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MCQs — The Making of a Global World

Chapter 3 · Class 10 History

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Practice MCQs (15) — with Explanations

Each MCQ matches real UPSC/State PSC difficulty. Click 'Show answer' to reveal — try answering first.

  1. Coastal trade between the Indus Valley civilisations and West Asia is recorded from approximately which date?

    1. A. 3000 BCE
    2. B. 1500 BCE
    3. C. 500 BCE
    4. D. 1000 CE
    Show answer

    Correct: 3000 BCE

    Explanation: The chapter opens by stressing that globalisation isn't recent. Indus Valley contacts with West Asia push the timeline back five thousand years. UPSC favours such dated openings as factual anchors.

    Source (NCERT): "As early as 3000 BCE an active coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilisations with present-day West Asia."

  2. Cowries used as a form of currency in pre-modern Asian and African trade originated from which region?

    1. A. The Maldives
    2. B. Ceylon
    3. C. Madagascar
    4. D. Zanzibar
    Show answer

    Correct: The Maldives

    Explanation: Cowrie shells (Hindi 'cowdi') from the Maldives moved as far as China and East Africa for more than a thousand years. A classic distractor would be Ceylon or Zanzibar — both wrong.

    Source (NCERT): "cowries (the Hindi cowdi or seashells, used as a form of currency) from the Maldives found their way to China and East Africa."

  3. What was the deadliest 'weapon' carried by Spanish conquerors into the Americas in the sixteenth century?

    1. A. Smallpox germs
    2. B. Cannons
    3. C. Muskets
    4. D. Crossbows
    Show answer

    Correct: Smallpox germs

    Explanation: Native Americans had no biological immunity. Smallpox killed entire communities ahead of any European advance — a recurring UPSC theme on biological dimensions of conquest.

    Source (NCERT): "Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer."

  4. The British Corn Laws were repealed primarily because of pressure from which group?

    1. A. Industrialists and urban dwellers
    2. B. Landed aristocracy
    3. C. Colonial administrators
    4. D. Naval officials
    Show answer

    Correct: Industrialists and urban dwellers

    Explanation: High food prices hurt urban consumers and inflated wages for industrialists. Landed groups, by contrast, had pushed for the laws. Repeal opened Britain to cheap imports and hollowed out British agriculture.

    Source (NCERT): "Unhappy with high food prices, industrialists and urban dwellers forced the abolition of the Corn Laws."

  5. Approximately how many Europeans emigrated to America and Australia during the nineteenth century?

    1. A. 50 million
    2. B. 10 million
    3. C. 150 million
    4. D. 5 million
    Show answer

    Correct: 50 million

    Explanation: Frequently confused: 50 million is the European outflow to the Americas and Australia. The 150 million figure refers to total global migration in the same century. Read the question carefully.

    Source (NCERT): "Nearly 50 million people emigrated from Europe to America and Australia in the nineteenth century."

  6. Which technological breakthrough made cheap meat available to European workers from the 1870s?

    1. A. Refrigerated ships
    2. B. Faster railways
    3. C. The telegraph
    4. D. Larger sailing vessels
    Show answer

    Correct: Refrigerated ships

    Explanation: Live animals were expensive to transport. Refrigeration allowed slaughter at the source — America, Australia, New Zealand — and frozen shipment to Europe, lowering prices and improving worker diets.

    Source (NCERT): "Meat was hence an expensive luxury beyond the reach of the European poor."

  7. What proportion of African cattle died during the rinderpest outbreak of the 1890s?

    1. A. 90 per cent
    2. B. 60 per cent
    3. C. 50 per cent
    4. D. 30 per cent
    Show answer

    Correct: 90 per cent

    Explanation: Rinderpest reshaped colonial Africa. With livestock destroyed, Africans were forced into wage labour on European mines and plantations. Mark for prelims: the figure 90 per cent.

    Source (NCERT): "Along the way rinderpest killed 90 per cent of the cattle."

  8. Indentured labour migration from India was officially abolished in which year?

    1. A. 1921
    2. B. 1917
    3. C. 1931
    4. D. 1947
    Show answer

    Correct: 1921

    Explanation: Indian nationalist leaders from the 1900s campaigned against indenture as 'a new system of slavery'. The Government of India ended fresh recruitment in 1921 — a frequent prelims fact.

    Source (NCERT): "It was abolished in 1921."

  9. The 'Hosay' carnival in Trinidad evolved from which Indian religious tradition carried by indentured workers?

    1. A. Muharram procession
    2. B. Diwali
    3. C. Holi
    4. D. Durga Puja
    Show answer

    Correct: Muharram procession

    Explanation: The annual Muharram observance for Imam Hussain became Trinidad's Hosay, joined by workers across races and religions. It's a textbook example of cultural fusion via migration.

    Source (NCERT): "In Trinidad the annual Muharram procession was transformed into a riotous carnival called 'Hosay' (for Imam Hussain)"

  10. Henry Ford doubled the daily wage at his Detroit assembly-line plant to what amount and in which month?

    1. A. $5 in January 1914
    2. B. $3 in June 1913
    3. C. $10 in January 1920
    4. D. $5 in December 1918
    Show answer

    Correct: $5 in January 1914

    Explanation: Workers couldn't take the assembly-line stress and quit in droves. Ford doubled wages in January 1914 and banned trade unions — later calling the wage hike his 'best cost-cutting decision'.

    Source (NCERT): "Ford doubled the daily wage to $5 in January 1914."

  11. By 1933, approximately how many US banks had closed during the Great Depression?

    1. A. Over 4,000
    2. B. Around 1,000
    3. C. About 11,000
    4. D. Around 110
    Show answer

    Correct: Over 4,000

    Explanation: Around 110,000 companies collapsed between 1929 and 1932 — that's the distractor figure. Banks that closed numbered over 4,000 by 1933. Don't confuse the two.

    Source (NCERT): "by 1933 over 4,000 banks had closed and between 1929 and 1932 about 110, 000 companies had collapsed."

  12. By how much did wheat prices in India fall between 1928 and 1934?

    1. A. 50 per cent
    2. B. 25 per cent
    3. C. 60 per cent
    4. D. 75 per cent
    Show answer

    Correct: 50 per cent

    Explanation: International price crashes hit Indian agriculture hard. Wheat fell 50 per cent. Raw jute fell over 60 per cent — that's the distractor here. The colonial state still refused to lower revenue demands.

    Source (NCERT): "Between 1928 and 1934, wheat prices in India fell by 50 per cent."

  13. The Bretton Woods Conference, which created the IMF and the World Bank, was held in which month and year?

    1. A. July 1944
    2. B. August 1945
    3. C. January 1946
    4. D. October 1947
    Show answer

    Correct: July 1944

    Explanation: The conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, met in July 1944. The institutions only began financial operations in 1947 — a common confusion in PSC papers.

    Source (NCERT): "the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA."

  14. Under the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates, the US dollar was pegged to gold at what price?

    1. A. $35 per ounce
    2. B. $20 per ounce
    3. C. $50 per ounce
    4. D. $100 per ounce
    Show answer

    Correct: $35 per ounce

    Explanation: National currencies were pegged to the dollar; the dollar itself was anchored to gold at a fixed $35 per ounce. The system collapsed in the early 1970s when the US could no longer hold this rate.

    Source (NCERT): "The dollar itself was anchored to gold at a fixed price of $35 per ounce of gold."

  15. Developing countries organised themselves as which group to demand a New International Economic Order?

    1. A. The Group of 77 (G-77)
    2. B. The Non-Aligned Movement
    3. C. OPEC
    4. D. The Bandung Bloc
    Show answer

    Correct: The Group of 77 (G-77)

    Explanation: Frequently confused with NAM. The G-77 is specifically the developing countries' bloc demanding fairer raw material prices, more aid and better market access — the NIEO agenda.

    Source (NCERT): "they organised themselves as a group – the Group of 77 (or G-77) – to demand a new international economic order (NIEO)."

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