The Making of Global World Summary Class 10 Social Science Chapter 2

Introduction

Globalisation is an economic system associated with the free movement of goods, technology, ideas and people across the globe.

Section I: Pre Modern World

Numerous silk routes, both over land and by sea, connected extensive areas of Asia with Europe and northern Africa. Notable Chinese silk shipments used these routes.

Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato

• Noodles journeyed from China to evolve into spaghetti.
• Common foods like potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, and sweet potatoes were introduced in Europe and Asia only after Christopher Columbus found the Americas.

Conquest, Disease and Trade

• Precious metals from the mines of Peru and Mexico boosted European trade with Asia.
• The Spanish conquerors used smallpox germs during the conquest of America.
• Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among the world's wealthiest nations.
• Poverty and hunger were widespread in Europe until the nineteenth century.

Section II: The Nineteenth Century (1815-1914)

• In the late eighteenth century, population growth increased the demand for food grains in Britain.
• Food imports into Britain were cheaper than domestic production.
• Industrial growth in Britain led to increased incomes, resulting in more food imports, transported by railways and ships.
• Food imports were just one part; other products like cotton, rubber, and coal were also crucial for the economy.
• The Corn Laws were important for understanding food production and consumption in Britain during the nineteenth century, reflecting the socio-economic dynamics of the time.
• Technological advancements were driven by colonisation and improvements in transport, which were vital for the movement of food, highlighting the interconnectedness of the global economy.

Role of Technology

• The railways, steamships, the telegraph were important inventions that transformed nineteenth-century world.
• After the introduction of new technology, namely, refrigerated ships animals were slaughtered for food at the starting point and then transported to Europe as frozen meat.

Late nineteenth-century Colonialism

• European conquests of Asia and Africa as colonies.
• Belgium and Germany became new colonial powers.
• The US became a colonial power in the late 1890s by taking over some colonies earlier held by Spain.

Rinderpest, or the Cattle Plague

• Rinderpest is a fast spreading cattle plague which hit Africa in the late 1880s.
• It was carried by infected cattle imported from British Asia and destroyed 90 percent of the livestock.
• The colonial governments now strengthen their power and to force Africans into the labour market.

Indentured Labour Migration from India

• Indentured labour migration from India reflects the dual nature of the nineteenth-century world.
• Thousands of Indian and Chinese workers went overseas to work on plantations, mines, and in construction.
• Recruitment was often done by agents giving misleading information about the jobs and locations.
• Upon arriving, workers encountered harsh living and working conditions.
• The system of indentured labour was abolished in 1921.

Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad

• Indian entrepreneurs, including bankers like Nattukottai and Chettiars, funded agricultural exports to Central and South-East Asia.
• They also followed Europeans to Africa.
• The Industrial Revolution in England altered the trade balance between England and India.
• Indian handicrafts and agriculture faced severe challenges, leading to a trade surplus for Britain with India.
• British exports to India increased while imports decreased.

Section III: The Inter-war Economy

• The First World war was the first modern industrial war.
• During the war, industries were restructured to produce war-related goods.
• The war transformed the US from being an international debtor to an international creditor.

Post-war Recovery

• Recovering after the war was tough. Britain, once the world's leading economy, faced a long crisis.
• While Britain focused on the war, India and Japan developed their industries.
• After the war, Britain struggled to regain its dominance in the Indian market and compete with Japan.
• To fund the war, Britain borrowed heavily from the US, leaving it with large debts.
• As the war boom ended, production fell, and unemployment rose.
• The government cut down on high war spending to match peacetime income.
• These changes resulted in massive job losses; by 1921, one in five British workers was unemployed.
• Anxiety about job security became a lasting issue in the post-war period.

Rise of Mass Production and Consumption

• The US recovered more quickly. The war boosted its economy.
• After a brief economic downturn post-war, the US economy began to grow again.
• The ‘assembly line’ method, created by Henry Ford, spread across the US and was adopted in Europe during the 1920s.
• Mass production reduced costs and prices of manufactured goods.
• The 1920s saw a housing and consumer boom, which eventually led to the Great Depression of 1929.
• Market crashes in 1929 caused bank failures and impacted other nations.
• By 1933, over 4,000 banks had closed, and between 1929-32, around 110,000 companies went bankrupt.

India and the Great Depression

• India also faced the effects of the Great Depression.
• There was a sharp decline in Indian exports and imports, causing prices to drop.
• Bengal jute growers were among the hardest hit.
• Many agricultural economies faced crises.
• Before the war, eastern Europe was a major wheat supplier.
• During the war, wheat production surged in Canada, America, and Australia.
• After the war, production in eastern Europe resumed, leading to excess wheat supplies.
• This caused grain prices to fall, rural incomes to decline, and farmers to incur more debt.

Section IV: Rebuilding a World Economy: The Post-war Era

• The Second World War broke out a mere two decades after the end of the First World War and once again, it led to destruction.
• After the USA and the USSR emerged as superpowers.

Post-war Settlement and the Bretton Woods Institutions

• To ensure a stable economy a framework was agreed upon at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.
• It established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations.
• The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (popularly known as the World Bank) was set up to finance post-war reconstruction.
• The IMF and the World Bank commenced financial operations in 1947.
• Bretton Woods  System was based on a fixed exchange rate.
• National currencies were pegged to the American dollar at a fixed rate.
• Decision-making in these institutions is controlled by the Western industrial powers largely by the US.

Decolonisation and Independence

• Many countries in Asia and Africa became independent nations, supported by UNO and NAM.
• Group of 77 or G-77 was organised by developing countries to demand a new international economic order (NIEO) which would give these countries real control over their national resources, raw materials, manufactured goods in their markets.
• MNCs or multinational companies were established in the 1950s and 1960s and operated in several countries.