What do ancient stories tell us about th | Class 11 History - Themes in World History Chapter Writing and City Life, Writing and City Life NCERT Solutions

Why do we say that it was not natural fertility and high levels of food production that were the causes of early urbanisation?

Which of the following were necessary conditions and which the causes, of early urbanisation, and which would you say were the outcome of the growth of cities:

(a) highly productive agriculture,

(b) water transport,

(c) the lack of metal and stone,

(d) the division of labour,

(e) the use of seals,

(f) the military power of kings that made labour compulsory?

Why were mobile animal herders not necessarily a threat to town life?

Why would the early temple have been much like a house?

Of the new institutions that came into being once city life had begun, which would have depended on the initiative of the king?

Compare the Venetian idea of good government with those in contemporary France.

Why was trade so significant to the Mongols?

Compare the conditions of life for a French serf and a Roman slave.

What was the function of medieval monasteries?

Why did knights become a distinct group and when did they decline?

How do later Mongol reflections on the yasa bring out the uneasy relationship they had with the memory of Genghis Khan.

How did long-term changes in population levels affect economy and society in Europe

Why did Genghis Khan feel the need to fragment the Mongol tribes into new social and military groupings?

Compare details of Italian architecture of this period with Islamic architecture.

How does the following account enlarge upon the character of the Pax Mongolica created by the Mongols by the middle of the thirteenth century? The Franciscan monk, William of Rubruck, was sent by Louis IX of France on an embassy to the great Khan Mongke’s court. He reached Karakorum, the capital of Mongke, in 1254 and came upon a woman from Lorraine (in France) called Paquette, who had been brought from Hungary and was in the service of one of the prince’s wives who was a Nestorian Christian. At the court he came across a Parisian goldsmith named Guillaume Boucher, ‘whose brother dwelt on the Grand Pont in Paris’. This man was first employed by the Queen Sorghaqtani and then by Mongke’s younger brother. Rubruck found that at the great court festivals the Nestorian priests were admitted first, with their regalia, to bless the Grand Khan’s cup, and were followed by the Muslim clergy and Buddhist and Taoist monks.

What new food items were transmitted from South America to the rest of the world?

Compare the conditions of life for a French serf and a Roman slave.

Imagine and describe a day in the life of a craftsman in a medieval French town.

Why did knights become a distinct group and when did they decline?

Keeping the nomadic element of the Mongol and Bedouin societies in mind, how, in your opinion, did their respective historical experiences differ? What explanations would you suggest account for these differences?

How does the following account enlarge upon the character of the Pax Mongolica created by the Mongols by the middle of the thirteenth century? The Franciscan monk, William of Rubruck, was sent by Louis IX of France on an embassy to the great Khan Mongke’s court. He reached Karakorum, the capital of Mongke, in 1254 and came upon a woman from Lorraine (in France) called Paquette, who had been brought from Hungary and was in the service of one of the prince’s wives who was a Nestorian Christian. At the court he came across a Parisian goldsmith named Guillaume Boucher, ‘whose brother dwelt on the Grand Pont in Paris’. This man was first employed by the Queen Sorghaqtani and then by Mongke’s younger brother. Rubruck found that at the great court festivals the Nestorian priests were admitted first, with their regalia, to bless the Grand Khan’s cup, and were followed by the Muslim clergy and Buddhist and Taoist monks.

How did long-term changes in population levels affect economy and society in Europe

Describe two features of early feudal society in France.

What were the features of humanist thought?

How do later Mongol reflections on the yasa bring out the uneasy relationship they had with the memory of Genghis Khan.