The Making of a Global World Class 10 (NCERT) Notes

 The Making of a Global World

The Pre-modern World

Globalisation - Today refers to: 

• An economic system that has emerged since the last 50 years or so. 

In this chapter: 

The making of the global world: 

including long history of:

• Trade, 
• Migration, 
• Labor-seeking, 
• Capital movement, and more.

Understanding Global Interconnectedness:

Historical Phases: To understand today's global interconnectedness, 

• we must understand its evolving phases.

Historical Interconnectedness:

Ancient Travelers: 

Throughout history, human societies grew increasingly connected.

Why People travelled in ancient times: 

Travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast distances for: 

• Knowledge, 
• Opportunity and 
• Spiritual fulfilment, or 
• To escape persecution. 

What They Carried: 

They transported goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, and even germs and diseases.

Coastal Trade: 

As early as 3000 BCE, an active coastal trade linked the Indus Valley with present day West Asia.

Currency in ancient time: 

Cowries (Hindi cowdi or seashells) 

from the Maldives - served as currency-  

• In China and East Africa for over a thousand years.

Early Disease Transmission:

Seventh Century: Disease-carrying germs began spreading over long distances.

Thirteenth Century: This spread of disease became more apparent and connected.

Why?- Due to more interconnectedness

1.1 Silk Routes Link the World

An Example:

• Pre-modern trade and 
• cultural links.
• Between distant parts of the world.

  

Origin of Name:

• Importance of West-bound Chinese silk cargoes along this route. 

Types of Silk Routes:

• Land and sea routes identified by historians.
• Cover vast Asian regions.
• Linked Asia with Europe and northern Africa.

  

These routes:

• Existed before the Christian Era.
• It Existed until the fifteenth century.

  

Diverse Goods Traded:

Export:

China: Silk + Chinese pottery, 

India: textiles, and spices from India and Southeast Asia. 

In return:

Precious metals: (gold and silver) from Europe to Asia.

  

Cultural Exchange:

Early Christian missionaries and Muslim preachers used these routes to Asia

  

Buddhism's Spread: 

Buddhism originated in eastern India.

Spread through intersecting points on the silk routes.

1.2 Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato

1. Long-Distance Food Exchange: A Culinary Journey

• Food reveals a rich history of cultural exchange.
• Traders and explorers played a key role in spreading new crops.

2. Spaghetti and Noodles:

• Noodles likely traveled from China to become spaghetti.
• Arab traders might have introduced pasta to Sicily (an Island now in Italy) in the fifth century.
• Similar foods existed in India and Japan, leaving their exact origins uncertain.

3. Introduction of New Foods:

• Common foods today (potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes) were unknown to our ancestors until about five centuries ago.

Ex:

These foods were only introduced in Europe and Asia after Christopher Columbus: 

• Accidentally discovered the vast continent - later (Americas).

‘America’ to describe: 

• North America, 
• South America and 
• the Caribbean. 

Actually, lots of our everyday foods originated from Native Americans.

4. Impact of New Crops:

• Make the difference between life and death

Ex:

Europe: Humble Potatoes significantly improved nutrition and longevity in European poors.

Ireland's 

Poorest peasants dependency on potatoes led to tragedy 

• when a crop disease destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, 
• Hundreds of thousands died of starvation.

1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade

The Sixteenth-Century Transformation

Exploring New Sea Routes in 16th C:

Pre-modern world shrank greatly after the discovery of the sea route to Asia 

• Successfully crossed the western ocean to America. 

Importance of Indian Ocean

For centuries Ago: 

the Indian Ocean is known for: 

• A bustling trade, 
• With goods, people, knowledge, customs, etc. criss-crossing its waters. 

The Indian subcontinent was central to these flows and a crucial point in their networks. 

The entry of the Europeans 

• Helped expand or 
• redirect some of these flows towards Europe.

Before new sea routes ‘discovery’, 

• America had no regular contact with the rest of the world for millions of years.

From the 16th century onward, America's resources (crops and minerals) transformed global trade and lives worldwide.

Example:

Silver coming from mines in: 

• Peru and 
• Mexico 

Boosted Europe's wealth and 

Funded trade with Asia.

South America’s fabled wealth. 

Legends spread information in seventeenth-century Europe about South America’s fabled wealth. 

• Many expeditions set off in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold.

C. Colonization of America:

• The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and 
• Colonisation of America - underway by the mid-sixteenth century. 

d. Most Powerful Weapon:

European conquest was not just a result of superior firepower. 

Most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a conventional military weapon at all. 

Smallpox as weapon:

Germs (smallpox) - carried on their person. 

Why it affected America Much:

• Because of their long isolation, 
• The native Americans had no immunity to European diseases.

Impact of Smallpox: 

• Proved a deadly killer. 
• Spread deep into the continent, 
• Ahead even of any Europeans reaching there. 

It wiped out entire communities, making conquest easier.

Guns vs diseases:

Guns could be bought or captured and turned against the invaders. 

• But not diseases such as smallpox to which the conquerors were mostly immune.

Europe's Challenging Times Until the 19th century:

Europe faced widespread problems:

• poverty, 
• hunger, and 
• crowded cities.
• Deadly diseases were rampant, and 
• religious conflicts led to persecution.

Migration to America:

Thousands of Europeans fled to America seeking a better life.

Economic Shift to the Americas:

By the 18th century, plantations in America, 

Run by African slaves, 

• produced cotton and sugar for European markets.

Asia's Historic Prosperity:

- China and India were among the world's wealthiest nations until the 18th century.

- They dominated Asian trade.

China's Isolation and Global Trade Shift:

- From the 15th century, China reduced overseas contacts and retreated into isolation.

- The center of world trade gradually moved westward (America) due to China's diminished role.

- Europe emerged as the new hub of global trade.