Peasants and Farmers class9 history MCQ & SAQ

Peasants and Farmers class9 history NCERT SOLUTION:

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:

• A rich farmer

• A laborer

• A peasant woman

Answer 

(a) A rich farmer:

As the prices of wool increased, rich farmers wanted to increase its production. Therefore, they began to privatize the best parts of the common land and open fields for themselves. This was done to ensure that their sheep would get good fodder. They also began to drive out poorer farmers, disallowing them from using common land for grazing.

(b) A laborer:For the poor laborers, the common lands were essential for survival. They used to live with landowners, doing a number of odd jobs for them in return for board and lodging and a small pay. However, when the open field system began to disappear, laborers were paid wages and employed only at harvest time. This left them at the mercy of rich landowners and farmers.

(c) A peasant woman:

For peasant women, the open field system was a good way of community living wherein everything was shared between the rich and the poor. They would use the common lands for grazing their cattle, gathering fruits and collecting firewood. However, all these activities were negatively affected because of the disappearance of open fields.

Question 2: Explain briefly the factors which led to the enclosures in England.

Answer 

The factors that led to the enclosures in England were primarily profit-based. When wool prices rose in the sixteenth century, rich farmers began to enclose the best pastures of common lands for their own cattle. Later, in the mid-eighteenth century, the British Parliament passed 4000 Acts legalizing these enclosures which had earlier been an individual, and not state, enterprise. Enclosures came into being to enhance grain production since England’s population was booming. Also, industrialisation and war needs made foodgrain prices soar, making it necessary to take steps to increase its production. They were also important for long-term investments on land and to plan crop rotations for maintaining soil fertility.

Question 3: Why were threshing machines opposed by the poor in England?

Answer 

Threshing machines were opposed by the poor in England because they decreased the employment opportunities of workmen during harvest-time. Previously, laborers had lived with the landowners, doing odd jobs around the farm. Later, they were hired on wages and only during harvest-time. However, with the coming of the threshing machine, most of these laborers were left unemployed and without a means of livelihood. Hence, they opposed this industrial tool.

Question 4: Who was Captain Swing? What did the name symbolize or represent?

Answer 

Captain Swing was the name appended to some of the threatening letters during the rural English protests against the use of threshing machines and landowners' reluctance to employ laborers. The movement had an imaginary leader with a multiple-use name. His name was chosen, in a form of morbid humor, to echo the prisons that the rebels who got involved in this uprising would have to face.

Question 5: What was the impact of the westward expansion of settlers in the USA?

Answer 

The westward expansion of settlers in the USA led to a complete annihilation of American Indians who were pushed westwards, down the Mississippi river, and then further west beyond that. They fought back, but were defeated; their villages were burnt and cattle destroyed. Also, with the cultivation of land for agricultural purposes, all grass and trees were razed. This led to terrible dust storms and blizzards in the 1930s, causing much death and destruction.

Question 6: What were the advantages and disadvantages of the use of mechanical harvesting machines in the USA?

Answer

The mechanical harvesting machines were helpful for clearing large tracts of land, breaking up soil, removing grass and preparing the ground for cultivation in a short span of time and with less human labor. However, for the poor, the machines were a bane. Mechanization reduced labor demand and many were rendered unemployed. Also, the dust storms of the 1930s could in a way be traced back to the zealous large-scale plowing of land with the help of these advanced machines. These storms were a result of the presence of vast tracts of plowed land, with no grass to hold back mud. 

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 

There are many useful ecological lessons that we can draw from the conversion of the countryside in the USA from a bread basket to a dust bowl. It teaches us the value of environment protection and safe use of natural resources. It serves as a warning sign against the exploitative use of land for commercial purposes only. There should be a governmental check on how much land is cultivated. The droughts and the dust storms that struck in the 1930s rendered production futile as wheat and corn were rapidly turned into animal fodder due to overproduction. It also ruined the landscape.

 

Question 8: Write a paragraph on why the British insisted on farmers growing opium in India.

Answer 

The British insisted on farmers growing opium in India because of a trade deal with China. Tea became extremely popular in England, and by 1830, over 30 million pounds of tea was being imported from China. The rulers of China, the Manchus, were unfriendly towards foreign merchants and their goods. Hence, there was nothing that England could offer to the Chinese in exchange for tea, except money. Doing so was a loss to the British treasury. Opium was used in Chinese medicine, but was banned for use due to its addictive qualities. The British started an illegal opium trade, and by 1839, there were an estimated 12 million opium smokers in China. All the supplied opium came from India and it formed an easy, cheap way to pay for the tea imported from China.

Question 9: Why were Indian farmers reluctant to grow opium?

Answer -Indian farmers were reluctant to grow opium because it required extremely fertile soil and was a difficult crop to grow, requiring more care. It took up the fields that could be utilized for growing pulses, and the time taken in opium production meant that the farmers could pay little or no attention to the other crops. Added to this problem was the low sale price of opium. It was thus unprofitable to be grown.

Peasants and Farmers class9 history MCQ :

1. The continuous movement of the pastoral communities helps in

(a) recovery of the pastures

(b) prevention of their overuse

(c) reduction in the demand of houses

(d) both A and B

► (d) both A and B

 

2. Which practice disappeared by 1800, drastically changing the lives of the laborers?

(a) Till 1800, the laborers lived with landowners, ate with their masters and helped them throughout the year doing various jobs

(b) Now they were paid wages and employed only during harvest times

(c) To increase their profits the landlords cut the amount they had to spend on their workers

(d) All the above

► (d) All the above

 

3. There was a frantic effort to enclose lands in Britain because :

(a) From the mid-eighteenth century the English population multiplied four times from 7 million in 1750 to 30 million in 1900.

(b) Britain was industrializing, more people began to live in urban areas, men from rural areas migrated to towns in search of jobs

(c) As population grew, more food grains were needed, so land was enclosed

(d) All the above

► (d) All the above

 

4. Why did the white settlers want to push away the Indian Americans from their lands?

(a) The land possessed by the Indians could be turned into cultivated fields

(b) Forest timber could be exported, animals hunted for skins, mountains mined for gold and minerals

(c) Both (a) and (b)

(d) It was a committed policy of the US Government

► (c) Both (a) and (b)

 

5. Before the late 18th and early 19th century common ground was in the English country-side

(a) Open and not partitioned into enclosed lands privately owned by landlords

(b) At the beginning of the year each villager was allocated a number of strips to cultivate; beyond these strips lay the common land

(c) Here the villagers pastured their cows, grazed sheep, collected firewood and fruit for food. They fished in ponds, hunted rabbits in common forests

(d) All the above

► (d) All the above

 

6. The methods used to oust the Indian Americans were :

(a) numerous wars in which Indians were massacred and many villages burnt

(b) after defeat, the Indian Americans were forced to sign treaties to give up their lands and move westwards

(c) both (a) and (b)

(d) peaceful negotiations

► (c) both (a) and (b)

 

7. White American settlements were confined to a small narrow strip of coastal land in the east till the

(a) 1750s

(b) 1780s

(c) 1800s

(d) 1850s

► (b) 1780s

 

8. When did the westward movement of White Americans take place?

(a) During the 1610s

(b) the 1650s

(c) After the American War of Independence

(d) the 1800s

► (c) After the American War of Independence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Who was Captain Swing?

(a) A farmer

(b) A laborer

(c) A mythical name

(d) A landlord

► (c) A mythical name

 

10. What did the settlers of the Great Plains realize after the 1930s?

(a) Using older methods of cultivation were better than modern machines

(b) Competition with other countries was not healthy

(c) They had to respect the ecological conditions of each region

(d) None of the above

► (c) They had to respect the ecological conditions of each region

 

11. What did the settlers of the Great Plains realize after the 1930s?

(a) Using older methods of cultivation were better than modern machines

(b) Competition with other countries was not healthy

(c) They had to respect the ecological conditions of each region

(d) None of the above

► (c) They had to respect the ecological conditions of each region

 

12. Which of these reasons led to a radical transformation of the landscape by the early 20th century?

(a) White Americans had moved westward

(b) Local tribes were displaced

(c) Entire landscape was carved into different agricultural belts in the USA

(d) All the above

► (d) All the above

 

13. In the late 18th century, which of the following goods was bought by the English East India Company from China?

(a) tea and silk

(b) sugar

(c) cotton

(d) jute

► (a) tea and silk

 

14. Name the US President who said “Plant more wheat, wheat will win the war.”

(a) President Roosevelt

(b) President Clinton

(c) President Bush

(d) President Wilson

► (d) President Wilson

 

15. Why were the Confucian rulers of China, the Manchus, suspicious of all foreign merchants?

(a) The British were buying tea at very low rates

(b) They feared that the British would interfere in local politics and disrupt their authority

(c) China was self-sufficient and did not want to trade with any country

(d) All the above

► (b) They feared that the British would interfere in local politics and disrupt their authority

 

16. How much land did the wheat barons possess at this time in the USA?

(a) 1000-2000 acres of land

(b) 2000-3000 acres of land

(c) 3000-4000 acres of land

(d) 4000-5000 acres of land

► (b) 2000-3000 acres of land

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17. Name the US President who said “Plant more wheat, wheat will win the war.”

(a) President Roosevelt

(b) President Clinton

(c) President Bush

(d) President Wilson

► (d) President Wilson

 

18. When did the White Americans move into the Mississippi Valley?

(a) 1800-1820

(b) 1820-1850

(c) 1850-1860

(d) 1860-1870

► (b) 120-1850

 

19. In 1831, Cyrus McCormick invented the first mechanical reaper. What was its most important advantage?

(a) It could harvest 50 acres of wheat

(b) 500 acres of wheat could be harvested in two weeks

(c) It could cut grass on large areas

(d) It could prepare the ground for cultivation

► (b) 500 acres of wheat could be harvested in two weeks

 

20. Which one of these is not the correct option for the cause of the Great Agrarian Depression in the USA?

(a) Production had declined rapidly

(b) Storehouses overflowed with grain

(c) Vast amounts of corn and wheat were turned into animal feed

(b) Wheat prices fell and export markets collapsed

► (a) Production had declined rapidly

21. Which agricultural implement was used to mow grass before the mid-nineteenth century?

(a) iron sickle

(b) axes

(c) scythe

(d) seed drill

► (b) axes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22. How did the machines bring misery to the poor?

(a) They had bought machines thinking that the profits would remain high

(b) Those who had taken loans found it difficult to pay back their debts

(c) Many of them deserted their farms and looked for jobs elsewhere

(d) All the above

► (d) All the above

 

23. What did the settlers of the Great Plains realize after the 1930s?

(a) Using older methods of cultivation were better than modern machines

(b) Competition with other countries was not healthy

(c) They had to respect the ecological conditions of each region

(d) None of the above

► (c) They had to respect the ecological conditions of each region

 

24. Which of the following problems were created by the expansion of wheat in the Great Plains in the 1930s?

(a) Black blizzards

(b) Floods

(c) Wars

(d) Earthquakes

► (a) Black blizzards

 

25. What was the Chinese Emperor’s order about the use of opium in China?

(a) The British were allowed to sell opium in China

(b) The Chinese Emperor told his people to cultivate more and more opium

(c) The Emperor had forbidden its production and sale except for medicinal purposes

(d) None of the above

► (c) The Emperor had forbidden its production and sale except for medicinal purposes

 

26. How did Britain react when Lin Ze-xu announced that Canton was closed to foreign trade?

(a) Britain stopped the sale of opium immediately

(b) Britain arrived at an agreement to sell only limited quantity

(c) Britain declared war

(d) None of the above

► (c) Britain declared war

 

27. When was the large part of England quite open?

(a) Before 16th century

(b) Before 17th century

(c) Before 18th century

(d) Before 19th century

► (c) Before 18th century

 

28. By the early 1820s, how much opium was being smuggled every year into China?

(a) 10,000 crates

(b) 20,000 crates

(c) 30,000 crates

(d) 40,000 crates

► (a) 10,000 crates

 

29. What was the result of the ‘Opium War’ (1837-42)?

(a) China was forced to accept the humiliating terms of the subsequent treaties signed

(b) It had to legalize the opium trade

(c) It had to open up China to foreign merchants

(d) All the above

► (d) All the above

 

30. What did the enclosure imply?

(a) It meant greenfields

(b) Piece of land enclosed from all sides

(c) It meant open fields

(d) Vast area of marshy land

► (b) Piece of land enclosed from all sides

 

31. The Great Agrarian Depression of the 1930s was caused by:

(a) overproduction of wheat

(b) fall of wheat production

(c) rise in the price of wheat

(d) overproduction of rice

► (a) overproduction of wheat

 

32. The Manchus were:

(a) Chinese rulers

(b) Roman rulers

(c) Indian rulers

(d) Portuguese rulers

► (a) Chinese rulers

 

33. The growing of which of the following crops improves soil fertility?

(a) Potatoes and tomatoes

(b) Wheat and rice

(c) Turnip and cloves

(d) None of the above

► (c) Turnip and cloves

 

34. Who was the American President under whom maximum expansion of wheat cultivation took place?

(a) President Wilson

(b) President Roosevelt

(c) George Washington

(d) Abraham Lincoln

► (a) President Wilson

 

35. Opium was exported from India to:

(a) China

(b) Rome

(c) U.K.

(d) Portugal

► (a) China

 

36. In 1831 mechanical reaper was invented by:

(a) Cyrus McCormic

(b) Dietrich Brandis

(c) Alexander Hogue

(d) None of the above

► (a) Cyrus McCormic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

37. From China the English East India Company imported:

(a) Silk and coffee

(b) Silk and tea

(c) Coffee and tea

(d) Paper and tea

► (b) Silk and tea

 

38. Farmers in England began buying the new threshing machines because they:

(a) feared shortage of labor

(b) wanted to show superiority by buying these machines

(c) had enough money which they wanted to invest

(d) none of these

► (a) feared shortage of labor

 

39. The Manchus were:

(a) Chinese rulers

(b) Roman rulers

(c) Indian rulers

(d) Portuguese rulers

► (a) Chinese rulers

 

40. Under which mythical name were threatening letters written to the rich farmers in England?

(a) Captain Swing

(b) Captain John

(c) Captain Swaine

(d) Captain Mark

► (a) Captain Swing

 

41. Who introduced opium in China?

(a) The Dutch

(b) The French

(c) The American

(d) The Portuguese

► (d) The Portuguese

 

42. In 1831 mechanical reaper was invented by:

(a) Cyrus McCormic

(b) Dietrich Brandis

(c) Alexander Hogue

(d) None of the above

► (a) Cyrus McCormic

 

43. Which of the following became the Bread Basket of the world during the 20th century?

(a) Japan

(b) France 

(c) Russia

(d) America

► (d) America

 

44. Why did the peasants protest against the threshing machines?

(a) They were dangerous

(b) Difficult to operate

(c) Deprived the workers of their livelihood

(d) Too costly to buy

► (c) Deprived the workers of their livelihood

 

45. In the early 19th century which were the two major commercial crops grown in India?

(a) Sugarcane and cotton

(b) Jute and cotton

(c) Indigo and opium

(d) Wheat and indigo

► (c) Indigo and opium

 

46. Which of the following systems was adopted by the British to convince the unwilling Indian cultivators to produce opium?

(a) Cheap loans

(b) Advances

(c) Collective farming

(d) Scientific farming methods

► (b) Advances

 

47. What was the normal height of terrifying dust storms during the 1930s in the USA?

(a) 5000 to 6000 feet

(b) 100 to 200 feet

(c) 7000 to 8000 feet

(d) 700 to 800 feet

► (c) 7000 to 8000 feet

 

48. Why did the ordinary dust storm take the form of Black Blizzard on US plains in the 1930s?

(a) The whole plain was an arid zone

(b) The entire plowed landscape was stripped of all grass

(c) The area faced heavy flooding

(d) There was no rainfall in the region

► (b) The entire plowed landscape was stripped of all grass

Peasants and Farmers class9 history SAQ

 

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 changed dramatically.’ 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 pressurized 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. 4,000 Acts were passed legalizing these Enclosures.

Q.7.  What was the effect of the Enclosure Movement on landlords in England?

Ans. The Enclosure Movement was instrumental in making the rich landlords richer by filling them. Due to this, 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 became 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 stalks 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 the Midlands they moved to the southern countries of England.

Q.9.  Explain three reasons for Captain Swing riots in the 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 pasteurizing their cows

3.    Collecting fruits and berries, fuel wood, hunting small animals for food etc., cutting wages by landlords and cutting down 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 the Midlands to the southern countries where jobs were available, others to the cities. The income of laborers became unstable, their jobs insecure, their livelihoods precarious.

What other ways could the problem of opium production be solved?

Solution:

The problem could have been partly solved by increasing the price of opium. But the government was reluctant to do so. It wanted to produce opium at a cheap rate and sell it at a high price to opium agents in Calcutta, who then shipped it to China. This difference between the buying and selling price was the government’s opium revenue. The prices given to the peasants were so low that by the early eighteenth century angry peasants began agitating for higher prices and refused to take advances. In regions around Benaras, cultivators began giving up opium cultivation.

They produced sugarcane and potatoes instead. Many cultivators sold off their crop to traveling traders (pykars) who offered higher prices. 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. By the 1820s, the British found to their horror that opium production in their territories was rapidly declining, but its production outside the British territories was increasing.

It was produced in Central India and Rajasthan, within princely states that were not under British control. In these regions, local traders were offering much higher prices to peasants and exporting opium to China. In fact, armed bands of traders were found carrying on the trade in the 1820s. To the British this trade was illegal: it was smuggling and it had to be stopped. Government monopoly had to be retained. It therefore instructed its agents posted in the princely states to confiscate all opium and destroy the crops.

.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 in 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.

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, legalizing opium trade and opening up China to foreign merchants.

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.

What was the effect of the new machines on the farmers?

Solution:

For the poorer farmers, machines brought misery. Many of them bought these machines, imagining that wheat prices would remain high and profits would flow in. If they had no money, the banks offered loans. Those who borrowed found it difficult to pay back their debts. Many of them deserted their farms and looked for jobs elsewhere.

But jobs were difficult to find. Mechanization had reduced the need for labor. And the boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries seemed to have come to an end by the mid-1920s. After that, most farmers faced trouble. Production had expanded so rapidly during the war and post-war years that there was a large surplus. Unsold stocks piled up, storehouses overflowed with grain, and vast amounts of corn and wheat were turned into animal feed. Wheat prices fell and export markets collapsed. This created the grounds for the Great Agrarian Depression of the 1930s that ruined wheat farmers everywhere.

How were the unwilling cultivators made to produce Opium?

Solution:

Unwilling cultivators were made to produce opium through a system of advances. In the rural areas of Bengal and Bihar, there were large numbers of poor peasants. They never had enough to survive. It was difficult for them to pay rent to the landlord or to buy food and clothing.

From the 1780s, such peasants found their village headmen (mahato) giving them money advances to produce opium. When offered a loan, the cultivators were tempted to accept, hoping to meet their immediate needs and pay back the loan at a later stage. But the loan tied the peasant to the headman and through him to the government.

It was the government opium agents who were advancing the money to the headmen, who in turn gave it to the cultivators. 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. He had no option of planting the field with a crop of his choice or of selling his produce to anyone but the government agent. And he had to accept the low price offered for the produce

Where did Opium come from?

Solution:

When the British conquered Bengal, they made a determined effort to produce opium in the lands under their control. As the market for opium expanded in China, larger volumes of opium flowed out of Bengal ports. Before 1767, no more than 500 chests (of two maunds each) were being exported from India. Within four years, the quantity trebled. A hundred years later, in 1870, the government was exporting about 50,000 chests annually. Supplies had to be increased to feed this booming export trade. But this was not easy.

For a variety of reasons, they were unwilling to turn their fields over to poppies. First, the crop had to be grown on the best land, on fields that lay near villages and were well manured. On this land peasants usually produced pulses. If they planted opium on this land, then pulses could not be grown there, or they would have to be grown on inferior land where harvests were poorer and uncertain. Second, many cultivators owned no land.

To cultivate, they had to pay rent and lease land from landlords. And the rent charged on good lands near villages was very high. Third, the cultivation of opium was a difficult process. The plant was delicate, and cultivators had to spend long hours nurturing it. This meant that they did not have enough time to care for other crops. Finally, the price the government paid to the cultivators for the opium they produced was very low. It was unprofitable for cultivators to grow opium at that price.

Peasants and Farmers class9 history long question

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 a sign of bad times.

Q.2.    Why did the farmers feel the need to introduce mechanization 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 labor, they began buying the new threshing machines that had come into the market. They complained of the insolvency of laborers, their drinking habits and the difficulty of making them work. The machines, they thought, would help them reduce their dependence on laborers.

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 the Appalachian plateau through the passes.

Q.4.   What were the problems associated with wheat expansion in the USA? Discuss with special reference to mechanization 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 plows 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 plowed, seeded, and harvested within a short time. But there were problems. Poor farmers had a hard time paying the taxes. They could not buy these machines. The bank offered loans but most of them 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 plowed 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.

Ans.

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 was 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.

 

Describe the letters that were sent by Captain Swing to the farmers.

Solution:

On 1 June 1830, a farmer in the north-west of England found his barn and haystack reduced to ashes by a fire that started at night. In the months that followed, cases of such fires were reported from numerous districts. At times only the rick was burnt, at other times the entire farmhouse. Then on the night of 28 August 1830, a threshing machine of a farmer was destroyed by laborers in East Kent in England. In the subsequent two years, riots spread over southern England and about 387 threshing machines were broken. Through this period, farmers received threatening letters urging them to stop using machines that 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, and many destroyed their own machines. Government action was severe. Those suspected of rioting were rounded up. 1, 976 prisoners were tried, nine men were hanged, 505 transported – over 450 of them to Australia – and 644 put behind bars.

Explain the concept of open fields and common fields given to the farmers.

Solution:

Before the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in large parts of England the countryside was open. It was not partitioned into enclosed lands privately owned by landlords. Peasants cultivated on strips of land around the village they lived in. At the beginning of each year, at a public meeting, each villager was allocated a number of strips to cultivate. Usually, these strips were of varying quality and often located in different places, not next to each other. The effort was to ensure that everyone had a mix of good and bad land. Beyond these strips of cultivation lay the common land. All villagers had access to the commons. Here they pastured their cows and grazed their sheep, collected fuel wood for fire and berries and fruit for food. They fished in the rivers and ponds, and hunted rabbits in common forests. For the poor, the common land was essential for survival. It supplemented their meager income, sustained their cattle, and helped them tide over bad times when crops failed.

How did the concept of open fields change to enclosed fields?

Solution:

In some parts of England, this economy of open fields and common lands had started changing from about the sixteenth century. 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. 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 the poor from entering the enclosed fields.

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 forever. 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 legalizing these enclosures.

What were the main causes for the enclosure of lands?

Solution:

Unlike the sixteenth-century enclosures that promoted sheep farming, the land being enclosed in the late eighteenth century was for grain production.

The new enclosures were happening in a different context; they became a sign of a changing time.

From the mid-eighteenth century, the English population expanded rapidly. Between 1750 and 1900, it multiplied over four times, mounting from 7 million in 1750 to 21 million in 1850 and 30 million in 1900. This meant an increased demand for food grains to feed the population.

Moreover, Britain at this time was industrializing. More and more people began to live and work in urban areas. Men from rural areas migrated to towns in search of jobs. To survive they had to buy food grains in the market. As the urban population grew, the market for food grains expanded, and when demand increased rapidly, food grain prices rose.

By the end of the eighteenth century, France was at war with England. This disrupted trade and the import of food grains from Europe. Prices of food grains in England skyrocketed, encouraging landowners to enclose lands and enlarge the area under grain cultivation. Profits flowed in and landowners pressured the Parliament to pass the Enclosure Acts.

Comment on the food grain production in the nineteenth century in England.

Solution:

Food-grain production in the past had not expanded as rapidly as the population. In the nineteenth century this did not happen in England. Grain production grew as quickly as the population. Even though the population increased rapidly, in 1868 England was producing about 80 per cent of the food it consumed. The rest was imported.

This increase in food-grain production was made possible not by any radical innovations in agricultural technology, but by bringing new lands under cultivation. Landlords sliced up pasturelands, carved up open fields, cut up forest commons, took over marshes, and turned larger and larger areas into agricultural fields.

Farmers at this time continued to use the simple innovations in agriculture that had become common by the early eighteenth century. It was in about the 1660s that farmers in many parts of England began growing turnip and clover. They soon discovered that planting these crops improved the soil and made it more fertile.

Turnip was, moreover, a good fodder crop relished by cattle. So farmers began cultivating turnips and clover regularly. These crops became part of the cropping system. Later findings showed that these crops had the capacity to increase the nitrogen content of the soil. Nitrogen was important for crop growth. Cultivation of the same soil over a few years depleted the nitrogen in the soil and reduced its fertility. By restoring nitrogen, turnip and clover made the soil fertile once again.

We find that farmers in the early nineteenth century used much the same method to improve agriculture on a more regular basis.

Enclosures were now seen as necessary to make long-term investments on land and plan crop rotations to improve the soil. Enclosures also allowed the richer landowners to expand the land under their control and produce more for the market.

What were the effects of the enclosures on farmers?

Solution:

Enclosures filled the pockets of landlords. But the farmers who depended on the open fields and commons suffered drastically. When fences came up, the enclosed land became the exclusive property of one landowner. The poor could no longer collect their firewood from the forests, or graze their cattle on the commons. They could no longer collect apples and berries, or hunt small animals for meat. Nor could they gather the stalks that lay on the fields after the crops were cut. Everything belonged to the landlords, everything had a price which the poor could not afford to pay.

In places where enclosures happened on an extensive scale – particularly the Midlands and the counties around – the poor were displaced from the land. They found their customary rights gradually disappearing. Deprived of their rights and driven off the land, they tramped in search of work. From the Midlands, they moved to the southern counties of England. This was a region that was most intensively cultivated, and there was a great demand for agricultural laborers. But nowhere could the poor find secure jobs.

Earlier, it was common for laborers to live with landowners. They ate at the master’s table, and helped their master through the year, doing a variety of odd jobs. By 1800 this practice was disappearing. Laborers were being paid wages and employed only during harvest time. As landowners tried to increase their profits, they cut the amount they had to spend on their workmen. Work became insecure, employment uncertain, income unstable. For a very large part of the year the poor had no work.

What was the scenario in the USA at the time of common fields in England?

Solution:

At the time that common fields were being enclosed in England at the end of the eighteenth century, settled agriculture had not developed on any extensive scale in the USA. Forests covered over 800 million acres and grasslands 600 million acres.

Most of the landscape was not under the control of white Americans.

Till the 1780s, white American settlements were confined to a small narrow strip of coastal land in the east. Several of them were nomadic, some were settled.

Many of them lived only by hunting, gathering and fishing; others cultivated corn, beans, tobacco and pumpkin. Still others were expert trappers through whom European traders had secured their supplies of beaver fur since the sixteenth century.

Write about the westward movement of white settlers and its impacts.

Solution:

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 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 1800 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 burned 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 plowed the land and sowed corn and wheat.

In the early years, the fertile soil produced good crops. When the soil became impoverished and exhausted in one place, the migrants would move further west, to explore new lands and raise a new crop. It was, however, only after the 1860s that settlers swept into the Great Plains across the River Mississippi. In subsequent decades this region became a major wheat-producing area of America.

Comment on the wheat production in the USA during the First World War.

Solution:

From the late nineteenth century, there was a dramatic expansion of wheat production in the USA. The urban population in the USA was growing and the export market was becoming ever bigger. As the demand increased, wheat prices rose, encouraging farmers to produce wheat. The spread of the railways made it easy to transport the grain from the wheat-growing regions to the eastern coast for export. By the early twentieth century the demand became even higher, and during the First World War the world market boomed. Russian supplies of wheat were cut off and the USA had to feed Europe. US President Wilson called upon farmers to respond to the need of the time. ‘Plant more wheat, wheat will win the war,’ he said.

In 1910, about 45 million acres of land in the USA was under wheat. Nine years later, the area had expanded to 74 million acres, an increase of about 65 per cent. Most of the increase was in the Great Plains where new areas were being plowed to extend cultivation. In many cases, big farmers – the wheat barons – controlled as much as 2,000 to 3,000 acres of land individually.

How was the advent of new technology helpful to the farmers?

Solution:

The dramatic expansion of agriculture was made possible by new technology. Through the nineteenth century, as the settlers moved into new habitats and new lands, they modified their implements to meet their requirements. When they entered the mid-western prairie, the simple plows the farmers had used in the eastern coastal areas of the USA proved ineffective.

The prairie was covered with a thick mat of grass with tough roots. To break the sod and turn the soil over, a variety of new plows were devised locally, some of them 12 feet long. Their front rested on small wheels and they were hitched on to six yokes of oxen or horses. By the early twentieth century, farmers in the Great Plains were breaking the ground with tractors and disk plows, clearing vast stretches for wheat cultivation.

Once the crop had ripened it had to be harvested. Before the 1830s, the grain used to be harvested with a cradle or sickle. At harvest time, hundreds of men and women could be seen in the fields cutting the crop. In1831, Cyrus McCormick invented the first mechanical reaper which could cut in one day as much as five men could cut with cradles and 16 men with sickles. By the early twentieth century, most farmers were using combined harvesters to cut grain. With one of these machines, 500 acres of wheat could be harvested in two weeks.

For the big farmers of the Great Plains these machines had many attractions. The prices of wheat were high and the demand seemed limitless. The new machines allowed these big farmers to rapidly clear large tracts, break up the soil, remove the grass and prepare the ground for cultivation. The work could be done quickly and with a minimal number of hands. With power-driven machinery, four men could plow, seed and harvest 2,000 to 4,000 acres of wheat in a season.