What were the new developments helping European navigation in the 15th century?
1. The invention of magnetic compass in 1380 CE helped in searching and identifying four cardinal directions. These directions were North, South, East and West.
2. Manufacturing of sailing sea helped the sailors to sail much safer and comfortable. Larger ships were built which could carry a large quantity of cargo.
3. The Travelogue of Marco Polo also helped a lot in European navigation and created wide interest among the people.
4. Travel literature and books on geography were also available.
Compare the civilization of the Aztecs with that of the Mesopotamians.
Give reasons for Spain and Portugal being the first in the 5th century to venture across the Atlantic.
How did the discovery of South America lead to the development of European colonialism? HOTS
Write an account of the journey of an African boy of seventeen captured and taken to Brazil as a slave.
What new food items were transmitted from South America to the rest of the world?
Look at the diagram showing the positive feedback mechanism on page 13. Can you list the inputs that went into tool making? What were the processes that were strengthened by tool making?
Why do we say that it was not natural fertility and high levels of food production that were the causes of early urbanisation?
What were the features of the lives of the Bedouins in the early seventh century?
Why was trade so significant to the Mongols?
Describe two features of early feudal society in France.
Which elements of Greek and Roman culture were revived in the 14th and 15th centuries ?
How did Britain’s involvement in wars from 1793 to 1815 affect British industries?
Comment on any points of difference between the native peoples of South and North America.
What were the major developments before the Meiji restoration that made it possible for Japan to modernise rapidly?
Humans and mammals such as monkeys and apes have certain similarities in behaviour and anatomy. This indicates that humans possibly evolved from apes. List these resemblances in two columns under the headings of (a) behaviour and (b) anatomy. Are there any differences that you think are noteworthy?
How did the Qing dynasty try and meet the challenge posed by the Western powers?
What do ancient stories tell us about the civilisation of Mesopotamia?
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.
Which of the following do you think is best documented in the archaeological record: (a) gathering, (b) tool making, (c) the use of fire?
Discuss the extent to which (a) hunting and (b) constructing shelters would have been facilitated by the use of language. What other modes of communication could have been used for these activities?
Why did knights become a distinct group and when did they decline?
Why were Italian towns the first to experience the ideas of humanism?
How were the lives of different classes of British women affected by the Industrial Revolution?
What were the relative advantages of canal and railway transportation?
Describe two features of early feudal society in France.