Get summary, textual answers, solutions, notes, extras, PDF to NBSE Class 11 (Arts) History (Themes in World History) Chapter 10: Displacing Indigenous People. However, the educational materials should only be used for reference and students are encouraged to make necessary changes.
Introduction
In this chapter, we delve into the complex and fascinating histories of the native peoples of North America and Australia from the 17th to 20th centuries. The European colonization of North America marked the beginning of an intriguing and transformative period in world history. Millions of individuals, driven by dreams of fortune and opportunity, left the Old World behind and embarked on a journey to the Americas, forever altering the lives of the indigenous populations. Similarly, in the 19th century, settlers ventured across the Indian Ocean to the newly discovered lands of Australia and New Zealand, leading to the displacement of native peoples and the establishment of European colonies. These colonies eventually gained independence and grew into thriving nations with diverse populations, as both European and Asian immigrants settled in these lands. Although the native inhabitants now constitute a minority, their influence is still evident in the names of towns, rivers, and landmarks that echo their cultural heritage. As historians and anthropologists continue to uncover the stories of these native peoples, we gain a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between the past and the present, and the lasting legacies of colonization on indigenous communities.
Textual questions and answers
Very short answer type questions
1. Why is America known as ‘New World’?
Answer: America is known as the ‘New World’ because it was discovered later by Europeans and was previously unknown to them.
2. Who discovered North America?
Answer: North America was discovered by John Cabot.
3. How many colonies of North America revolted against the British?
Answer: Thirteen colonies of North America revolted against the British.
4. When did France, England and Holland begin trading activities with North America?
Answer: France, England, and Holland began trading activities with North America in the seventeenth century.
5. The word America is taken from which brave person?
Answer: The word America is taken from the name of the brave explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
Short answer type questions
1. Describe the geographical feature of North America.
Answer: The continent of North America extends from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. West of the chain of the Rocky Mountains is the desert of Arizona and Nevada. Still further west, there are the Sierra Nevada Mountains. To the east are the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, the valley of the river Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Appalachian Mountains. To the south is Mexico. Forty per cent of the area of Canada is covered with forests. Minerals like oil and gas are found in many areas. It thus led to the establishment of big industries in the U.S.A. and Canada. Canada is a big producer of corn and fruit. Fishing is also a major industry of Canada.
2. When and how did the colonisation begin in America?
Answer: The process of colonisation of North America by the Europeans began early in the 17th century. It was the beginning of the most interesting story in world history. It was made up of the hopes and plans of countless young men coming to North America to seek their fortune, of wives following husbands, and parents following sons and daughters. For about four centuries, this great throng of humanity bade goodbye to the “old world”, crossed the Atlantic and began to live in the New World in the Americas.
3. Describe the expansion of colonial imperialism.
Answer: Spain and Portugal had established their empires in South America between the 16th and the 17th centuries. After the seventeenth century, France, Holland, and England started extending their trading activities. They started establishing their colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Even Ireland was also virtually a colony of its neighbour England. The landlords in Ireland were mostly English settlers. The European powers had established these colonies for amassing wealth and exploiting the natives. But the nature of control over their colonies varied. In South East Asia, the trading companies like the East India Company, at first, had profit motives. But they began to interfere in the affairs of the native states and became political powers. They defeated the local rulers and annexed their territories. They did not make many changes in the older administrative system and collected taxes from the landowners. In order to promote their own trade, they built railways and industries, excavated mines, and set up plantations. In Africa, they confined their trading activities to the coastal areas, except in South Africa. It was only in the late nineteenth century that they penetrated into the interior of the continent. The race for the colonisation of the continent among the European powers became intense. Some of the European countries reached an agreement to divide up the continent as colonies for themselves.
4. What was the impression of European scholars about the Native Americans?
Answer: In the 18th century, the Western Europeans considered three factors essential for civilised people, namely, literacy, an organised religion, and urbanism. They thought that the Native Americans were “uncivilised”. But the great French scholar Jean Jacques Rousseau admired such people because they were untouched by corruptions of civilisation. A popular term was “Noble Savage.” Wordsworth, the English poet, described them as living amid “Wilds where fancy hath small liberty to grace/The affections, to exalt them or refine.” He meant that people living close to nature had only limited powers of imagination and emotion. Both Rousseau and Wordsworth had never met a Native American.
5. How did Slavery come to an end?
Answer: The plantation owners had enslaved the natives to work in the southern regions of North America. Some of the European groups had started the anti-slavery movement. This led to a ban on the slave trade. The northern states of the U.S.A. had no slaves. Some groups of the northern states condemned this inhuman practice. In 1861-65, a war broke out between the states that wanted to retain slaves and those who wanted to abolish slavery. In this civil war, the northern states came out victorious. Slavery was legally abolished in the U.S.A. But it was only in the twentieth century that the African Americans won the battle of civil liberties after a hard struggle. The Government was obliged to end segregation between ‘whites’ and ‘non-whites’ in schools and public transport.
Long answer type questions
1. How did the Europeans exploit the natives of North America?
Answer: The European settlers in the U.S.A. induced or forced the natives to sell them their lands after signing treaties. The natives were paid very low prices for their lands. The European settlers of the U.S.A. even cheated the natives by taking more land or paying less than promised. Even the U.S. Government officials had no sympathy with the native people who had been unjustly deprived of their lands. An episode in Georgia, a state of U.S.A., shows such attitude of the officials. The officials argued that a native tribe “Cherokee” was governed by state laws, but were not entitled to rights of citizens. The Cherokees were eagerly learning English and understood the American way of life but were denied the rights of citizens.
In 1832, Justice Marshall, the Chief Justice of Supreme Court, in an important judgement said that Cherokees were a distinct community, occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia had no force and that they had sovereignty in certain matters. The U.S. President Andrew Jackson, was against economic and political privileges. But he did not come to secure the Cherokees their rights. He refused to honour the Chief Justice’s judgement. He rather ordered the U.S. army to evict the Cherokee tribals from their lands and to drive them to the Great American Desert. About 15,000 Cherokees were forced to go, about, a quarter died on their way.
The Whites who occupied the land of the tribals, justified it by saying that the natives did not use the land to the maximum. They, therefore, did not deserve to occupy the land. They condemned them as lazy people. “They did not use their craft and skills to produce goods for the market, far being interested in English, or dressing correctly”. They wanted them to “die out”, the Whites cleared the farmlands and killed off bisons. A visiting Frenchman wrote, “Primitive man will disappear with the primitive animal.”
Now the natives were pushed westwards. They were given land elsewhere but when any mineral, lead, gold or oil was found on their lands. They were again evicted and sent elsewhere. Many tribes were compelled to share the land originally occupied by one tribe. This led to quarrels between them. They were confined to small areas called “reservations”. In most of the cases, it was a land with which the natives had no earlier connection. They gave in only after tough fighting. The U.S. forces ruthlessly crushed a series of rebellions of the natives from 1865 to 1890. In Canada also there were rebellions by the Metis (people of European descent) between 1869 and 1885. But after that there were no revolts.
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2. Describe the history of imperialistic expansion of North America.
Answer: The nineteenth century saw a drastic change in the landscape of America. The Europeans treated the land differently from the natives. Some of the migrants from Great Britain and France were the younger sons of their parents who would not inherit their father’s property. They, therefore, were eager to own land in America. Later, a large number of immigrants from countries like Germany, Sweden and Italy reached America. They had lost their lands to big farmers and wanted to own farms. The people from Poland who had migrated to America, were happy to work in large flat areas of grassy land. They were able to buy huge properties at very low prices. They cleared forests and cultivated crops like rice and cotton which could not be grown in Europe. They could send the produce to Europe and sell with huge profits.
To protect their big farms from wild animals like wolves and mountain lions, they hunted them indiscriminately. With the invention of barbed wires in 1873, the farmers felt totally secure from the wild animals. The Europeans had brought slaves from the African countries to work in South America.
The plantation owners had enslaved the natives to work in the southern regions of North America. Some of the European groups had started anti-slavery movement. This lead to a ban on slave trade. The northern states of the U.S.A. had no slaves. Some groups of the northern states condemned this inhuman practice. In 1861-65, a war broke out between the states that wanted to retain slaves and those who wanted to abolish slavery. In this civil war, the northern states came out victorious. Slavery was legally abolished in the U.S.A. But it was only in the twentieth century that the African Americans won the battle of civil liberties after hard struggle.
The Government was obliged to end segregation between ‘whites’ and ‘non-whites’ in schools and public transport.
The Canadian Government was faced with a more urgent problem than the question of natives. The British had occupied Canada in 1763, after a war with France. The French settlers demanded dominion status like other British colonies. The British were obliged to accept the demand of Canadians by establishing Canada as a Confederation of autonomous states.
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3. What was the attitude of the Europeans towards the aboriginals of North America?
Answer: The natives were friendly to the European immigrants. They considered the goods they exchanged with the Europeans as gifts given in friendship. But the Europeans had profit motives. They dreamt of becoming rich. For them fish and furs were the commodities which they would sell for a huge profit in Europe. The native Americans had no knowledge about the theories of economics. Depending upon the supply of goods, the prices of the goods they sold varied from year to year. The natives could not understand this phenomenon. They had no knowledge or sense about the market position in far away Europe. They did not understand why the European traders sometimes gave them huge quantities of goods in exchange for their goods while sometimes very little. They were much annoyed by the greed of the Europeans. In their impatience to obtain furs, the Europeans had slaughtered hundreds of beavers. The natives were saddened. They feared that the animals would take revenge on them for the destruction of these animals. The first Europeans who came to America were traders. Those who came later, came to settle in the “New World”. From the 17th century, the Protestant Christians were being persecuted in the predominantly Catholic Christian countries of Europe. Many of the Protestant Christians left Europe and migrated to America to begin a new life. As long as the vacant land was available, there was no problem. When no vacant land was available in the coastal areas, the Europeans moved further inland near native villages. They cleared the forests with iron tools to lay out agricultural farms.
The Europeans cut down forests to cultivate land to grow corns. Jefferson the U.S. military general, wanted to make it a country populated by the Europeans with small farms. The natives grew crops only for their own needs, not for making profit. They thought it wrong to “own the land”. Jefferson viewed that this made the natives “uncivilised”.
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4. Describe the struggle of the natives of America for their political rights.
Answer: The governments took no measures to improve the condition of the native peoples of the U.S.A. and Canada. The Economic Depression of 1929-32, which engulfed the U.S.A., affected all the people. There was a grim picture of the terrible poor health and education facilities for natives in the “reservation areas”.
Though the White Americans felt sympathies for the natives, yet they denied them the benefits of citizenship. A major step for the betterment of the native Americans was taken when the Indian Reorganisation Act, of 1834, was passed. It gave the natives in reservation areas the right to buy land and take loans.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the U.S. and Canadian Governments thought of abolishing all special provisions for the natives, presuming that they would join the main stream. It meant that they would adopt European culture. But the natives were severely opposed to this. In 1954, they prepared “the Declaration of Indian Rights”. A number of native people accepted the citizenship of the U.S.A. They, however, laid down the condition that their reservation areas would not be taken away and there would be no interference in their traditions. In Canada also there was a similar development. In 1969, the Canadian Government declared that it would not “recognise aboriginal rights”. The natives severely opposed this announcement. They held a series of demonstrations and debates. Till AD 1982, the question remained unsolved. But the Constitution Act of that year accepted the existing aboriginal treaty rights of the natives. The native people of both the countries are fully awakened. Though reduced so much in numbers from what they had been in the 18th century, they have forcefully asserted their rights to their own cultures and particularly in Canada, to their sacred lands, in such a powerful way their ancestors could not have done in the 1880’s.
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5. What was the policy of the Government of Australia towards the emigrants?
Answer: The policy of the Government of Australia towards emigrants, particularly during the 19th and 20th centuries, was shaped by several key factors. Initially, Australia was established as a penal colony in 1788, and many of its early European settlers were convicts. Once the penal period ended, free settlers, mostly of European descent, were encouraged to emigrate. Throughout much of its history, Australia’s immigration policies were restrictive, favouring Europeans, especially those from Britain. The “White Australia” policy, which was implemented in 1901 with the formation of the Commonwealth, effectively barred non-European immigration, especially from Asian countries. This policy remained in place until the 1970s.
After the Second World War, Australia’s government actively encouraged European migration as part of its “populate or perish” strategy, aiming to boost the nation’s population for economic development and national security reasons. This policy led to an influx of European emigrants, particularly from southern and eastern Europe, while non-European migration remained heavily restricted until the dismantling of the “White Australia” policy in the 1970s.
The post-1970s period saw significant changes, with the Australian government adopting more inclusive and multicultural immigration policies. These allowed for an increase in migrants from Asia and other parts of the world, contributing to Australia’s diverse population today(10).
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The west frontier of the United States is special because:
A. It keeps shifting
B. It has the army headquarters
C. It is very fertile
D. It is a desert
Answer: A. It keeps shifting
2. Which country helped to build the railway lines of the United States of America?
A. China
B. India
C. Japan
D. Africa
Answer: A. China
3. When did the US Civil War take place?
A. 1442-52
B. 1807-10
C. 1750-56
D. 1861-65
Answer: D. 1861-65
4. Which country was won by the Britishers in their war with France in 1763?
A. Germany
B. UAE
C. Jerusalem
D. Canada
Answer: D. Canada
5. Who was Thomas Jefferson?
A. Scientist
B. Third President of United States
C. Jurist
D. Philosopher
Answer: B. Third President of United States
Competency Based Questions
Multiple Choice Questions II
1. Consider the following statements.
(i) The name of Canada originated from a word ‘kanata’, which means village.
(ii) In Latin language Southern means ‘austral’.
(iii) New Zealand got its name from Holland’s Tasman.
Which statement(s) is/are correct in the above statement?
A. Only statement (i) is correct
B. Only statement (ii) is correct
C. Only statement (iii) is correct
D. All the above statements are correct
Answer: D. All the above statements are correct
2. Match the following and select the correct option:
Column A
A. Discovery of a new world
B. Discovery of barbed wires
C. America purchased Louisiana from Australia
D. Six states were combined to make Australia
E. National Sorry Day is celebrated in Australia on
Column B
(i) 1803
(ii) 1901
(iii) 1492
(iv) 1998
(v) 1873
Options:
(a) A-(iii), B-(v), C-(i), D-(ii), E-(iv)
(b) A-(iv), B-(iii), C-(ii), D-(i), E-(v)
(c) A-(v), B-(iii), C-(i), D-(ii), E-(iv)
(d) A-(iii), B-(v), C-(ii), D-(i), E-(iv)
Answer: D. A-(iii), B-(v), C-(ii), D-(i), E-(iv)
3. Consider the following statements.
(i) The Natives of America can read the earth.
(ii) In America, the English infantry used to wear white coats.
(iii) Slaves were imported in America from Africa.
Answer: D. Only statement (i) and (iii) are correct
4. In 1968 anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner delivered a lecture ‘The Great Australian Silence’. It refers to:
(a) The silence of historians about the origin of the aborigines.
(b) The silence of historians about the past inventions.
(c) The silence of politicians about the problems of people.
(d) The Geographies about environment.
Answer: A. The silence of historians about the origin of the aborigines
5. Consider the following statements.
(i) The constitution was implemented in America in 1887.
(ii) There is a gold mine in California, America.
(iii) There was no difference between Europeans and Native Americans.
(iv) Settler word was used for Britishers in Australia.
Answer: B. Only statement (ii) is correct
Case-based Question
The northern states of the U.S.A., where the economy did not depend on plantations (and therefore on slavery) argued for ending slavery which they condemned as an inhuman practice. In 1861-65, there was a war between the states that wanted to retain slavery and those supporting its abolition. The latter won. Slavery was abolished, though it was only in the twentieth century that the African Americans were able to win the battle for civil liberties, and the segregation between ‘whites’ and ‘non-whites’ in schools and public transport was ended.
1. What was the attitude of the northern states towards slavery?
Answer: The northern states of the U.S.A., where the economy did not depend on plantations (and therefore on slavery), argued for ending slavery, which they condemned as an inhuman practice.
2. What was the cause of the war between the northern and southern states in 1861-65?
Answer: The war between the states in 1861-65 was caused by the disagreement over slavery. The southern states wanted to retain slavery, while the northern states supported its abolition.
3. When did the African Americans win the battle of civil liberties?
Answer: The African Americans won the battle of civil liberties in the twentieth century, when the segregation between ‘whites’ and ‘non-whites’ in schools and public transport was ended.
Pictorial Questions
1. Identify the following pictures and write their name.
Answer: A. Wampum Belt
B. Native American Tipi Structure
Extra/additional MCQs
1. When did the process of colonisation of North America by Europeans begin?
A. Early 16th century
B. Early 17th century
C. Early 18th century
D. Late 19th century
Answer: B. Early 17th century
48. What year did Britain grant self-government to Australian colonies?
A. 1850
B. 1860
C. 1870
D. 1880
Answer: A. 1850
Extra/additional questions and answers
1. When did the process of colonisation of North America by Europeans begin?
Answer: The process of colonisation of North America by Europeans began early in the 17th century.
36. How did Australia’s government policy change towards the native populations and immigrants in the 20th century?
Answer: In the 1970s, Australia, like the U.S. and Canada, became eager to understand its native communities. The government began to recognize the unique cultures, traditions, and skills of the aboriginal people. Universities established departments to study native cultures, and museums expanded to display native art and artifacts. The concept of “Human Rights” became more prevalent in public discourse, and the Australian government began acknowledging the historical injustice done to the aboriginals. By the 21st century, this shift led to two important decisions: recognizing the aboriginals’ sacred connection to their lands and issuing a public apology for the forcible separation of mixed-blood children from their families. In February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd publicly apologized to the aboriginal people for past atrocities, marking a new chapter in Australia’s history.
Ron’e Dutta is a journalist, teacher, aspiring novelist, and blogger who manages Online Free Notes. An avid reader of Victorian literature, his favourite book is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. He dreams of travelling the world. You can connect with him on social media. He does personal writing on ronism.
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