Question

Describe three major consequences of Second World War.
OR
Why has the Surat and Hoogly ports declined by the end of 10th century ? Explain any three reasons.

CBSE Class X Social Science SA ( 3 marks)

Answer 1

Major consequences of the Second World War are as follows :
(i) Death and destruction were enormous. At least 60 million of the people or about 3 percent of the world’s 1939 population are believed to have been killed directly or indirectly as the result of war.
(ii) Millions more were injured. Unlike in earlier wars, most of these deaths took place outside the battlefield. Many more civilians than soldiers died from war-related causes.
(iii) Vast parts of Europe and Asia were devastated and several cities were destroyed by aerial bombardment or relentness artillery attacks.
(iv) The war caused an immense amount of economic devastation and social destruction. Reconstruction promised to be long and difficult.
OR
Surat decline by the end of 18th century.
(i) The port of Surat declined mainly because of the growing power of the European Companies in India.
(ii) These European Companies gradually gained power and started to control sea-trade in India.
(iii) They secured a variety of concessions which they obtained from local court and by gaining monopoly rights to trade.
(iv) These companies did not want to use the old ports of Surat, Masulipatanam, and Hoogly etc.
(v) Instead they developed the ports of Bombay.

Answer 2

Three major consequences of Second World War are:

1. End of colonialism and imperialism.
2. End of dictatorship in Germany and Italy.
3. Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany in which West Germany was controlled by Britain, France and USA, and East Germany by USSR.

Surat decline by the end of eighteenth century:

• Due to growing power of the European  Companies in India.
• These European companies gradually gained power and start to control sea trade in India.
• They securing a variety of concessions from the local court and then the monopoly rights to trade.
• These resulted in a decline of the old ports of Surat through which local merchants has operated.
• Exports from these ports fell dramatically, the credit that had financed the earlier trade began drying up and the local bankers slowly went bankrupt.
• In the last years of 17th century, the gross value of trade that passed through Surat has been Rs 16 million.
• By the 1740s it had slumped to Rs 3 million. Trade through the new ports came to be controlled by European companies, and was carried in European ships.