The Making of a Global World

The Making of a Global World

Only the first part of this chapter, the pre-modern world, is examined in the board: silk routes, food travels, conquest, disease and trade. It carried 3 marks in the 2026-27 sample paper and in February 2026, and 2 marks in May 2026. The History 2-mark question (Q5) came from this chapter in all three papers, and a 1-mark MCQ often joins it (statements on the silk routes, reasons for going to America).

Marks are most often lost by writing about the nineteenth century (which is not in the board syllabus), by giving one example where two are asked, by calling chillies or groundnuts Indian crops, and by vague points with no place, crop or date.

Revise in 5 Minutes

Dates to fix

Foods on the move

• From China westwards (believed): noodles, which may have become spaghetti; or Arab traders took pasta to Sicily.
• From the Americas after 1492: potato, maize, tomato, chillies, groundnut, sweet potato.
• To the Americas: sugarcane, grown on plantations.

Terms: silk routes, cowries (Maldives shells used as money), oasis town, El Dorado, plantation, 'discovery'.

Causes and effects

• Silk routes → silk, pottery and spices go west; gold and silver come east; Buddhism, Christianity and Islam spread.
• Potato → Europe's poor eat better and live longer → Ireland depends on it → 1845 disease → famine.
• Silver from Peru and Mexico → Europe richer → pays for Asian goods.
• Plantations in the Americas → sugar and cotton for Europe, worked by enslaved Africans.
• Poverty and hunger, crowded cities where deadly diseases were widespread, and religious persecution → thousands of Europeans leave for America.
• Conquest of the Americas: Europeans unknowingly carried diseases such as smallpox; the local people had no immunity, so epidemics killed very large numbers and weakened resistance, which made the conquest easier.
• China turns inward + the Americas rise → centre of world trade moves to Europe.

Traps

• Stop before 1815: nothing on the nineteenth-century world economy is examined. The Irish famine of the 1840s is the one later event kept in the board part, as the result of Europe's dependence on the potato.
• Chillies, groundnuts, tomatoes and potatoes are American crops, not native to India or Europe.
• Columbus was looking for a sea route to Asia; Spain, not Portugal, paid for his voyage.
• El Dorado was a legend; the real silver came from mines in Peru and Mexico.

How to use this page: try each question on paper first, then read the answer. The marks against each step show what an examiner looks for. The 1-mark MCQs and Assertion-Reason questions are in the quiz at the end, together with questions that test how well you understand the chapter; every quiz answer comes with its explanation.

Short Answer Questions (2 and 3 Marks)

Question 1 (2 marks)

Cowrie shells gathered in the Maldives have turned up in China and on the east coast of Africa. What two things does this tell us about the pre-modern world?

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Sea trade across the Indian Ocean linked the Maldives with lands thousands of kilometres away, long before modern times.
2. Cowries were used as money in many regions, so distant peoples shared a common way of paying.

Marking scheme:

1. Sea trade across the Indian Ocean linked small islands with lands thousands of kilometres away, long before modern times. — 1 mark
2. Cowries were accepted as money in many regions, so far-off peoples shared a common way of paying. — 1 mark

Question 2 (2 marks)

Why did oasis towns grow into busy centres along the land routes of Asia? Give two reasons.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Water, food and rest could be found only at oases, so every caravan crossing the desert stopped there.
2. Traders from many lands met there to buy and sell, so these towns became big markets where ideas also mixed.

Marking scheme:

1. In the deserts, water, food and rest were found only at oases, so every caravan had to stop there. — 1 mark
2. Merchants from many lands met there to buy, sell and exchange goods, so the towns became big markets where ideas and languages also mixed. — 1 mark

Question 3 (3 marks)

Journeys in the pre-modern world were slow and risky, yet people travelled great distances. Explain three reasons for which they travelled, with an example of each.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Trade: merchants went far to make a profit, like the caravans that carried silk and spices on the silk routes.
2. Knowledge: the Chinese monk Xuanzang came to India in the seventh century to study Buddhist texts.
3. Faith: pilgrims went to holy places, like Muslims travelling to Mecca for the Haj.

Marking scheme:

1. Trade and work: merchants went far for profit, for example caravans on the silk routes carrying silk and spices. — 1 mark
2. Knowledge: the Chinese monk Xuanzang came to India in the seventh century to study Buddhist texts. — 1 mark
3. Faith: pilgrims journeyed to holy places, for example Muslims going to Mecca for the Haj. (Also accept: escape from persecution, or work, with a fitting example. Any three reasons.) — 1 mark

Question 4 (3 marks)

Until the nineteenth century, thousands of Europeans left their homes for America. Explain three conditions in Europe that pushed them to go.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Poverty and hunger: many families did not have enough land or work to feed themselves.
2. Crowded cities: towns were packed with people, and deadly diseases were widespread there.
3. Religious persecution: people who disagreed with the official church were punished, so they wanted a place where they could worship freely.

Marking scheme:

1. Poverty and hunger: many families had too little land or work to feed themselves. — 1 mark
2. Crowded cities: towns were packed with people, and deadly diseases were widespread in them. — 1 mark
3. Religious persecution: people who disagreed with the official church were punished, so they looked for a place where they could worship freely. (Also accept: hope of land and a better life.) — 1 mark

Question 5 (2 marks)

Until well into the eighteenth century, European traders paid for much of what they bought in Asia with gold and silver. What does this show about India and China at that time? Give two points.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. India and China made goods the world wanted, like silk, porcelain, cotton cloth and spices, so they were among the richest lands.
2. They needed little that Europe made, so Europe had to pay in gold and silver.

Marking scheme:

1. They made goods the world wanted, such as silk, porcelain, fine cotton cloth and spices, so they were among the richest lands and led Asian trade. — 1 mark
2. They needed little that Europe produced, so Europe had to pay in precious metals instead of its own goods. — 1 mark

Question 6 (2 marks)

Why was the Indian subcontinent an important meeting point in the trade networks of the pre-modern world? Give two reasons.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. India lies midway on the Indian Ocean routes between East Asia and West Asia and Africa, so ships stopped at its ports.
2. Its fine cotton cloth and pepper were in demand in distant lands.

Marking scheme:

1. Location: it lies midway on the Indian Ocean routes between East Asia and West Asia and East Africa, so ships stopped at its ports. — 1 mark
2. Goods: its fine cotton cloth and spices such as pepper were wanted in distant lands. (Also accept: very old links, such as Indus valley trade with West Asia.) — 1 mark

Question 7 (2 marks)

El Dorado never existed, yet the stories about it shaped the history of South America. Explain with two points.

Answer.

Model answer:

1. The hope of finding a city of gold sent one European expedition after another deep into South America.
2. These journeys brought more of the continent under European control and opened it up for settlers.

Marking scheme:

1. The hope of finding a city of gold drew one European expedition after another deep into South America. — 1 mark
2. These journeys brought more and more of the continent under European control and opened it up for settlement. — 1 mark

Long Answer and Case-Based Questions

Question 8 (4 marks)

Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow.

Gallery 4: Things That Travelled (a museum label, created for academic use)

Look closely at the four objects in this case. None of them was found where it was made.

The glass bowl on the left was blown in a workshop of the Roman world, but it was dug up from a tomb in China. Beside it lies a scrap of Chinese silk, recovered from the ruins of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. The small heap of black peppercorns grew on India's Malabar coast; archaeologists found them at an old port on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, where they had arrived by ship. Last comes a stone Buddha from Gandhara, in the north-west of the subcontinent. His robe falls in deep folds, much like the clothes on Greek statues.

No single trader carried any of these things the whole way. Each passed through many hands, along caravan tracks and sea lanes, over months or even years. Together they show that ideas and styles moved along these routes as surely as goods did.

(a) How did the peppercorns reach the coast of Egypt? (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

By ship, across the sea from India's Malabar coast.

Marking scheme:

1. By ship, across the sea from India's Malabar coast. — 1 mark

(b) The spread of which religion does the Gandhara statue show? (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

Buddhism.

Marking scheme:

1. Buddhism. — 1 mark

(c) Evaluate how objects like these help historians to study the silk routes. Give two points. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. A thing found far from where it was made proves that goods travelled, and shows which way they went.
2. Objects like the Gandhara Buddha show ideas and art styles mixing, even where no written record has survived.

Marking scheme:

1. An object found far from where it was made proves that goods really travelled, and shows the direction and route they took. — 1 mark
2. Objects like the Gandhara Buddha show ideas and art styles mixing, which fills gaps where no written record survives. (Accept any sound point.) — 1 mark

OR

(c) The pepper travelled by sea. Explain two advantages the sea lanes had over the land routes. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. A ship carried much more, and heavier, cargo than a camel caravan, so moving each item cost less.
2. Ships avoided deserts, mountain passes and the tolls charged on land, and the monsoon winds made voyages regular.

Marking scheme:

1. A ship could carry far more, and heavier, cargo than a camel caravan, so each item cost less to move. — 1 mark
2. Ships avoided deserts, mountain passes and the many toll-collectors on land, and the monsoon winds made crossings regular. (Any two.) — 1 mark

Question 9 (4 marks)

Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow.

A Crop from the Andes

The potato was first grown by farmers high in the Andes of South America. After the Spanish reached that region in the sixteenth century, sailors carried it across the Atlantic. Many Europeans at first distrusted this odd-looking food, yet within two centuries it was feeding millions of them.

Nowhere did people lean on it more than in Ireland. Most poor families there rented tiny plots of land. They grew potatoes to eat and sold almost everything else they produced to pay the rent. In 1845 a plant disease that rotted the potatoes in the ground appeared in Irish fields, and it came back in the years that followed. By the time the famine ended, around a million people had died of hunger and disease, and at least as many had left the island, most of them for America.

(a) In which year did the potato disease first appear in Ireland? (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

In 1845.

Marking scheme:

1. The year 1845. — 1 mark

(b) Why did poor families in Ireland depend so heavily on the potato? (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

They had only tiny rented plots. Potatoes fed the family, and everything else had to be sold to pay the rent.

Marking scheme:

1. They had only tiny rented plots; potatoes fed the family, and the rest of the produce had to be sold to pay the rent. — 1 mark

(c) What does the Irish famine teach us about depending on a single food crop? Explain two lessons. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. If one crop fails because of disease or bad weather, people are left with nothing to eat, so it is safer to grow many crops.
2. The poor, who have no land or savings, suffer the most, so food stores and quick relief are needed when a harvest fails.

Marking scheme:

1. If that one crop fails through disease or bad weather, people have nothing else to eat, so farmers should grow a mix of crops. — 1 mark
2. The poorest, with no land or savings, suffer most, so food stores and quick relief for the poor are needed when a harvest fails. (Accept any sound lesson.) — 1 mark

OR

(c) Apart from deaths from hunger, explain two effects of the famine on the people of Ireland. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Very many people left Ireland to escape hunger, most of them for America.
2. Ireland's population fell sharply, and many villages and families were broken up.

Marking scheme:

1. Mass emigration: a very large number of people left Ireland, most of them for America. — 1 mark
2. Ireland's population fell sharply, and many villages and families were broken up. (Also accept: many died of diseases that spread among the hungry.) — 1 mark

Question 10 (4 marks)

Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow.

A New World for Some

In 1492 three small ships under Christopher Columbus, sailing for the rulers of Spain, reached islands in the Caribbean. Columbus believed he had found a western route to Asia. In fact he had come to lands whose peoples had had no regular contact with Asia, Africa or Europe for a very long time.

Over the next hundred years Spain and Portugal claimed huge parts of these lands. Soldiers and settlers took over the land, and silver from mines in present-day Peru and Mexico filled European ships. Settlers soon found another source of profit. The warm, rainy lands of the Caribbean islands and Brazil suited sugarcane, and later cotton. These crops were grown on large estates called plantations, and the hard work in the fields was done by enslaved Africans brought across the Atlantic in chains. The sugar and cotton were sold in the markets of Europe.

(a) Name the two crops grown on the plantations mentioned in the source. (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

Sugarcane and cotton.

Marking scheme:

1. Sugarcane and cotton. — 1 mark

(b) (From your own knowledge) Apart from the strength of their armies, what made the European conquest of the Americas easier? (1 mark)

Answer.

Model answer:

Europeans unknowingly carried diseases such as smallpox. The people of the Americas had no immunity to them, so epidemics killed very large numbers and weakened their resistance, which made the conquest easier.

Marking scheme:

1. Europeans unknowingly carried diseases such as smallpox; the people of the Americas had no immunity, so epidemics killed very large numbers and weakened their resistance. — 1 mark

(c) Evaluate why the planters used enslaved Africans to work on the plantations. Give two points. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Sugarcane and cotton needed huge numbers of workers for hard field work, and few free workers would do it.
2. Enslaved people got no wages and could be forced to work, so costs stayed low and profits high.

Marking scheme:

1. Sugarcane and cotton needed very large numbers of workers for hard field work, and few free labourers were willing to do it. — 1 mark
2. Enslaved people were paid no wages and could be forced to work, so the planters' costs stayed low and profits high. — 1 mark

OR

(c) Why did Europeans grow sugarcane and cotton on plantations in the Americas rather than in Europe? Give two reasons. (2 marks)

Answer.

Model answer:

1. Sugarcane and cotton need a hot, wet climate, which the Caribbean and Brazil had but most of Europe lacked.
2. The Americas had vast areas of fertile land that Europeans had seized, while land in Europe was scarce and already farmed.

Marking scheme:

1. These crops need a hot, wet climate, which the Caribbean and Brazil had but most of Europe did not. — 1 mark
2. The Americas offered vast stretches of fertile land that Europeans had taken over, while land in Europe was scarce and already farmed. — 1 mark