All questions of Class 11(Theme in World History) for UPSC CSE Exam

As per the NCERT Textbook, the British Recognized the USA as an independent country in 1781. Hence, option A.

The Muslim community survived on agriculture, trade and alms tax called zakat. Apart from these taxes, the Muslims organised expeditionary raids (ghazw) on Meccan caravans and nearby oases. These raids provoked reactions from the Meccans and caused a breach with the Jews of Medina.

The first Abraham Darby invented the blast furnace in 1709. Coke was used in blast furnace to generate high temperatures. It was derived from coal by removing the sulphur and impurities. It replaced charcoal.

Mari was the royal capital that developed, around 2000 BCE, in the northern Mesopotamian region.

Sufis used musical concerts, known as sama, to induce ecstasy and stimulate emotions of love and passion. Rabia of Basra preached that Unity with God could be achieved through an intense love for God (ishq).

The end of the Ice Age, around 13,000 years ago, led to creation of warmer, wetter conditions. These conditions were favourable for the growth of grasses like wild barley and wheat. ASimultaneously, both open forests and grasslands expanded and an increase in populations of certain animal species such as wild sheep, goat, cattle, pig and donkey.

Guild was a professional association that maintained formal guidelines for each craft. Guild was responsible to control the quality of the product, its price and its sale. Heads of all the guilds met formally at ‘guild-hall’. It was a building for ceremonial functions.

The skull of the Neanderthal man, first discovered at Neander Valley in Germany, was initially rejected by scholars. Some of them, dismissing its antiquity, regarded it as 'brutish' or that of a 'pathological idiot'.

Turks were nomadic tribes from the Central Asian steppes of Turkistan (north-east of the Aral Sea upto the borders of China). They gradually converted to Islam.

In the Roman currency system, the Denarius was a small silver coin, first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the Antoninianus.

Ali was the fourth Caliph, after the death of the third Caliph, Uthman. Ali established himself at Kufa and defeated an army led by Muhammad’s wife, Aisha, in the Battle of the Camel.

The diminishing popularity of the monotheism could be seen in many of the writings. For example in England, Langland’s poem, 'Piers Plowman' contrasted the ease and luxury of the lives of some monks with the ‘pure faith’ of ‘simple ploughmen and shepherds and poor common labourers.’ Chaucer wrote the 'Canterbury Tales', which had comic portraits of a nun, a monk and a friar.

Saint Augustine (354-430 CE) was the Bishop of Hippo, a North African city, from 396 CE, and a towering figure in the intellectual history of the Church. In AD 386, he had converted to Christianity.

South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, had been democratically elected in 1948 CE. But, after the Korean War, he extended his rule, twice by passing illegal constitutional amendments. In April 1960 CE, Koreans protested against a rigged election during the April Revolution, ultimately forcing Rhee to resign.

The Mongols lived in the steppes of Central Asia, in a tract of land in the area of the modern state of Mongolia. Agriculture was possible in the pastoral regions, such as the steppes of Central Asia, during short parts of the year, but the Mongols did not take to farming.

In 1532, Atahualpa secured the throne of the Inca Empire after a civil war. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish, under Francisco Pizarro, captured and executed the king. Eventually, the Spanish occupied and subjugated the Incas.

The Eastern Hadza people did not assert rights over land and its resources. Any individual may live wherever he likes and may hunt animals, collect roots, berries, and honey and draw water anywhere in Hadza country without any sort of restriction.

Christianity is a monotheistic religion, centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially a faith in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God, the Saviour, the manifestation of God to humankind and himself.

The three orders of society were the clergy, the nobility and the peasantry. The clergy or the religious people were at the top of the hierarchy, followed by the nobility, which constituted king and his courtiers, and lastly were the peasants and other masses.

The French had strong links and mutual understandings with the Church. This relationship was further strengthened when, in 800 AD, the Pope gave King Charlemagne the title of ‘Holy Roman Emperor’ to ensure his support.

Early people used to gather food and lived by hunting animals. Gradually, they came to know about the growth of plants. They then started growing plants and shifted to a settled life. The plants chosen by them gradually transformed and eventually appeared entirely different from the wild ones. Wild animals that were milder in behaviour turned to these settled areas to feed themselves. This led to the beginning of domestication of wild animals. This led to domestication and pastoralism becoming new ways of life.

Petrarch was an Italian scholar, poet and humanist. A major force in the development of the Renaissance, he was famous for his poems addressed to Laura. He was crowned as a poet laureate in Rome.

Renaissance is a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th century to the 17th century. This movement began in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spread to the rest of the Europe. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheavals, it is best known for its artistic developments.

The Ostrogoths were a branch of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in the political events of the late Roman Empire. The other branch was the Visigoths.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, Bedouins used to keep moving in search of food and fodder.

Genghis Khan was born in 1162 AD, near the Onon River, in the north of present-day Mongolia. He was the son of Yesugei, the chieftain of the Kiyat, i.e., a group of families related to the Borjigid clan.

Man’s ability to maintain knowledge helped him to transform himself from a mere nomad to a pastoral and further to a settled life. He learned to cultivate crops and was thus able to produce more than his requirement. Availability of food helped in the increase of population as more and more people took to settled lives.

The Rebellions of 1837 took place in both Upper and Lower Canada. In Lower Canada, the rebellion was, in large part, an expression of a resurgent French Canadian Nationalism. The French Canadian majority constituted the overwhelming majority in the locally elected Assembly, established by the Canada or Constitutional Act, 1791.

Timur was a Barlas Turk. He claimed Genghis Khanid descent through the lineage of Chaghtay. He established a steppe empire that assimilated parts of the dominions of Toluy (excluding China), Chaghatay and Jochi. He proclaimed himself, ‘Guregen’ – ‘royal son-in-law’ – and married a princess of the Genghis Khanid lineage.

Hominids probably migrated from East Africa to Southern and Northern Africa, to Southern and North-eastern Asia, and probably to Europe, around between 2 and 1.5 million years ago. It survived for nearly a million years.

The invention of railways took the entire process of industrialisation to a second stage. Railroads called for the production of more goods. They put factory-made products within the reach of many more people at prices that they could afford to pay.

The flexibility of the hands increased from one specie of early humans to other specie. Increase in the flexibility allowed them to make tools, to hold tools and hunt animals.

The first attempt by the Society of Jesuits to reach China was made in 1552 by St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish priest and missionary and a founding member of the Society.

Neander Valley is a gorge in Germany. It is popular for the quarrying of limestone. Here, the evidence of early man was discovered by workers who were quarrying for limestone in August 1856.

Japanese had borrowed their written script from the Chinese in the sixth century. Japanese developed two phonetic alphabets – hiragana and katakana. Hiragana is considered feminine because it was used by many women writers in the Heian period. It was a a mixture of Chinese characters and phonetics.

Igor de Rachewiltz is a prominent Mongolist working in Australia. He was born in Rome in 1929. The Mongolian and Chinese narratives were available in the title of Mongqol-un niuèa tobèa’an. Igor de Rachewiltz published the translation of The Secret History of the Mongols, in eleven volumes of Papers on Far Eastern History, from 1971 to 1985.

Sargon was the ruler of Akkad around 2370 BCE. Several centuries later, a statue of Sargon, recovered by Babylonians, was repaired under the instructions of their then ruler, Nabonidus.

For example, one calendar tells us that spectacula (shows) filled no less than 176 days of the year!

The position of women in the families of merchants was somewhat different from that of aristocratic families. Shopkeepers were very often assisted by their wives in running their shops. In families of merchants and bankers, wives looked after the businesses when the male members were away on work.

The 15th and 16th centuries saw the European kings strengthening their military and financial powers.