Interdisciplinary project

Podar International School

Std X Social Science
Interdisciplinary project
“ Changes from 15th century to 21st century’’
Name :- Ishan Mandar Gupte
Std:- X
Div:- F
Roll no:- 16
 Changes from 15th century to 21st century
History
Geography

.
Economics
Civics
…
 15 Century
1. The hold on the Levant during the second half of the 15th century, the traditional Spice
Route shifted from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.
2. Bengal Sultanate, later absorbed into Mughal Bengal, a major trading nation in the world,
was responsible for 12% of Global industrial output between the 15th and 17th centuries,
signaling Proto-industrialization.
3. The kingdom of Kongo was introduced to Christianity by trade with the Portuguese,
leading to the conversion of the soon-to-be king Afonso I in 1491. However, despite early
friendly relations with the Portuguese, the constant warfare and loss of population from
the slave trade to Portuguese Brazil led the kingdom to decline.
Portuguese diplomat Pêro da Covilhã (1460 – after 1526) undertook a mission to explore the
trade routes of the Near East and the adjoining regions of Asia and Africa. The exploration
commenced from Santana (1487) to Barcelona, Naples, Alexandria, Cairo and ultimately to
India.
Portuguese explorer and adventurer Vasco da Gama is credited with establishing another sea
. Europe to India by sailing around Africa from 1497-99.
route from
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are devastated by infectious diseases from Europe; in
response, European colonial powers being to transport enslaved Africans via the transatlantic
slave trade to provide laborers for plantations and mines. This trade, in turn, was destructive to
the societies of West Africa where slaves were captured and sold.
The transatlantic slave trade transported unprecedented numbers of captive slaves, numbering
roughly 12 million people, from Africa to European colonies in the Americas. Conditions in the
slave ships were extremely inhumane and many slaves died in their attempted capture and in
transit. Slaves were able to start families and established new populations in the Americas,
although families could be broken up when family members were sold away.
In the 1530s, the Portuguese shipped spices to Hormuz.
The Spanish empire had to establish coastal patrols and forts in the late 1500s to protect gold
and silver transported in trading ships across the Atlantic from foreign pirates.
Japan was served by the Portuguese from Macau and later by the Dutch.
Despite the late entry of the United States into the spice trade, merchants from Salem, Massachusetts
trade profitably with Sumatra during the early years of the 19th century.
In 1815, the first commercial shipment of nutmegs from Sumatra arrived in Europe.
.
Grenada became involved in the spice trade.
The Siamese–American Treaty of 1833 called for free trade, except for export of rice and import of
arms.
The Opium Wars break out between Western nations and China, resulting in the Chinese government
being forced to open trade to foreign powers.
Britain unilaterally adopted a policy of free trade and abolished the Corn Laws in 1846.
The first international free trade agreement, the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty, was finalized in 1860
between the United Kingdom and France, prepared by Richard Cobden and Michel Chevalier;it sparked
off successive agreements between other countries in Europe.
The Japanese Meiji Restoration (1868) led the way to Japan opening its borders and quickly
industrializing through free trade. Under bilateral treaties restraint of trade imports to Japan were
forbidden.
In 1873, the Vienna Slump signaled the start of the continental Long Depression, during which support
for protectionism grew
In 1946. the Bretton Woods system goes into effect; it had been planned since 1944 as an
international economic structure to prevent further depressions and wars. It included
institutions and rules intended to prevent national trade barriers being erected, as the lack of
free trade was considered by many to have been a principal cause
In 1947, 23 countries agree to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to rationalize trade
. nations.
among the
In Europe, six countries form the European Coal and Steel Community (SPECS) in 1951, the
first international organisation to be based on the principles of supranationalism.
The European Economic Community (EEC) is established by the Inner Six European countries
with a common commercial policy in 1957.
The European Free Trade Association (FEAT) is established in 1960 as a trade block alternative
by the Outer Seven European countries who did not join the EEC.
Four important ISO (International Organization for Standardization) recommendations
standardized containerization globally.
1 January 1994: The European Economic Area (SEA ) is formed to provide for the free movement of persons, goods, services
and capital within the internal market of the European Union as well as three of the four member states of the European Free
Trade Association.
1 January 1994: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) takes effect.
November 2018 - the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement is signed which replaces NAFTA
1 January 1995: World Trade Organization is created to facilitate free trade, by mandating mutual most favored nation trading
.
status between all signatories.
1 January 2002: Twelve countries of the European Union launch the Euro zone (euro in cash), which instantly becomes the
second most used currency in the world.
2008-2009 : during the Great Trade Collapse, a drop of world GDP of 1% caused a drop of international trade of 10%.
In 2013, China began its economic integration and infrastructure project, called the Belt and Road Initiative.
2014: India launches its Make in India initiative and announces its Act East Policy.
Timeline of Brexit: the United Kingdom votes in 2016 to leave the European Union, which it formally does in January 2020.
30 October 2016: the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union is signed
30 December 2018: the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership enters into force
1 February 2019: the European Union–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) enters into force.
1 January 2021: The African Continental Free Trade Area comes into effect
1 January 2022: The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the largest free trade area in the world, comes into effect
for Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Maritime traders most often congregated in ports, which were considered the point in which land and
sea met that linked the hinterland to the wider world. There were some ports that were more favored
than others, blessed with a good location, with sufficient warehouse facilities, accessible harbors, and
adequate supplies of food and water became "entrepôts," which were essentially the super-centers for
trade. It was rare that these ports were ever considered a final destination, though, but rather central
meeting .points in what was an ever-changing economic and political environment. Whether in Asia,
Europe, or Africa, these port centers consisted of ethnically and culturally diverse communities. Many
had officials that were of foreign birth or ancestry - they were skilled in being knowledgeable of the
various cultures and languages of merchants that would work throughout the ports who were also
foreign, this was done in order to be successful in supervising the trade that had occurred. Throughout
many of the ports, merchants had become a more powerful group in local politics. Further, these ports
promoted cultural exchange, along with economic exchange, due to the fact that it had been open to
the world for races, cultures, and ideas to intermix with one another, along with the fact that this blend
of both locals and outsiders from diverse backgrounds that were open to accepting cultural
differences. Nation-building and modernity reduced the role of trade through the sea and increased the
reliance on trade through the land and the air in economic and social exchange. Even though
Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong are still vibrant and available to the world, similar to their early
modern counterparts serving functions such as tourism which is unrelated to foreign trade, only a few
Inland trade moved both by water, and overland itself. For example, shipping in small boats went along the coasts of India, bu
inland waterways were readily available to use to transport goods throughout many parts of India, especially in the south.
Caravans that contained numbers from ten, all the way to up forty thousand pack or draft animals moved overland at a time.
Combinations of these forms of transportation carried throughout the subcontinent and were therefore transshipped to and f
long-distance maritime trade. The majority of all of the port cities were in symbiosis with the caravan routes to and from their
related hinterland interiors, and sometimes even with distant transcontinental regions. This is especially true in Central Asia
and it is suggested that the continental trade over both the land and the ocean maritime trade should be viewed not as separ
.
or competitive, but rather as mirror images of one another
The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and
the African Union (AU).It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial
stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
The G20 is composed of most of the world's largest economies' finance ministries, including both industrialised and
developing countries; it accounts for around 80% of gross world product (GWP), 75% of international trade, two-thirds of
the global population,and 60% of the world's land area.
.
The G20's primary focus has been governance of the global economy. Summit themes have varied from year to year. The
theme of the 2006 G20 ministerial meeting was "Building and Sustaining Prosperity". The issues discussed included
domestic reforms to achieve "sustained growth", global energy and resource commodity markets, reform of the World
Bank and IMF, and the impact of demographic changes.
In 2007, South Africa hosted the secretariat with Trevor A. Manuel, South African Minister of Finance as chairperson of
the G20.
In 2008, Guido Mantega, Brazil's Minister of Finance, was the G20 chairperson and proposed dialogue on competition in
financial markets, clean energy, economic development and fiscal elements of growth and development.
On 11 October 2008 after a meeting of G8 finance ministers, US President George W. Bush stated that the next meeting of
the G20 would be important in finding solutions to the burgeoning economic crisis of 2008.
The people are composed of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds, all empires are ultimately held together by coercion and the threat of forcible
reconquest. Imposing their rule on diversent structures, they are characterized by the centralization of power and the absence of effective
representation of their component parts. Although force is thus the primary instrument of imperial rule, it is also true that history records many
cases of multiethnic empires that were governed peaceably for considerable periods and were often quite successful in maintaining order within
their boundaries. The history of the ancient world is the history of great empires—Egypt, China, Persia, and imperial Rome—whose autocratic
regimes provided relatively stable government for many subject peoples in immense territories over many centuries. Based on military force and
religious belief, the ancient despotisms were legitimized also by their achievements in building great bureaucratic and legal structures, in
developing vast irrigation and road systems, and in providing the conditions for the support of high civilizations. Enhancing and transcending all
other political structures in their sphere, they could claim to function as effective schemes of universal order.
In contrast to the empires of the ancient world, the colonial empires of more recent times fell far short of universal status. In part, these modern
European empires were made up of “colonies” in the original Greek sense; peopled by immigrants from the mother country, the colonies usually
established political structures similar to those of the metropolitan centre and were often able to exercise a substantial measure of self-government.
In part, also, the European empires were composed of territories inhabited by native populations and administered by imperial bureaucracies. The
government of these territories was generally more coercive than in the European colonies and more concerned with protection and supervision of
the commercial, industrial, and other exploitative interests of the imperial power. The disintegration of these empires occurred with astonishing
speed. The two world wars of the 20th century sapped the power of the metropolitan centres, while their own doctrines of democracy, equality, and
self-determination undermined the principle of imperial rule. Powers such as Britain and France found it increasingly difficult to resist claims to
independence couched in terms of the representative concepts on which their home governments were based, and they lacked the military and
economic strength to continue their rule over restive native populations. In the two decades after 1945, nearly all the major colonial territories won
their independence; the great colonial empires that had once ruled more than half the world were finally dismembered .