carrying goods, religions and ideas.

5. Q5 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level

   Explain why thousands of people left Europe for America before the nineteenth century, and what kind of production grew there by the eighteenth century. (3 marks)

   Hint

   List the push factors in Europe, then describe the plantations.

   Answer

   • Poverty and hunger were common in Europe; cities were crowded and deadly diseases widespread.
   • Religious conflicts were common and dissenters were persecuted, so thousands fled.
   • By the eighteenth century, plantations in America worked by slaves captured in Africa grew cotton and sugar for European markets.

6. Q6 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level

   Explain how smallpox helped the Spanish conquer America. (3 marks)

   Hint

   Link isolation, immunity and the speed at which the disease spread.

   Answer

   • America's people had been isolated for a very long time and had no immunity to European diseases.
   • Smallpox, carried by the Spanish, spread deep into the continent, even ahead of Europeans.
   • It killed and destroyed whole communities, clearing the way for conquest.

7. Q7 · 5 marks · Long answerHarder board level

   'Conquest, disease and trade were closely linked in the sixteenth century.' Explain the statement. (5 marks)

   Hint

   Cover the sea routes, silver, smallpox, new crops and the shift of trade to Europe.

   Answer

   • European sailors found a sea route to Asia and crossed to America; the world shrank.
   • Silver from Peru and Mexico enriched Europe and financed its Asian trade.
   • Portuguese and Spanish conquest was under way by the mid-sixteenth century, helped most by smallpox, to which natives had no immunity.
   • American crops and resources transformed trade and lives everywhere; slave plantations later grew cotton and sugar for Europe.
   • With China's isolation, the centre of world trade moved westwards to Europe.

8. Q8 · 5 marks · Long answerHarder board level

   Explain how the pre-modern world was interlinked through trade, religion, food and disease. (5 marks)

   Hint

   Give one or two examples for each of the four links.

   Answer

   • Trade: Indus–West Asia coastal trade from 3000 BCE; Maldivian cowries reached China and East Africa; silk routes carried silk, pottery, textiles and spices.
   • Religion: Buddhism spread from eastern India along the silk routes; Christian missionaries and Muslim preachers used them too.
   • Food: noodles may have become spaghetti; American crops like potatoes and maize reached Europe and Asia.
   • Disease: germs spread over long distances from the seventh century; smallpox devastated America in the sixteenth.

9. Q9 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency

   Suppose an island has been cut off from the rest of the world for a very long time. One day traders from distant lands begin to visit it regularly. Using what happened in America in the sixteenth century, explain what danger the islanders could face and why. (3 marks)

   Hint

   Think about immunity built up through long contact with a disease.

   Answer

   • The islanders may have no immunity to germs the visitors carry, just as America's original inhabitants had none to European diseases.
   • A disease like smallpox could spread quickly across the island, even ahead of the visitors.
   • Whole communities could die, leaving the island weak and open to takeover.

10. Q10 · 1 mark · MCQHOTS / competency

    Which evidence best supports the view that oceanic trade was important along India's western coast from the ninth century?
    (a) Chinese cave paintings of the silk route
    (b) Images of ships appearing regularly on memorial stones found on the western coast
    (c) Cowries from the Maldives found in China
    (d) Silver from the mines of Peru and Mexico

    Hint

    Choose the evidence that matches both the place and the period in the question.

    Answer

    (b) Ship images on memorial stones of the western coast, appearing regularly from the ninth century, point to the importance of sea trade there. The other options relate to other regions or periods.

Test your recall

Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.

1. 1.What linked the Indus valley civilisations with present-day West Asia around 3000 BCE?Show answer

   An active coastal trade.

2. 2.Where did cowries come from, and where did they reach?Show answer

   From the Maldives, reaching China and East Africa.

3. 3.Why are the silk routes called 'silk' routes?Show answer

   Because of the importance of West-bound Chinese silk cargoes along them.

4. 4.Until about when did the silk routes thrive?Show answer

   Almost till the fifteenth century.

5. 5.Name four crops that came to Europe and Asia from America.Show answer

   Any four of: potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes.

6. 6.What happened in Ireland in the mid-1840s?Show answer

   Disease destroyed the potato crop, and hundreds of thousands died of starvation.

7. 7.What was the most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors?Show answer

   Germs such as smallpox, to which America's original inhabitants had no immunity.

8. 8.Which mines enhanced Europe's wealth and financed its trade with Asia?Show answer

   Silver mines in present-day Peru and Mexico.

Quick revision checklist

The night before the exam: can you do each of these without looking?

• ☐Can you give three examples of global links before the sixteenth century, with dates?
• ☐Can you explain the name 'silk routes' and the time span over which they thrived?
• ☐Can you state which goods went west and what came east on the silk routes?
• ☐Can you name the religions and preachers that travelled along the silk routes?
• ☐Can you give both theories of the origin of spaghetti and say why the truth is uncertain?
• ☐Can you list five crops from America and say who first grew them?
• ☐Can you explain the Irish Potato Famine in three lines, with its years?
• ☐Can you explain why the world 'shrank' in the sixteenth century and what happened to Indian Ocean trade?
• ☐Can you write the smallpox chain from isolation to conquest, and why germs beat guns?
• ☐Can you give two reasons why the centre of world trade moved westwards to Europe?

The Making of a Global World: frequently asked questions