Class 10 Social Science Notes — Chapter 3: The Making of a Global World
How global trade, migration, and technology reshaped the world before and after WWI.
Detailed NCERT notes
- Pre-modern world: silk routes (Asia–Europe), Indian Ocean trade, spread of food (potato, chilli, tomato from Americas after Columbus 1492), diseases (smallpox devastating native Americans).
- 19th century saw three flows across the world: trade, labour, capital.
- Corn Laws in Britain repealed (1846) — allowed cheap food imports → British agriculture declined, migration to cities and abroad.
- Refrigerated ships (from 1870s) allowed meat exports from South America, Australia, New Zealand to Europe.
- Colonisation and trade transformed food supply and land use.
- Rinderpest in Africa (1890s): cattle plague killed ~90% of livestock; forced Africans into wage labour on colonial plantations.
- Indentured labour migration (19th century): Indians and Chinese sent as contract labour to Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius, Africa — a 'new system of slavery'; but also carried culture (Chutney music, Hosay festival, Ramcharitmanas).
- Indian entrepreneurs: Chettiar and Chettiar-like communities financed export agriculture in Southeast Asia.
- First World War (1914–18): total war — massive economic damage in Europe, industrial expansion in USA → USA becomes creditor to Europe.
- Great Depression (1929): US stock market crash; global demand collapse; agricultural prices fell; unemployment soared; countries raised tariffs and cut spending.
- India during Depression: peasants indebted, exports fell — set the stage for CDM.
- Second World War aftermath: two-decade reconstruction; Bretton Woods (1944) established IMF and World Bank to stabilise post-war economies; fixed exchange-rate system.
- Decolonisation: former colonies became independent but faced debt, poverty, unequal trade.
- 1970s onwards: shift from fixed to floating exchange rates; MNCs and new global production networks emerge.
Formulas & key results
Mind map
- Pre-modern trade → silk routes
- 19th century: technology + capital + labour flows
- Rinderpest, indenture, Corn Laws
- Interwar: WWI, Depression, WWII
- Bretton Woods → IMF, World Bank
Tricks & shortcuts
- Corn Laws repeal (1846) → cheap food → agrarian crisis in Britain.
- Bretton Woods = IMF + World Bank (1944).
Common mistakes to avoid
- Mixing Bretton Woods (1944) with League of Nations (1919).
Competency-based questions & answers
- Q. How did Rinderpest affect Africa in the 1890s?A. Killed 90% of cattle; destroyed pastoral livelihoods; forced Africans into wage labour for colonial mines and plantations — a key mechanism of colonial economic control.
- Q. Why is indentured labour called a 'new system of slavery'?A. Workers signed contracts under duress, endured brutal conditions, low pay and restricted movement — resembling slavery in daily life despite being legally 'free'.