History: CBSE Sample Question Paper (2020-21) - 1 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Class - XI
History
TIME: 3 Hrs.
M.M: 80

General Instructions : 

Read the below instructions very carefully and follow them strictly. 
(i) Answer all the questions. Some questions have an internal choice. Marks are indicated against each question. This question paper comprises six sections.
(ii) Section A: Question numbers 1 to 16 are objective type questions carrying 1 mark and should be answered in one word or one sentence each (Attempt any 15).
(iii) Section B: Question numbers 17 to 19 are Case-Based/Source-Based having Multiple Choice questions carrying 3 marks each. Each question has 4 sub-parts. Attempt any three sub-parts from each question.
(iv) Section C: Answer to questions 20 to 23 carrying 3 marks each should not exceed 100 words each.
(v) Section D: Answer to questions 24 to 26 carrying 8 marks each should not exceed 350 words each.
(vi) Section E: Question number 27 to 29 are Source-based questions carrying 5 marks each.
(vii) Section F: Question number 30 is a Map question that includes the identification and location of significant test items. Attach the map with the answer book.

Section-A    [15 marks]

Attempt any 15 questions.    [1 mark each]

OR

The Meiji Constitution was based on a universal franchise and created a diet. 
Ans: The Meiji Constitution was based on a restricted franchise and created a diet.

Q.6. Who was the famous ruler of “Mari”?
Ans: Silmarillion

Q.8. Fill in the blanks:
The condition must suited for industrialisation was cheap availability of _______.
Ans: Labour

Q.9. When and where was the first Mesopotamian script discovered?
Ans: Mesopotamian Script was discovered in Summer in 3200 BCE

Q.10. State whether the below statement is true or false
“Japan was influenced by China”
Ans: False

Q.11.

Question for History: CBSE Sample Question Paper (2020-21) - 1

Try yourself:Match the following

Options:

• A.

  a
• B.

  b
• C.

  c
• D.

  d

View Solution

Q.12. Correct the following statement and rewrite it:
In the central Islamic lands, written works were widely circulated after the introduction of Printing Press Paper (made from linen) came from China, where the manufacturing process was a closely guarded secret.
Ans: In the Central Islamic Lands written works were widely circulated after the introduction of Paper.
Paper came from China, where the manufacturing process was a closely guarded secret.

OR

Japan was fortunate in coal and iron ore, the staple materials for mechanisation, were plentifully available as were other minerals.
Ans: England was fortunate in coal and iron ore, the staple material for mechanism, were plentifully available as were other minerals.

Q.13. Which sea was known as the “Heart of Rome’s Empire”?
Ans: Mediterranean Sea.

Q.16. 

Section B    [9 marks]

[3 marks each]
In this part all questions are compulsory 
Q.17. Read the following extract carefully and answer ANY THREE of the following questions by choosing the correct option:
The Hijri era was established during the caliphate of Umar with the first year falling in 622 CE.
A date in the Hijri calendar is followed by the letters AH.
The Hijri year is a lunar year of 354 days, 12 months (Muharram to Dhul Hijjah) of 29 or 30 days. Each day begins at Sunset and each month with the sighting of Crescent moon. The Hijri year is about 11 days shorter than the Solar year. Therefore, none of the Islamic religious festivals, including the Ramazan fast, Id and Hajj, corresponds in any way to seasons. There is no easy way to match in the Hijri calendar with the dates in the Gregorian calendar. One can calculate the rough equivalents between the Islamic (H) and Gregorian Christian (C) years with the following formulae;
(H × 32/33) + 622 = C
(C – 622) × 33/ 32 = H

(A) 

(D) 

Q.19. Read the following extract carefully and answer ANY THREE of the following questions by choosing the correct option:
The beginning of modern China can be traced to its first encounter with the west in the sixteenth and seventeenth century when Jesuit Missionaries introduce Western sciences such as astronomy and mathematics. Limited though its immediate impact was, it set in motion the event that gathered Momentum in the 19th Century when Britain used force to expand its lucrative trade in opium leading to the first opium war 1839 - 42. This undermined the ruling Qing dynasty and strengthened demands for reform and change.
Qing reformers such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao realised the need to strengthen the system and initiated policies to build a modern administrative system, a new army and an educational system, and set up local assemblies to establish constitutional government. They saw the need to protect China from colonisation.

Section C   [12 marks]

In this part all questions are compulsory
Q.20. Discuss the factors which are responsible for the emergence of the Working class.
Ans: Emergence of the Working class:
(i) With the Industrial Revolution came massive wealth but it was at the cost of humanity. The physical and mental condition of the factory workers became miserable during the initial years of the Industrial Revolution. They had to work for long hours daily in dark and smudged factories.
(ii) Women and children were employed in factories. Though, it provided them financial independence, however, the working conditions became hazardous for health.
(iii) Around the same time, the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity started growing. The protest movement grew strong during the 1790s. The Luddite Movement fought for establishing a minimum wage, control over labour of women and children and the right to form trade unions.
(iv) In 1819, the peaceful gathering of almost 80,000 workers at St Peter’s field was brutally suppressed by the government; this also came to be known as the Peterloo Massacre.

Q.21. Describe the administrative structure in the provinces conquered by the Caliphs.
Ans: The administrative structure imposed by the Caliphs was as follows:
(i) The head of the provincial administration was the governor (Amir) and a tribal chieftain (Ashraf).
(ii) The central treasury got its revenue from taxes paid by the Muslims as well as its share of loot from the raids.
(iii) The Caliph’s soldiers remained in camp cities, such as Kufa and Basra near the desert, to remain within reach of their natural habitat as well as the Caliph’s command.
(iv) The ruling clan and soldiers received shares of the booty and monthly payments (Ata).
(v) The non-Muslim population were given the rights to property and religious practices on the payment of Kharaj and Jaziya.
(vi) Jews and Christians were declared protected subjects of the state (dhimmis). They were given a large measure of autonomy in the conduct of their communal affairs.

Q.22. Describe the conditions of workers and slaves in the Roman Empire.
Ans: The conditions of workers were very bad. Pliny the Elder described the conditions in the Frankincense factories of Alexandria, where he tells us that no amount of supervision seemed to suffice. A seal was put on their aprons, and they were made to wear masks and when they left they had to take off their clothes.
Another edict from Egypt belonging to the early third century states that the Egyptian peasants deserted their villages to escape agricultural work. The workers were branded so that they could be recognised, if and when they tried to run away. Workers were made to sign debt contracts to ensure tighter control over them. Some people even sold their children into servitude for periods of 25 years. Rural indebtedness was so common that Jewish revolt took place in 66 CE. They destroyed the money lenders bonds to win popular support.

Q.23. Britain was the first country to experience modern Industrialisation’. Examine the factors responsible for it.
Ans: The five important factors responsible for the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain are as under:
(i) Britain had accumulated large amounts of money by foreign trade. The British merchants were very rich and could invest their capital in industries.
(ii) Raw materials for factories were easily available in the colonies.
(iii) The agricultural revolution had greatly increased the number of landless peasants in Britain and these became the workforce for the factories.
(iv) Britain had sufficient reserves of coal and iron that helped in establishing industries.
(v) There were many technological inventions in Britain that accelerated the pace of Industrialisation. When the Industrial Revolution began, Britain was in the middle of the Age of Imperialism, which saw European nations explore and dominate vast areas of land around the world.

Section - D    [24 marks]

[3 marks each]
In this part all questions are compulsory. 
Q.24. Why do we say that it was not natural fertility and high levels of food production that were the causes of early urbanisation?
Ans. The development of Mesopotamia from a prosperous village to a city proves that natural fertility and high levels of food production were not the only factors responsible for urbanisation. There were other factors as well that caused urbanisation, two of which have been explained below.
(a) Growing demands: Besides food, a growing population needs several other goods and commodities (such as weapons, agricultural tools and potteries.) to fulfil their needs. For this, an agrarian village had to either produce these goods on its own or rely on other villages for these needs via trade. This definitely calls for the need of manufacturing facilities within the village along with a well-developed trade network and transportation. Thus, it can be said that the fulfilment of growing demands facilitated urbanisation of Mesopotamia.
(b) Division of labour: Over time, production expanded in order to meet growing demands; this resulted in different people specialising in specific tasks. This, in turn, helped them to tap and fulfil the growing demands efficiently.  However, to sustain this division of labour, a proper organisational framework was essential. This framework included a class of men who could supervise the work of others. Thus, this organisation created a class of administrators and supervisors along with the already existing class of labourers.

OR

Did Japan’s policy of rapid industrialization lead to wars with its neighbours and destruction of the environment?
Ans: Rapid industrialisation of Japan infused ideas of creating a modern nation which would also be able to protect itself from the European colonists. Along with it, they wanted to create a colonial empire of their own.
(a) This intention led to wars with neighbouring countries. Japan, even though a smaller country, launched wars with countries like China and Russia in order to extend its empire.
(b) Japan emerged victorious in wars with these countries and Japan’s modern army’s performance remained unmatched in the wars.
(c) Japan took war further and attacked the Anglo-American army during World War II. They attacked America’s Pearl Harbour.
(d) In retaliation America dropped nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This led to the mass loss of human lives and even the environment was harmed.
(e) Even after this dreadful attack, Japan pulled a post-war “miracle” and advanced in industrial and economic growth like no other nation.
(f) The 1964 Olympics hosted in Tokyo, and the bullet train was an example of Japan’s ability to produce better quality products at cheaper rates.
(g) But this industrial advancement came with a cost to the environment. Cases of cadmium poisoning, mercury poisoning, deforestation and environmental pollution emerged as there was no regard for environmental preservation.
(h) With efforts of the grass-roots pressure groups, the government was made to reform its ideas and look towards making policies for environmental preservation.

Q.25. Discuss in detail the Impact on Indigenous People.
Ans. Impact on Indigenous People:
(i) Basic democratic rights and the right to property were only for the white men. The natives of the USA suffered from major economic exploitation until the 1920s. The major economic depression of 1929 affected all its people and brought forth a grim picture of the terribly poor health and education facilities for the natives.
(ii) In the 1950s and 1960s, the US and Canadian governments thought of ending all special provisions for the natives in the hope that they would join the mainstream and adopt European culture. But the natives didn’t want this.
(iii) In 1969 the Canadian Government announced that it would not recognize the ‘aboriginal’ rights. This could not be resolved until 1982 when the constitution accepted the existing aboriginal and treaty right of the natives.
(iv) Human habitation in Australia has a long history. The natives of Australia initially helped the Europeans wholeheartedly, so their mutual relations were quite cordial. However, a sharp reversal took place when Captain Cook was murdered by a native.
(v) As per the British policy, most of the early settlers were convicts who had been deported from England and as their term ended they were allowed to live free in Australia so that they did not return to Britain. 1911 Canberra was established as the capital of Australia.
(vi) By the 1970s there was an eagerness to know the natives as communities and cultures distinct from their own. From 1974, multiculturalism has been an official policy in Australia which gave equal respect to native cultures and to different cultures of the immigrants from Europe and Asia.

OR

What was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution? What was its result?
Ans: Conflicts became common among Mao’s supporters, who wanted to create a socialist man and those who objected to his stress on ideology. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1965 was the result of this conflict. Mao started this revolution to face these critics.  The Red Guards, mainly the students and the army, were used to start a campaign against the old culture, old customs and old habits. Students and professionals from the common masses. Ideology of being a communist became more important than having professional knowledge. Rational debates were replaced by denunciations and slogans. As a result, there was turmoil in the country with the cultural revolution. The Economy and educational system were disrupted but the situation started to change from the late 1960s. In 1975, the party once again started to give stress on strict social discipline and the need to build a strong nation.

Q.26. Compare the conditions of life for a French Serf and a Roman Slave.
Ans. Conditions of the French Serf: The Serfs were the lowest category of peasants. They were the most numerous in Feudal Society. They were the ‘dependent’ Peasants who had to do what the feudal Lords demanded of them. They were tied to the land and subject to complete authority of the Lord. They cultivated the Lord’s land and much of the produce was taken away by the lord. They did not receive wages and could not leave the manor without the Lord’s permission. They could not even marry without the Lord’s permission. Serfdom was the defining feature of the feudal mode of production. The most significant feature was the coercion that the lord could exercise over the Serfs.
Conditions of Roman Slave: The Roman slaves were regarded as a form of property. They were treated as commodities that could be bought or sold in the market. They had no rights. They were treated so badly that they were not treated as humans. The authority of the master over the slave was absolute, the slaves retained to kinship ties and maintained no families. The only relation they had was with their master and that was of complete subjugation. Slave labour was found in every sector of the Roman economy especially agriculture, mining and handicrafts. In fact, the Greco-Roman society is often termed as ‘slave society’ i.e. an economy that ran on slave mode of production because slaves were employed on a large scale.

OR

Describe in detail the achievements of Mesopotamian civilization.
Ans: The first civilization to flourish in Mesopotamia was the Sumerian civilization. Some of the main features of this civilization are listed below:
(i) Political life: There were many city-states that were ruled by the priest-kings ‘Patesti’. The king had to perform many duties which he discharged with the help of his officials.
(ii) Economic Life: Their main occupation was agriculture, domestication of animals and trade. They were the first to cultivate wheat and were also skilled craftsmen who invented the potters’ wheel.
(iii) Art: Their artistic legacy is visible in the ornamentation of their temples and buildings. They introduced the columns, vaults and arches. There was a development of various crafts.
(iv) Social life: The Sumerian society was male-dominated and stratified divided into three classes and slavery was also prevalent. The women occupied a high position.
(v) Religious life: Many Gods were worshipped. Enlil was the chief God. Temples called ‘Ziggurats’ were built. Priests occupied a high position in society and there was also belief in life after death which is evident from the grave goods.
(vi) Science: Great progress was made in mathematics, astronomy, astrology and medicine. Sixty   was the unit used in their system of numerals. They devised the calendar dividing a year into 12 months and 365 days and also knew about the solar and lunar eclipses.

Section - E    [15 marks]

[5 marks each]
In this part all questions are compulsory
Q.27. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Doctor Galen on how Roman Cities Treated the Countryside The famine prevalent for many successive years in many provinces have clearly displayed for men of any understanding the effect of malnutrition in generating illness. The city-dwellers, as it was their custom to collect and store enough grain for the whole of the next year immediately after the harvest, carried off all the wheat, barley, beans and lentils, and left to the peasant’s various kinds of pulses –after taking quite a large proportion of these to the city. After consuming what was left in the course of the winter, the country people had to resort to unhealthy foods in the spring; they ate twigs and shoots of trees and bushes and bulbs and roots of inedible plants…’ – Galen, On Good and Bad Diet.
(i) What does the given passage represent?
(ii) What was the custom of the city dwellers?
(iii) How was the ancient Roman society divided?
Ans: (i) The passage is talking about the famine conditions and its ill effects which resulted in the shortage of food.
(ii) The city dwellers collected and stored sufficient grains like wheat, barley, beans and lentils, for the whole of the next year directly after the harvest and left to the peasant’s various kinds of pulses – after taking quite a large proportion of these to the city
(iii) The ancient Roman society was divided into three classes.
(a) The Patrician
(b) The Plebeian
(c) The slaves

Q.28. Read the following source carefully and answer the questions that follow.
The Republic was the name for a regime in which the reality of power lay with the Senate, a body dominated by a small group of wealthy families who formed the ‘nobility’. In practice, the Republic represented the government of the nobility, exercised through the body called the Senate. The Republic lasted from 509 BC to 27 BC, when it was overthrown by Octavian, the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar, who later changed his name to Augustus. Membership of the Senate was for life and wealth and office-holding counted for more than birth.
(i) What is a Republic?
(ii) The Republic lasted for how long and how did it come to an end.
(iii) What was the term for a Senate?
Ans: (i) The Republic was the name for a regime in which the reality of power lay with the Senate, a body dominated by a small group of wealthy families who formed the ‘nobility’
(ii) The Republic lasted from 509 BC to 27 BC, when it was overthrown by Octavian, the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar, who later changed his name to Augustus.
(iii) Membership of the Senate was for life.

Q.28. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Apart from the Church, devout Christians had another kind of organisation. Some deeply religious people chose to live isolated lives, in contrast to clerics who lived amongst people in towns and villages. They lived in religious communities called Abbeys or Monasteries, often in places very far from human habitation. Two of the more well-known Monasteries were those established by St. Benedict in Italy in 529 and of Cluny in Burgundy in 910. Monks took vows to remain in the Abbey for the rest of their lives and to spend their time in prayer, study and manual labour, like farming. Unlike Priesthood, this life was open to both men and women–men became Monks and women Nuns. Except in a few cases, all abbeys were single-sex communities, that is, there were separate abbeys for men and women. Like Priests, Monks and Nuns did not marry. From small communities of 10 or 20 men/women, Monasteries grew to communities often of several hundred, with large buildings and landed estates, with attached schools or colleges and hospitals. They  contributed to the development of the arts. Abbess Hildegard was a gifted musician, and did much to develop the practice of community singing of prayers in Church. From the thirteenth century, some groups of Monks–called Friars–chose not to be based in a Monastery but to move from place to place, preaching to the people and living on charity.
(i) Who was Abbess Hildegard?
(ii) Was he in favour of the Three Orders?
(iii) What examples does he give to prove it?
Ans: (i) Abbess Hildegard was a clergy.
(ii) Yes, he was in favour of the three orders.
(iii) In support of the division of three orders, Hildegard gives the following examples:
- how a herder never herds his entire cattle in one stable but differentiates between cows, donkeys, sheep and goats.
- Though God is the creator of all, yet he does not make all equal. There are distinctions among his creations.
- God loves all human beings but he does not treat all equally on earth or in heaven.

Section F   [5 marks]

MAP WORK
Q.30. On the given map of Australia, locate the following.
(i) Perth
(ii) Adelaide
(iii) Canberra
(iv) Melbourne
(v) Brisbane

Ans: MAP
(i) Perth
(ii) Adelaide
(iii) Canberra
(iv) Melbourne
(v) Brisbane