Greetings, friends! Welcome to etutorguru. Within this piece of writing, we have furnished CBSE Notes for Class 9 History Chapter 3, “The Making of a Global World” Using these resources can help students perform better in exams.
Globalisation is a relatively new economic system, although the creation of the global globe has a lengthy history. To comprehend the phenomenon of globalisation, one must first comprehend the history of trade, migration, people’s search for jobs, capital movement, and so on.
The Pre-Modern World
Human societies have grown increasingly linked. Travellers, businessmen, priests, and pilgrims have travelled long distances for a variety of reasons since ancient times.
- To gain knowledge
- for religious or spiritual fulfilment
- for more opportunities
- To skip ill-treatment
They bring with them goods, money, ideas, abilities, values, innovations, and even illnesses and diseases. By the 13th century, the nations had created a powerful alliance.
A robust marine commerce linked the Indus Valley Civilizations with West Asia around 3000 BC. From the Maldives to China to East Africa, cowries (sea shells) have been used as money for millennia.
Silk Routes Link the World
Silk pathways existed before Christianity and flourished until the 15th century. The silk routes that linked Asia with Europe and North Africa are prime instances of pre-modern trade and cultural links. Silk items from China, Indian spices and textiles, and gold and silver from Europe were carried over the silk routes to other parts of the world.
Buddhist preachers, Christian missionaries, and, subsequently, Islam preachers used these roads. These routes proved to be a vital source of commercial and cultural links between distant parts of the world.
Food Travels: New Crops Introduced
Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the nation. Potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, and sweet potatoes were brought into Europe and Asia when Christopher Columbus found America. Noodles spread westward from China and developed into spaghetti. As potatoes were introduced, Europe’s impoverished began to eat better and live longer lives. The pasta was introduced to Sicily, an Italian island, by Arab traders. The impoverished peasants of Ireland relied on potatoes, and when the Irish potato famine occurred, nearly 1 million people died of starvation in Ireland, with many more leaving in search of work.
Conquest, Disease and Trade
The pre-modern world shrank once European sailors discovered a maritime route to Asia and America in the 16th century. Although the Indian subcontinent was critical to the trade, the entrance of Europeans contributed to its expansion to Europe. The discovery of silver in mines in Peru and Mexico improved Europe’s prosperity and subsidised commerce with Asia. Several expeditions were conducted in quest of El Dorado, the legendary city of riches in South America. The Spanish and Portuguese were the first Europeans to conquer America in the mid-l6th century. The deadly illness of smallpox, which the Spanish invaders carried with them, made conquering America a possibility. The early inhabitants of America had no immunity to this disease. As a result, tens of thousands of Europeans were forced to migrate.
Yet, with India’s colonisation and China’s prohibitions on foreign trade, Europe emerged as the global trading centre.
The 19th Century (1815-1914)
In the nineteenth century, economic, political, social, cultural, and technical variables intertwined in complex ways. It had a significant impact on society and its external ties. Economists differentiate three types of movement or flow in international economic interactions.
(i)The movement of goods trade (especially cloth and wheat).
(ii) The movement of labour as a result of people migrating in pursuit of work.
(iii) Long-distance capital transportation for short-term or long-term investments. All of these flows had a profound impact on people’s lives.
A World Economy Takes Shape
Industrialization and population growth in Britain raised the demand for food grains in the late 18th century. As a result of this circumstance, food grain costs increased.
Corn Laws and its Effects
Due to pressure from landowners, the government stopped maize imports. These laws were colloquially known as the Corn Laws. With the establishment of the Corn Laws, food costs surged (unreasonably high). Industrialists and city inhabitants paid top dollar. They forced the British government to abolish the Corn Laws.
After the Corn Laws were removed, food could be brought into Britain at a substantially cheaper cost. Agriculture in the United Kingdom was unable to compete with imports. Huge swaths of land went uncultivated, and thousands of people lost their jobs. People moved to cities in search of jobs or relocated abroad.
Due to pressure from landowners, the government stopped maize imports. These laws were colloquially known as the Corn Laws. With the establishment of the Corn Laws, food costs surged (unreasonably high). Industrialists and city inhabitants paid top dollar. They forced the British government to abolish the Corn Laws. After the Corn Laws were removed, food could be brought into Britain at a substantially cheaper cost. Agriculture in the United Kingdom was unable to compete with imports.
Huge swaths of land went uncultivated, and thousands of people lost their jobs. People moved to cities in search of jobs or relocated abroad.
The effects of the abolition of the Corn Laws were
- Food imported into the UK may be less expensive than food produced in the UK.
- Consumption grew in the United Kingdom as food costs fell.
- Rapid industrial growth in the United Kingdom began in the mid-nineteenth century, resulting in greater wages and increased food consumption.
- Land in Eastern Europe, Russia, America, and Australia was cleared to plant more crops to supply Britain’s growing needs.
- New railways and harbours were necessary to export agricultural products.
- More housing and settlements were required as the number of employees increased.
- Due to a labour shortage, millions of people migrated from Europe to America and Australia throughout the nineteenth century in search of a better life.
- Money flooded in from financial centres such as London.
- A global agricultural economy had emerged by 1890. Food was occasionally delivered thousands of kilometres by train or sea.
- West Punjab has seen some changes as a result of the abolition of maize restrictions.
- British authorities in India created an irrigation system for growing wheat and cotton for export, transforming Punjab into a lush agricultural area.
Regional commodities changed at such a rapid pace that worldwide commerce increased by 25 to 40 times between 1820 and 1914. Approximately 60% of this commerce was made up of primary crops like wheat and cotton, as well as minerals like coal.
Role of Technology in 19th Century World
Railways, steamships, and the telegraph, among other new technology, had a significant influence on the growth of the 19th-century globe. Faster railways, lighter waggons, and larger ships made it feasible to move food more cheaply and rapidly from distant fields in America, Australia, or New Zealand to Europe’s ultimate markets.
Role of Technology in Meat Transportation
Before the 1870s, animals were transported from America to Europe alive and then killed upon arrival. Live animals took up a lot of room on the ship, and many died, grew ill, or were rendered unsuitable during the journey. The development of refrigerated ships helps in the delivery of perishable food across large distances significantly.
Many European countries received frozen beef from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The use of technology in meat transportation lowered both meat prices and shipping expenses in the European market. Meat (and occasionally butter and eggs) became a staple diet for the impoverished. Their better living circumstances contributed to internal social harmony and colonial support for imperialism.
Colonialism in the Late 19th Century
Trade flourished and marketplaces grew in the late nineteenth century. The nineteenth-century European invasion caused various unfavourable economic, social, and environmental consequences in colonised nations. Trade growth has resulted in the loss of freedoms and livelihoods in many places of the world. Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and, eventually, the United States of America were colonial powers.
Rinderpest or the Cattle Plague
A quickly spreading illness known as cow plague or rinderpest killed off a large number of cattle in Africa in the 1890s. The epidemic swept over Africa like wildfire, destroying 90% of the animals. In the late 1800s, Europeans landed in Africa to establish plantations and mines.
Indentured Labour Migration from India
A bonded labourer who has promised to work for an employer for a specific amount of time in order to pay for his journey to a new country or home is referred to as indentured labour. Throughout the nineteenth century, thousands of Indian and Chinese indentured labourers were shipped around the world to work on plantations, mines, and numerous construction projects. The modern states of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Central India, and Tamil Nadu provided the majority of Indian indentured labourers. In the mid-nineteenth century, cottage businesses failed, land rents rose, and lands were cleared for mining and plantations in numerous Indian regions. All of these issues drove the poor to migrate in quest of jobs.
Destinations of Indian-Indentured Migrants
For Indian indentured migrants, the Caribbean islands, notably Trinidad, Guyana, and Surinam, as well as Mauritius and Fiji, were preferred destinations. Tamils sought refuge in Ceylon and Malaya.
The Condition of Indentured Labourer
- Employers used agents who were paid a small commission to find indentured servants.
- Agents recruited indentured labourers by promising them better living circumstances, more money, and other perks.
- But, when they got in the plantations, they faced harsh labour conditions.
Changes in Cultural Scene in the 19th Century
In the eighteenth century, indenture was viewed as a “new system of slavery.” Despite the harsh living and working conditions, employees invented their own survival strategies. They invented new types of festivals and other forms of amusement by combining their various cultural customs. Riotous Carnival (Hosay) in Trinidad, Jamaican artist Bob Marley’s protest religion of Rastafarianism, and Trinidad and Guyana Chutney music are all examples of cultural fusion.
Descendants of Indentured Labourers
Many indentured labourers became permanent residents of the countries where their contracts had expired. As a result, these countries have substantial populations of Indian descent. Nobel laureates like VS Naipaul, as well as prominent West Indian cricketers like Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, are descended from Indian indentured labourers. The institution of indentured labour was abolished in 1921.
Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad
Indian bankers were among the several groups of bankers and dealers that supported export agriculture in Central and South-East Asia. Shikaripuri Shroffs and Nattukottai Chettiars were two well-known Indian bankers.
Indian traders and moneylenders travelled to Africa with European colonists. Hyderabadi Sindhi businessmen built booming businesses at world-famous ports. Visitors were usually offered local and foreign trinkets (rare objects).
Indian Trade, Colonialism and the Global System
Exquisite Indian cotton was exported across Europe. With the advent of industrialization, British cotton producers began to grow. Industrialists put pressure on the government to limit cotton imports from India and preserve domestic industry. As a result, the supply of quality Indian cotton in Britain began to dwindle.
Indian Trade and Colonialism
- The British government imposed heavy levies on cotton textile imports.
- Beginning in the early nineteenth century, British producers began to look for abroad markets for their fabric. As a result, the Indian textile sector suffered. Indian textiles were up against severe competition in other foreign markets.
- As a result, India’s proportion in global cotton textile exports fell from 30% in 1800 to 3% in 1870.
- When manufacturing exports fell, raw material exports climbed at a same rate. From 1812 and 1871, raw cotton exports climbed from 5% to 35% of total exports.
- The Brits pushed Indian farmers to grow indigo and opium. Indigo, which was used to colour textiles, was sold to the United Kingdom.
- Opium produced in India was sold to China beginning in 1820. The proceeds from opium sales were utilised by Britain to support tea and other Chinese imports.
Trade Relationship Between India and Britain
Throughout the nineteenth century, British manufacturers were abundant in the Indian market. Food grains and raw commodities exported from India to the United Kingdom rose.
British exports to India were far greater in value than British imports from India. Consequently, Britain had a trade surplus with India, which it utilised to offset its trade deficits with other countries.
Britain’s trade surplus contributed to the payment of home costs, which included private remittances from British officials and businessmen, interest payments on foreign debt, and pensions for British officials in India.
The Inter-war Economy
The First World War (1914-18) was fought mostly in Europe, but it had a global influence. The Great War was fought between two opposing power blocs. The Allies (Britain, France, and Russia) were on one side, and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Ottoman Turkey) were on the other.
The world’s main industrial countries entered the conflict and attempted to destroy their adversaries as much as possible. The First World War was the first industrial conflict in history. For the first time, modern weaponry like machine guns, tanks, aeroplanes, and chemical weapons was deployed in large numbers.
Impacts of the First World War.
- 9 million people were killed and 20 million were injured throughout the war.
- Family revenues also fell owing to the loss or injury of the family’s earning members, and women were forced to work.
- Britain borrowed significant sums of money from both US banks and the American public. As a result, the United States went from being an international debtor to an international creditor.
Post-War Recovery
Recovery from the war was challenging. Following the conflict. Britain struggled to reclaim its former supremacy in the Indian market and compete globally with Japan. Britain was in the grip of an economic crisis and was saddled with massive external obligations. As a result, many British labourers were out of employment in 1921.
Wheat shipments from Eastern Europe were hampered during the war, causing wheat output in Canada to suffer. America and Australia grew. Following the war, production in Eastern Europe resumed, resulting in a glut of wheat output. Grain prices decreased, rural incomes fell, and farmers became farther in debt.
Rise of Mass Production and consumption
After a brief period of economic difficulty, the American economy recovered its vigour in the early 1920s. Around that time, mass manufacturing became a distinguishing feature of industrial production in the United States.
First Mass Production of Cars
Henry Ford transferred the ‘assembly line’ technology of a Chicago abattoir to his new Detroit automobile production. He realised that this strategy would allow for more efficient and cost-effective car production. This assembly line system required workers to automatically and constantly repeat a single operation prescribed by the conveyor belt.
As a result, Henry Ford’s automobiles were produced at three-minute intervals. The Ford T-Model was the world’s first mass-produced automobile.
Ford paid high compensation to employees to perform boring activities, but this expense was offset by speedier output. Automobile manufacturing in the United States increased from 2 million in 1919 to over 5 million in 1929. The use of mass manufacturing reduced the cost and price of technological items such as refrigerators, washing machines, radios, record players, and so on.
The expansion in housing and consumer spending generated opportunities for a huge number of jobs and earnings in the United States, and as a result, it became the largest foreign lender.
The Great Depression
The Great Depression lasted from roughly 1929 through the mid-1930s. During this time, the majority of the world’s economies witnessed catastrophic decreases in output, employment, income, and trade. The agriculture industry, in general, suffered the most.
Factors Responsible for Depression
The depression was caused by a mix of causes. First Overproduction in agriculture remained an issue. This resulted in lower agricultural product prices. Farmers attempted to increase output by bringing more products to market in order to retain their total revenue. Nonetheless, this reduced the market price of agricultural products even further.
Second In the mid-1920s, numerous countries financed their investments with loans from the United States. All loans to European nations were halted by US investors. It resulted in the downfall of some large banks and the collapse of currencies such as the pound sterling in Europe.
The downturn had a significant impact on the United States, as banks reduced domestic lending and called back loans. Farmers were unable to sell their harvests, and families were unable to sell theirs.
India and the Great Depression
Between 1928 and 1934, India’s exports and imports plummeted by half (50%) as a result of the Great Depression, and prices for primary items such as wheat and jute fell precipitously. When the colonial authorities refused to cut income expectations, the peasants bore the brunt of the consequences.
India began to export precious metals, mainly gold, during this period. It benefited global economic recovery and hastened Britain’s recovery, but it did not help Indian peasants improve their lot in life. The situation in India has deteriorated. People with fixed incomes are less affected by the downfall of the wealthy. In response to the Great Depression, Mahatma Gandhi launched the Civil Disobedience Campaign in 1931.
Rebuilding a World Economy: The Post-War Era
The Second World War caused enormous human and economic destruction. It erupted two decades after the First World War (1939-45). It was fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers (Nazi Germany, Japan, and Italy) (Britain, France, Soviet Union and the USA). This conflict killed at least 60 million people (about 3% of the world’s population in 1939) and wounded millions more.
Post-War Reconstruction
Because the war-damaged large portions of Europe and Asia and destroyed major cities, rehabilitation became a lengthy and tough undertaking. Two major forces affected postwar rebuilding.
(i) In the Western world, the United States emerged as the dominating political, economic, and military force.
(ii) The Soviet Union became a superpower. It overthrew Nazi Germany. It evolved from an agrarian country to a world power. The Soviet Union posed a significant challenge to the capitalist economy as the head of the Communist bloc.
Post-War Settlement and the Bretton Woods Institutions
Economists and policymakers drew two fundamental lessons from the interwar economic experience. These were the
(i) The first lesson was that a mass-production industrial civilization required mass consumption. A high and consistent income was required for mass consumption. Steady income necessitated consistent and full-time work, for which the government should take the necessary efforts.
(ii)The second lesson dealt with a country’s economic ties to other countries. Full employment could only be attained if the government had the ability to control the movements of goods, capital, and labour.
The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, convened in July 1944 in Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA, backed it up.
Establishment of IMF and World Bank
The Bretton Woods Conference created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cope with its member countries’ external surpluses and deficits.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (abbreviated as the World Bank) was established to finance postwar reconstruction. The Bretton Woods Institutions, or Bretton Woods twins, are the IMF and World Bank.
They oversaw financial operations in 1947, and Western industrial powers dominated decision-making in these Constitutions. The International Monetary System connects national currencies to the monetary system. National currencies under this arrangement followed fixed exchange rates and were pegged to the US dollar.
The Early Post-War Years
The Bretton Woods System marked the beginning of a period of steady expansion in trade and wealth for the Western industrial nations and Japan. Between 1950 and 1970, global commerce increased by more than 8% per year, while income increased by roughly 5%. Most industrial countries had unemployment rates of less than 5% during this time period. The developing world was eager to catch up with the leading industrial countries.
Decolonisation and Independence
Several countries remained under European colonial administration after World War II. Over the next two decades, most Asian and African colonies gained independence and became sovereign states. Yet, independence did not provide these countries with freedom from poverty or a scarcity of resources.
Long years of colonial domination harmed their economy and civilizations greatly. The IMF and World Bank were created to satisfy the financial demands of industrialised nations. But, as Europe and Japan rebuilt their economies, they were less reliant on the IMF and World Bank. As a result, beginning in the late 1950s, the Bretton Woods Institutions began to shift their focus more towards emerging countries.
Condition of Developing Nations
- Newly independent countries attempted to bring their people out of poverty. Yet, even after many years of decolonisation, they are still governed by international agencies dominated by former colonial countries such as the United States and France.
- Most developing nations did not benefit from the rapid expansion that Western economies saw in the 1950s and 1960s. As a result, they formed the Group of 77 (or G-77) countries to seek a New International Economic Order (NIEO).
- The NIEO referred to a system that would provide them with information.
- They have total control over their natural resources.
- Increased development aid,
- Fairer raw material prices
- Greater access to markets for their manufactured items in wealthy countries.
End of Bretton Woods and the Beginning of ‘Globalisation’
The escalating expense of the United States’ international participation undermined its finances and competitiveness beginning in the 1960s. The US dollar’s worth in respect to gold could not be sustained. This finally led to the collapse of the fixed exchange rate system and the establishment of a floating exchange rate system.
Change in International Financial System
The international financial system shifted in the mid-1970s. Following that, developing nations were compelled to borrow from Western commercial banks and private lending institutions.
This shift resulted in recurring financial crises, unemployment, decreased earnings, and rising poverty in Africa, Latin America, and the rest of the world. MNCs began shifting industrial operations to low-wage Asian nations in the late 1970s.
New Economic Policy in China
Since its revolution in 1949, China has been walled off from the postwar international economy. Nevertheless, new economic policies in China, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union and Soviet-style communism in Eastern Europe, reintegrated numerous nations into the global economy.
Salaries in nations such as China were relatively low. As a result, they became appealing investment sites for International MNCs. Countries such as China, India, and Brazil have experienced significant economic expansion during the previous two decades.
