Questions Answers

● Revolutions are the great turning points of history. It

refers to a movement, often violent, to overthrow
an old regime and effect a complete change in the
1. What do you understand by fundamental institutions of society. After the
‘revolution’? French Revolution of the 18th Century which deposed
the monarchy and attempted to refashion society from
top to bottom, revolution became synonymous with the
radical overcoming of the past.

● The term Renaissance means “revival” or “rebirth”.

● It also denotes the noteworthy modifications that took
place in Europe during the transition period between
the medieval and modern periods.
● The growth of science, art, architecture, sculpture,
painting, literature, geography, and religion was seen in
2. What does Renaissance mean? this period.
● The Spirit of humanism and individualism has
developed.
● The religious makeover was signified by the
Reformation.
● These changes that took place in Europe were
collectively called the “Renaissance”.

● The Orient is a term for the East, traditionally

3. Who are the orients? comprising anything that belongs to
● the Eastern world, in relation to Europe.

1. The Glorious Revolution, also called “The Revolution of

1688” and “The Bloodless Revolution,” took place from
1688 to 1689 in England.
4. List the five revolutions which have
2. American revolution (1765-1783).
taken place in Europe and America.
3. French revolution (1789-99).
4. Russian revolution (1917).
5. Industrial revolution (mid 18th Century).

● It is adherence to the forms of Christian doctrine

which are generally regarded as Protestant rather than
Catholic or Eastern Orthodox.
● Protestantism, a movement that began in northern
5. What is Protestantism? Europe in the early 16th century as a reaction to
medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices.
● Along with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy,
Protestantism became one of three major forces in
Christianity. After a series of European religious wars in

6. Who were the Red Indians?
7. What was the Iron Act of 1750?
8. Discuss in brief the Stamp Act.
the 16th and 17th Centuries, and especially in the 19th
Century, it spread throughout the world.
● Protestants believe that there is only one God and that
he has revealed himself as the Trinity.
● Protestants believe that salvation comes through
believing in Jesus' saving work and salvation comes
through following the teachings and example of Jesus.
● Protestants believe in living a simple life and hard work.
● Red Indian is an offensive term for a native North
American. In North America, the term is now
considered a racial slur.
● The name is just a mistake (and hope) of the early
Spanish explorers. Christopher Columbus referred to
the native population of America as red Indian
mistakenly believing that he had discovered India.
Iron Act of 1750:
● It is one of the British Trade and Navigation Act.
Main Objectives:
● To stem the development of colonial manufacturing in
competition with the home industry by restricting the
growth of the American iron industry to the supply of
raw metals.
● To meet British needs, pig iron and iron bars made in
the colonies were permitted to enter England duty-free.
Following Activities were Prohibited in the American
Colony:
● The new establishment of furnaces that produced steel
for tools, and the erection of rolling and slitting mills
and of plating forges;
● the manufacture of hardware; and
● the export of colonial iron beyond the empire.
Significance:
● Though the policy was successful in its goal of
suppressing the manufacture of finished iron goods in
the colonies, the colonial production of raw iron and pig
iron (shipped as a raw material to Britain) flourished
under the Iron Act.
Stamp Act:
● In 1765, the British Parliament enacted the Stamp Act.
It was made mandatory to affix stamps on every
legal document.
 ● It was the first internal tax levied directly on
American colonists by the British Parliament.

Reason for Passage of this Act:

● The act came at a time when the British Empire was
deep in debt from the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and
looking to its North American colonies as a revenue
source.

9. What do you mean by the term ● Patriotism is a feeling of attachment and commitment
‘patriotism’? to a country, nation, or political community.

● Important leaders of American independence were

10. Who were the important leaders of George Washington, Abigail Adams, Benjamin
American independence? Franklin, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton,
Thomas Jefferson.

Molasses Act (1733):

● It raised the tax on molasses that was imported by
American colonies from anywhere other than Great
Britain.
● The tax on non-British molasses was raised from three
pence per pound to six pence per pound.

Objective:
● To make more money for Great Britain by controlling
trade among its colonies.
● The British government wanted to force the American
colonists to only buy molasses from the British West
Indies rather than the French West Indies.
11. Discuss the intricate relation
between the Molasses Act and
The Triangle Trade System:
Triangle Trade with Africa.
● Molasses and rum were tied with other industries across
the Atlantic Ocean.
● Africa was a part of a triangle trade system with the
West Indies and New England.
● New England colonists- sent rum to Africa for slaves.
Africa's exports- slaves.
● The slaves were then transported, in horrific conditions
- West Indies.
● In the West Indies- slaves were sold or traded for
molasses and then put to work on sugar plantations.
● Finally, the molasses that the slaves made went back to
New England to make more rum, and the whole triangle
trade system would start all over again.

12. Discuss the Townshend Act.
13. Discuss the Tea Act of 1773.
14. What is the concept of “taxation
without representation” in the
American revolution?
15. What is Feudalism?
● Townshend Acts were a series of measures, passed by
the British Parliament in 1767, that taxed goods
imported to the American colonies.
● Townshend Acts, passed in 1767 and 1768, were
designed to raise revenue for the British Empire by
taxing its North American colonies. They were met
with widespread protest in the colonies, especially
among merchants in Boston.
● The Tea Act, passed by British Parliament on May 10,
1773, was designed to prop up the East India
Company which was floundering financially and
burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold
tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies
and sold at a bargain price.
● This law made American companies pay tax on tea to
the British.
● The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also
have undercut the business of local merchants.
● It was considered the catalyst of the Boston Tea
Party.
● The “taxation without representation” was a slogan
shouted by Americans angry at the British as they had
to pay tax but had no say in how the country was run.
● Feudalism was a political and economic system of
Europe from the 9th Century to about the 15th Century.
It was based on land tenure given by the Lord to the
Vassals, who served their masters in various ways. In
other words, feudalism was a part of the feudal society
where the subordinate subjects showed loyalty to their
Lords and obtained from them a piece of land thereby
serving their master, in various ways seeking protection
from them for their life and property.
 The Three Orders:
● The three orders of society were broadly the clergy,
the nobility, and the peasantry.

The First Order (The Clergy):

● Bishops and clerics.
● Everyone could not become a priest.
● Men who became priests could not marry.
● The bishops had the use of vast estates and lived in
grand palaces.
● The Church was entitled to a tenth share of the
16. Discuss in brief the three orders in
peasant's produce. This tax was called ‘tithe’.
a feudal system.
● It also received the money in the form of endowments
made by the rich.

The Second Order (The Nobility):

● It plays a central role in the social process because it
controls land.
● This control was the outcome of a practice called
‘vassalage’.
● The kings were linked to the people by ‘vassalage’.
● The big landowners (the nobles) were vassals of the
king, and the peasants were vassals of the landowners.
 ● Enjoyed a privileged status. He had absolute control
over his property, in perpetuity.

The Third Order (Peasants):

● The peasants comprised the third order. There were two
types of peasants, viz. free peasants and serfs.

Free Peasants:
● The free peasants held their farms as tenants of the
Lord.
● Peasant families had to devote three or more days of
the week to work at the Lord’s estate.
● The kings sometimes imposed a direct tax (taille) on
peasants.
Serfs:
● The serfs cultivated the land which belonged to the
Lord.
● Much of the produce from such land went to the Lord.
They received no wages and could not leave the estate
without the Lord’s permission.
● The Lord could decide whom a serf could marry.

Guild was an association of craftsmen or merchants formed

for mutual aid and protection and for the furtherance of their
17. What do you understand by the
professional interests. Guilds flourished in Europe between the
guild?
11th and 16th centuries and formed an important part of the
economic and social fabric in that era.