Haryana State Board HBSE 9th Class Social Science Solutions History Chapter 6 Peasants and Farmers Textbook Exercise Questions and Answers.
Haryana Board 9th Class Social Science Solutions History Chapter 6 Peasants and Farmers
HBSE 9th Class Social Science History Peasants and Farmers TextBook Questions and Answers
Peasants And Farmers Class 9 HBSE History Question 1.
Explain briefly what the open field system meant to rural people in eighteenth-century England. Look at the system from the point of view of:
(i) A rich farmer
(ii) A laborer
(iii) A peasant woman.
Answer:
(i) A Rich Farmer-The open field system, as it prevailed in 18th century England meant for a rich farmer to cultivate on its own allotted strip, everyone having his own, a mix of good and bad land:
(ii) A Labourer-A laborer looked at the open field system as a wage-earner. He would get the value of his labor without being exploited.
(iii) A Peasant Woman-The peasant woman, in the open field system, would help the peasant, worked for him in the household, and collected fuelwood for fire, and. fruit for food.
Peasants And Farmers Class 9 Questions And Answers HBSE History Question 2.
Explain briefly the factors which led to the enclosures in England.
Answer:
The following are some of the factors which led to the enclosures in England.
1. When the price of wool Went up in the world market in the sixteenth century, rich farmers Wanted to expand wool production to earn profits.
2. The rich farmers thought that the improved breeding of sheep would help them earn more profit. So they drought the compact blocks of land were more profitable.
3. Dividing and: enclosing the common land and building hedges around their holdings were measures that made enclosures possible.
4. Rich farmers drove out the poor villagers who had small cottages on the common land, preparing, ground for the enclosures.
Question 3.
Why were the threshing machines opposed by the poor in England?
Answer:
The poor in England were opposed to the use of threshing machines because they would, oust them of their jobs, and create, in the process, unemployment
Question 4.
Who was Captain Swing? What did the name symbolise or represent?
Answer:
Captain Swing was a mythic name. The name symbolised or represented a leader who was opposed to the use of threshing machines, in wheat production. As the threshing machines would throw thousands of poor peasants and labourers out of job, Captain Swing and his rioters used violence to show their anger and opposition for the threshing machines.
Question 5.
What was the impact of the westward Expansion of settlers in the USA ?
Answer:
The impact of the westward expansion of settlers in the USA was very significance. As. the: settlers moved westward, they established control up to the west coast, and in the process, drove and displaced the local tribes, carving the entire landscape into different agricultural belts. As a result of these agricultural belts, the US dominated the world market’in agricultural produce.
Question 6.
What were the advantages and disadvantages of the use of mechanical harvesting machines in the USA ?
Answer:
Advantages:
By the mechanical harvesting machines, used in the USA, about 500 acres of wheat of could b’e harvested in two week’s time. These also helped the farmers to clear large tracts, break up the soil, remove the grass and prepare the ground for cultivation. With power-driven machinery, four men could plough, seed an harvest 2000 to 4000 acres of whea.t in a season,
Disadvantages:
Such machines meant misery for the poorer farmers. The poorer farmers bought these machines on credit; they could not pay back the loan as the prices of the wheat did not rise as they had expected. They had to desert their small farms and looked for jobs elsewhere. Thus, for poorer peasants, these machines were a liability.
Question 7.
What lessons can we draw from the conversion of the countryside in the USA from a bread basket to a dust bowl?
Answer:
The conversion of the countryside in the USA from a bread basket to a dust bowl give us numerous lessons. Some of these are:
- The entire landscape should not have ploughed over. It was precisely this that brought in black blizzards.
- Expansion of wheat production should not have been a ground to uproot all vegetation, breaking thus the sod into dust.
- The ecological conditions should be respected, or else the nature responds, responds very heavily as it did in the US, turning a land of plenty into a nightmare.
Question 8.
Write a paragraph on why the British’insisted on fanners growing opium in India. .
Answer:
Opium trade with China was profitable for the English East India. Such a trade, for the British, meant huge profits. The returns from opium sale, financed the. tea purchases in China. Hence, the British wanted Indian cultivators to grow opium. But it was unprofitable for the cultivators in India to grow opium.
Question 9.
Why wejre the Indian farmers reluctant to grow opium?
Answer:
The prices given to the peasants for the purchase of opium were so low that the peasants thought it unprofitable to grow opium. The colonial government, on the other hand, wanted to give The peasants as minimum as possible and seek as maximum a price as was possible.
HBSE 9th Class Socia Science History Peasants and Farmers Important Questions and Answers
Question 1.
Who were the small cottagers of . England 7
Answer:
Those villagers who worked on the common land to earn their livings and lived in their cottages close to the common land about the 16th
century England were called the small cottagers.
Question 2.
How was the cultivation done in the countryside open system ?
Answer:
Each Villager was allotted a number of strips to cultivate in a public meeting at the beginning of the year.
Question 4.
What made the rich farmers expand their wool production ?
Answer:
The rise in the prices of wool in the world market made the rich farmers expand their wool production.
Question 5.
What did the British Parliament do for legalising the enclosures ?
Answer:
The British Parliament passed about 4000 acts so to legalise the enclosures.
Question 6.
In which areas did the enclosures happen in England?
Answer:
The Midlands and the counties around.
Question 7.
What hardships did the poor face with the coming of the enclosures ? Mention two such hardships?
Answer:
(i) The poor could not collect firewood from, the forests
(ii) They could not graze their cattle on the common land.
Question 8.
Where is the Great Plain located in USA?
Answer:
The Great Plain is located across the River Mississippi.
Question 9.
Who,invented the first mechanical reaper and when?
Answer:
Cyrus McCofmick invented the first mechanical reaper in 1831.
Question 10.
Mention the time of the black bizzard by Western Kansas.
Answer:
April 14,1935:
Question 11.
Mention the two major commercial crops of the early 19th century India.
Answer:
Indigo and opium.
Question 12.
By which year the British government in Bengal had established a monopoly of trade in opium ?
Answer:
By 1773.
Question 13.
Do you think that the history of modernization is all the history of growth and development?
Answer:
The history of modernization is not merely the history of growth and development; it is also the history of displacements and impoverishment.
Question 14.
Why were there the threatening letters around 1830 in England sent to the rich farmers using threshing machines?
Answer:
With the use of threshing machines by the rich farmers in England in course of their agricultural produce, there were threatening letters urging them to stop the use of such machines. The use of such machines deprived workmen of their livelihood. Most of these letters were signed in the name of Captain Swing. Alarmed landlords feared attacks by armed bands at night, many destroyed their own machines.
Question 15.
What was the reaction of the government in England against Swing’s threatening letters ?
Answer:
Captain Swing’s threatening letters to the rich farmers using threshing machines was creating anxiety and alarm. The use of violence and fire was common in England. Either the farmers broke the machines themselves or these were broken. Government swung into action. Those suspected of rioting were rounded up, 1976 prisoners were tried, nine men were hanged, 505 transported and 644 put behind bars.
Question 16.
What makes the period after 1780s different from an earlier period in English history?
Answer:
In earlier times, rapid population growth was not often followed by period of food shortage. The food production in the past did not expand as rapidly as did the population. But in the 19th century, this did not happen in England. Grain production grew as rapidly as did population. Even though the population increased rapidly, in 1868 England was producing 80% of the food it needed. The rest was imported.
Question 17.
How and why the USA became a dust bowl in 1930s?
Answer:
The American dream of a land of plenty turned into a dust bowl in 1930s with duststorms around. In part they came because the early 1930s were years of persistent drought. The rains failed year after year, and temperatures soared. The wind blew with ferocious speed. But ordinary dust storms became black blizzards only because the entire landscape had been ploughed over, stripped of all grass that held it together. When wheat cultivation had expanded dramatically in the early nineteenth century, zealous farmers had recklessly uprooted all vegetation and tractors had turned the soil over, and broken the sod into dust.
Question 18.
Why were English interested in exporting opium in China?
Answer:
As England was a buyer of the Chinese tea, for tea was a popular drink. England wanted to sell some commodity to China so that tea trade could survive without paying cash. The commodity was opium. The illegal trade of opium was flourishing. By early, 1820, about 10,000 crates were being smuggled into China, 15 years later, over 3,5000 crates were being unloaded every year. While the English cultivated a taste for Chinese tea, the Chinese became addicted to opium. People of all classes took to the drugs-shopkeepers and peddlers, officials and army men, aristocrats and paupers. Lin Ze-xu, Special Commissioner at Canton in 1839, estimated that there were over 4 million opium smokers in China.
Question 19.
Why were the farmers interested to enclose the common land in 16th-17th century England?
Answer:
As the price of wool increased in the world market during the 16th-17th centuries rich farmers wanted to expand wool production to earn profits. They were eager to improve their sheep breeds and ensure good feed for them. They were keen on controlling large areas of land in compact blocks to allow improved breeding. So they began dividing and enclosing common land and building hedges,’around their holdings to separate, their property from that of others.
They drove out villagers who had small cottages on the commons, and they prevented to poor from entering the enclosed fields. Till the middle of the eighteenth century the enclosure movement proceeded very slowly. The early, enclosures were usually created by individual landlords. 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 for ever. Between 1750 and 1850, 6 million acres of land was enclosed. The British Parliament no longer watched this process from a distance. It passed 4,000 acts legalising these enclosures.
Question 20.
Explain as to how the story of agrarian expansion in the USA is closely related to the westward movement of the white settlers ?
Answer:
The story of the agrarian expansion in the USA is closely connected with the westward movement of the white settlers. After the American War of Independence form 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 President of the USA in 1800, over 700,000 white settlers had moved on to the Appalachian plateau through the passes. Seen from the east coast, America seemed to be a land of promise. Its wilderness could be turned into cultivated fields. Forest timber could be cut for export, animals hunted for skin, mountains mined for gold and minerals.
But this meant that the American Indians had to be cleared from the land. In the decades after 180.0 the US government committed itself to a policy of driving the American Indians westward, first beyond the river Mississippi, and then further west. Numerous wars were waged in which Indians were massacred and many of their villages burnt. The Indians resisted, won many victories in wars, but were ultimately forced to; sign treaties, give up their land and move westward.
As the Indians retreated; the settlers poured in. They came in successive Waves. They, settled on the Appalachian plateau by the first decade of the eighteenth century, and then moved into, the Mississippi valley between 1820 and 1850. They slashed and burnt forests, pulled out the stumps, cleared the land for cultivation, and built log cabins in the forest clearings. Then they cleared larger areas, and erected fences around the fields. They ploughed the land and sowed corn and wheat.
Objective Type Questions
Question 1.
Choose right (✓) of false (✗) form the following:
(i) The earlier enclosures helped the growth of wheat production in England.
(ii) The British parliament passed the enclosure acts so to legalise the enclosures.
(iii) Captain Swing was a real character who favoured the use of the freshing machines in England.
(iv) The white settlers in the USA uprooted the native AmericAnswer:
(v) The opium trade brought for the English huge profits.
Answer:
(i) (✗)
(ii) (✓)
(iii) (✗)
(iv) (✓)
(v) (✓).
Question 2.
Fill in the blanks with words given in the brackets:
(i) The enclosure system helped the …………….. farmers. (poor, rich)
(ii) …………… machines were responsible for creating unemployments England. (Threshing, Sowing)
(iii) “Wheat will win war for us …………… said it. (Wilson, Washington)
(iv) England had opium trade with ……….. (China, India)
(v) The Indian cultivators were ……….. to cultivate opium. (willing, unwilling)
Answer:
(i) rich
(ii) Threshing
(iii) Wilson
(iv) China
(v) Unwilling.
Question 3.
Choose the correct answer from the alternatives given below:
(i) The following was the leader of the rioters of the thrashing machines:
(a) Captain Swing
(b) Major Swing
(c) Col. Swing
(d) Lt. Swing.
Answer:
(a) Captain Swing
(ii) The white Americans uprooted the following:
(a) Red Indians
(b) White Indians
(c) Blue Indians
(d) Black Indians
Answer:
(a) Red Indians
(iii) Great Agrarian Depression in the USA occurred in:
(a) 1920
(b) 1930
(c) 1940
(d) 1950
Answer:
(b) 1930
(iv) Opium trade helped the following:
(a) Chinese
(b) Indians
(c) English
(d) None of these.
Answer:
(c) English .