CBSE NCERT Class IX (9th) | Social Studies | History
CHAPTER 6 PEASANTS AND FARMERS
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS [3 MARKS]
Q.1. Why were the poor farmers of England against the threshing machines? What was theCaptain Swing Movement Ans. The poor farmers felt the threshing machines would replace people, would deprive them of their livelihood and render them jobless. Captain Swing was a mythical name used in threatening letters, written by workmen against the use of threshing machines by rich farmers
Q2. Define the following:
(a) Agriculture (b) Enclosure (c) Commons
Ans. Agriculture: It is the science or practice of farming, i.e. cultivating land for growing crops; keeping animals.
Enclosure: Enclosing land by building hedges around their holdings to separate their land-holdings from that of others is called Enclosure. This deprived poor farmers of using the commons.
Commons: It was land which belonged to the villagers as a whole. Here they pastured their cows and grazed their sheep, collected fuel wood, fruit and berries. They fished in the rivers and ponds and hunted rabbits in the common forests.
Q.3. ‘Over the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the English countryside changeddramatically.’ Explain.
Ans.1. Over the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the English countryside changed dramatically.
2. Before this time, in large parts of England the countryside was open. It was not partitioned into enclosed lands privately owned by landlords. It was all open fields and common lands.
3. After the mid-eighteenth century the Enclosure Movement swept through the countryside, changing the English landscape forever. Between 1750 and 1850, 6 million acres of land was enclosed.
Q.4. Why were the Manchus unwilling to allow the entry of foreign goods into China?
Ans. The Confucian rulers of China were suspicious of all foreign merchants. They felt that these foreigners would meddle in local politics and disrupt their authority.
Q.5. Explain three factors which led to the Enclosure Movement in England after theMid-eighteenth century Ans. The factors which led to the Enclosure Movement in England were:
(1) Rapid expansion of population from 7 million in 1750 to 21 million in 1850 and 30 million in 1900.
(2) Increased demand for food grains to feed the growing population.
(3)War with France disrupted trade and import of food grains from Europe. Prices in England skyrocketed, encouraging landowners to enclose lands and enlarge the area under grain cultivation. Profits flowed in and landowners pressurised the parliament to pass the Enclosure Acts.
Q.6. Discuss why the British Parliament passed the Enclosure Acts
Ans.1. Till the middle of the eighteenth century the Enclosure Movement proceeded very slowly. The early enclosures were usually created by individual landlords.
2.They were not supported by the state or the Church. After the mid-eighteenth century, however, the Enclosure Movement swept through the countryside, changing the English landscape forever. Between 1750 and 1850,3.6 million acres of land was enclosed. The British Parliament no longer watched this progress from a distance. It passed 4,000 Acts legalising these Enclosures.
Q.7. what was the effect of Enclosure Movement on landlords of England?
Ans. The Enclosure Movement was instrumental in making the rich landlords richer by filling. Due to it, the landlords brought various changes in agricultural methods and technology. The richer farmers expanded grain production, sold this grain in the world market, made profits and became powerful. The poor farmers sold their small land pieces to richer farmers. They left the villages.
Q.8. Enclosure filled the pockets of landlords. What happened to the poor persons who depended on the commons for their survival? Ans. Enclosures filled the pockets of the rich landlords. When fences came up the enclosed land become the property of one landowner. The poor could no longer collect apples and berries or hunt small animals for meat, nor could they gather the stalkes that lay on the fields after the crop was cut. Everything belonged to the land- lord, everything had a price which the poor could not afford to pay. The poor were displaced from the land. They tramped in search of work.From Midlands they moved to the southern countries of England.
Q.9. Explain three reasons for Captain Swing riots in English countryside.
Ans.1. Modern agriculture in England: Use of threshing machines deprived workmen of their livelihood.
2. Enclosures: These deprived the poor of the use of the commons which was essential for their survival. The Enclosures barred them from pasteurising their cows
3. Collecting fruits and berries, fuel wood, hunting small animals for food etc., cutting of wages bylandlords and cutting down of workmen.
All these factors prompted/induced the poor to start the Captain Swing riots.
Q.10. Discuss the effect of Agricultural Revolution on different sections of people in EnglishCountryside
Ans. 1.The coming of modern agriculture in England led to many different changes. The open fields disappeared, and the customary rights of peasants were undermined.
2. The richer farmers expanded grain production, sold this grain in the world market, made profits, and became powerful.
3. The poor left their villages in large numbers. Some went from Midlands to the southern countries where jobs were available, others to the cities. The income of labourers became unstable, their jobs insecure, their livelihoods precarious.
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS [5 MARKS]
Q.1. Discuss the factors that precipitated the Agricultural Depression. What were the consequences of this Depression?
An1. after the Napoleonic wars had ended, thousands of soldiers returned to the villages. They needed alternative jobs to survive.
2.But this was a time when grain from Europe began flowing into England, prices declined and an Agricultural Depression set in. Anxious landowners began reducing the area they cultivated and demanded that the exports of crops be stopped 3.They tried to cut wages and the number of workmen they employed. The unemployed poor tramped from village to village, and those with uncertain jobs lived in fear of a loss of their livelihood.
4.The Captain Swing riots spread in the countryside at this time. For the poor, the threshing machines had become sign of bad times.
Q.2. Why did the farmers feel the need to introduce mechanisation in agriculture during the Napoleonic wars?
Ans. During the Napoleonic wars, prices of food grains were high and farmers expanded production vigorously. Fearing a shortage of labour, they began buying the new threshing machines that had come into the market. They complained of the insolvency of labourers, their drinking habits and the difficulty of making them work. The machines, they thought, would help them reduce their dependence on labourers.
Q.3. Discuss the westward expansion of the white settlers in America.
Ans. The story of agrarian expansion is closely connected to the westward movement of the white settlers who took over the land. After the American War of Independence from 1775 to 1783 and the formation of the United States of America, the white Americans began to move westward. By the time Thomas Jefferson became the President of the USA in 1800, over
700,000 white settlers had moved into Appalachian plateau through the passes.
Q.4. What were the problems associated with wheat expansion in USA? Discuss with special reference to mechanisation and ‘dust bowl’.
Ans.1. In the late 19th century, there was a great expansion of wheat cultivation in the USA. With an increase in population. The expansion was made possible by new technology.
2. Implements and tools were modified to suit their needs. Now farmers were using tractors and disk ploughs to clear land for cultivation.
3. Mechanical reapers were used to reap and cut harvest. By the early 20th century, combined harvesters were being used to cut grain.
4. Now with power-driven machinery large tracts of land could be ploughed, seeded, harvested within a short time. But there were problems. Poor farmers were hard to pay the taxes. They could not buy these machines. The bank offered loans but most and they could not repay these loans. Many of them left their farms in search of a job. In addition, terrifying dust storms began to blow, blinding the people, choking the cattle, covering fields, rivers, and machines with dust. This was because the entire area had been ploughed and stripped of grass whose roots could have bounded the soil.
Q.5. Which system was introduced by the British to make the unwilling cultivators produce opium? How did this system work? Discuss with special reference to it being a drawback for the peasants.
1. Ever had enough to survive. It was difficult for them to pay rent to the landlord or to buy food and clothing
2. The government's opium agents advanced money to them through the headmen of their village.
3. They felt tempted to accept it, hoping to meet their immediate needs and pay back the loan at a later date, but the loan paid by the peasants to the headmen and through him to the government.
4. By taking the loan the cultivator was forced to grow opium on a specified area of land and hand over the produce to the agents once the crop had been harvested.
Q.1. ‘The history of opium production in India was linked up with the story of British trade with China.’ Elaborate.
Ans. 1.The history of opium production in India was linked up with the story of British trade with China. The English East India Company was buying tea and silk from China for sale i England. As tea became a popular English drink, tea trade became more and more important. This created a problem.
2. England at this time was producing nothing that could easily be sold in China. How to finance the tea trade? They searched for such a commodity. The Portuguese had introduced opium into China.
3. Western merchants began an illegal trade in opium. While the English cultivated a taste forChinese tea, the Chinese became addicted to opium.
Q.2. Discuss the reasons for the Opium Wars (1837-42).
Ans.1. In 1839, the Chinese Emperor sent Lin-Ze-xu to Canton as a Special Commissioner with instructions to stop the opium trade.
2. After he arrived in Canton in the spring of 1839, Lin arrested 1,600 men involved in the trade and confiscated 11,000 pounds of opium
3. He forced the factories to hand over their stocks of opium, burnt 20,000 crates of opium and blew the ashes to the wind.
4. When he announced that Canton was closed to foreign trade Britain declared war. Defeated in the Opium War (1837– 42)
5. The Chinese were forced to accept the humiliating terms of the subsequent treaties, legalising opium trade and opening up China to foreign merchants.
Q.3. ‘The conflict between the British government, peasants and local traders continued as long as opium production lasted.’ Elaborate.
Ans.1. By 1773, the British Government in Bengal had established a monopoly to trade in opium. No one else was legally permitted to trade in the product.
2. By the 1820s, the British taxed opium production in their territories to make it declining, but it was increasing outside British territories, especially in central India and Rajasthan within princely states, which are not under direct British control.
3. The British tried to stop it. It instructed its agents in princely states to confiscate all opium and destroy the crops. This conflict between the British Government, peasants and local traders continued as long as opium production lasted.