HISTORY std v 2021-22

Transport and Communication

Transport:

Earliest means of Transport:

• Transport is the system of moving goods and people from one
place to another.
• Earlier walking was the most common mode of transport.
• Slowly, people learnt to domesticate animals and started
using them for moving goods and for travelling.
• Earlier tamed pack of dogs would pull a heavy load on
sledges.
• Later animals like donkeys, camels, horses, and elephants
were also tamed to carry goods and people.
• Transport changed with the invention of wheel.
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 Invention of the Wheel
• The wheel was invented 5000 years ago, a Neolithic discovery.
• The earliest human beings used to drag things from place to place
and later realized that things that roll move faster.
• Gradually people invented wheels, which made it easier to move
things from place to place.
• The known wheel found in an archaeological excavation is from
Mesopotamia and dates to around 3500BCE.

Wheels → Trade → Better Transport → Trade far and wide:

• As humans advanced, villages and towns had surplus goods,
trade started.
• Wheeled vehicles like carts could transport
goods(commodities) from one place to another.
• The muscle power of the bullocks and horses was used to
move the vehicles.
• People also started transporting goods by water.
• Boats used the muscle power of rowers while sailboats used
wind power.

Trade with distant places

• When the people wanted something
that they did not have, they exchanged it
what they had, to buy the different things
that they wanted.
• For example, a potter got food grains in
exchange of pots.
• This system of exchanging goods is
known as the Barter System.

Famous Explorers:
• Marco Polo- Marco Polo was a merchant and explorer
from Italy who lived in the 13th century and traveled
throughout the Far East and China from Europe using the
Silk Road to trade for most of his life.
• Christopher Columbus- An Explorer form Italy tried to
find a trade route to India by sea. He sailed west from
Europe and reached America instead in the 15th Century.

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 • Vasco Da Gama- He was a Portuguese explorer and sailed from Europe and found India in
the 15th Century. He decided to sail as the travel over land would take very long and would
be very expensive.
• Ferdinand Magellan- A Portuguese explorer, he sailed west form Europe looking for a way
to reach East Indies (Southeast Asia) which was also an important trade route. His ship sailed
around the world which proved that the Earth was round. Until then in the 16th century
people believed that the Earth was flat.
The long journeys of these explorers were possible because the shipbuilding in Europe had
improved a great deal.
Travelling became faster and faster
• Power of steam was discovered which changed travelling.
• Sea journey became faster as steam ships used this power
in engines fitted in their ships.
• Steam was also used to power locomotives or engines of
trains invented in England in the early 19th century.
• Later in the 19th century crude oil and petroleum were
discovered, and motor cars started using petrol to travel.
• Slowly airplanes also used petrol to take flights.
• Today electricity is also used to power railways and some
motor cars.
• All these discoveries have made transport faster and more
efficient.

Questions

1. How did trading help to bring different cultures together?

2. Does trading help us now a days too? How?
3. What is muscle power?
4. How is the power used by early human beings different to the power used these days for
vehicles?
5. In ancient times trade journeys could be dangerous and difficult. It also took months and
years since travel was slow. Why do you think trade continued to grow and develop?
6. What types of challenges do you think people faced with transport then (in the past) and
now?
7. The wheel and technology have made transport very comfortable for us, but the fuel used in
so many thousands of vehicles pollute the atmosphere. How can we balance our needs for
comfortable transport with needs to have clean air.

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Communication:

Evolution of communication:
• Communication is the process by which you convey your ideas
thoughts and emotions to another.
• Communication also means to be in touch with others through
reading, writing, speaking, or travelling and this is very easy for us
due to technology.

Early methods of communication

• At first people communicated only by gestures which was later
replaced by oral communication.
• Earlier humans also communicated by drawing on cave walls.
• Over time they developed a system of drawing shapes to talk to each
other.
• As cities developed people felt the need to write down things related
to trades, poems stories and so on.
• For hundreds of years, letters were carried by people who
travelled by walking, riding or by carriages or boats which
took many months to reach.
• Later homing pigeons were trained to fly between two places
by tying brief messages to their leg even during battles.
• Smoke signals were also used to signal or transmit news.

Technological developments in communication

1) Printing Press:
o All writing was done by hand until the 15th century CE, when the first
printing press was invented in Germany.
o Letters of the alphabet, made of wood or metal, were arranged on a
machine to form words and sentences.
o These were inked and then the papers were printed.
o This enabled printing more copies in less time at a lower cost which
made it easier for the common man to obtain them at affordable prices.
o This was a revolution which led to the spreading of knowledge.

2) Telegraph, Telephones, Typewriters-

o In the 19th century, the telegraph, a method
of sending messages (quicker than sending
a letter) using electricity was developed in
England and United States.
o This system was invented by Samuel
Morse.

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 o Later, also in the 19th Century, the first telephone conversation took place in the
United States by Alexander Graham Bell and people who were far away could have
a conversation.
o The first typewriter was also invented around the same time in United States.
o This enabled people to type letters and documents much faster than writing them by
hand.

3) Radio and television

o Messages were first sent by radio in the early
20th century.
o Later the first television message was
transmitted.
o Radio and Television made it possible to deliver
news, information, and entertainment to
thousands of people at the same time.

Modern communication-
Modern methods of communication have completely changed the way we communicate
with one another.

1) Satellites-
o Satellites are man-made machines which revolve in fixed paths
around the Earth.
o They have many functions.
o Communication satellites allow radio, television, and telephone
transmissions to be sent live anywhere around the world.

2) The Internet-

This world wide web of connections makes instant

communication possible with Computers, laptops,
tablets, or smart phones to:

o Send and receive voice messages.

o Get information from any part of the world
o Use social networking sites.
o Upload and download Pictures.
o Book travel tickets and shop online.

3) Mobile Phones-

o Network is found in many places where earlier telephone systems

could not reach hence now many people can get connected.

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Questions

1. What is the meaning of communication?

2. What were the different early means of communication?
3. What is a smoke signal? How do you think people communicated through smoke signals?
4. In India, animals are still used for travelling, carrying goods, and communicating. Do you
think this is right? Explain.
5. Name the different technological developments in communication.
6. Write one sentence each on the advantages of the following inventions-
a) Printing press
b) Telegraph
c) Telephone
d) Radio
7. Television State and explain the modern means of communication.
8. Development in transport and communication makes the world seem like a smaller place as
we can travel and communicate much faster than before. Explain
9. Give five ways in which internet can be used. Describe its role in our everyday lives.

*This booklet is for internal distribution only*