Get summaries, questions, answers, solutions, notes, extras, PDF and guide of Class 11 (first year) History textbook, chapter 6 Displacing Indigenous Peoples which is part of the syllabus of students studying under AHSEC/ASSEB (Assam Board). These solutions, however, should only be treated as references and can be modified/changed.
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Summary
The chapter describes how European settlers displaced the indigenous peoples of America and Australia. It explains that before the Europeans arrived, these lands were home to many native groups who lived by hunting, fishing, and farming. They had their own languages, traditions, and ways of life. The arrival of settlers changed everything. Europeans considered the land as something to be owned, while the natives saw it as something to be shared.
In North America, European settlers pushed the natives off their land, often through unfair treaties or force. They introduced new ways of farming and built large industries, cutting down forests and hunting animals like bison to near extinction. The natives were moved to small areas called reservations, where they struggled to keep their traditions alive. Many native groups fought back, but the settlers, backed by strong armies, defeated them. Diseases brought by the settlers also killed many natives.
In Australia, a similar story unfolded. The British sent convicts to live there and take over the land. They saw the natives as primitive and did not respect their ways of life. Over time, most of the indigenous population was either killed or forced into difficult living conditions. Many children of mixed native and European descent were taken away from their families in an attempt to erase their culture.
For many years, history books ignored the suffering of the native peoples. They were seen as obstacles to progress. However, in the 20th century, people started to acknowledge these past injustices. Native groups fought for their rights, and laws were changed to recognise their traditions and land claims. Museums now display native history and culture, and governments have apologised for past wrongs.
The chapter also discusses how the settlers built modern countries like the USA, Canada, and Australia. They brought industries, railways, and large farms, but at the cost of native lands and lives. The idea of democracy and personal freedom spread, but these rights were initially only for white settlers. Slavery was another dark part of this history, as African people were brought in chains to work on farms. Even after slavery ended, black people faced discrimination for many years.
The chapter highlights how different the worldviews of settlers and natives were. The settlers wanted to own and profit from the land, while the natives lived in harmony with nature. This misunderstanding led to conflict, suffering, and the near destruction of native cultures. Today, efforts are being made to preserve what remains of these cultures and to recognise the struggles faced by indigenous peoples.
Textbook solutions
Answer in Brief
1. Comment on any points of difference between the native peoples of South and North America.
Answer: Native peoples in North America did not attempt extensive agriculture, and since they did not produce a surplus, they did not develop kingdoms and empires as occurred in Central and South America. While there were some instances of quarrels between tribes over territory in North America, by and large, control of land was not an issue, and they were content with the food and shelter they got from the land without feeling any need to ‘own’ it. In contrast, the Spanish in South America were overcome by the abundance of gold in the country.
2. Other than the use of English, what other features of English economic and social life do you notice in nineteenth-century USA?
Answer: Other features of English (European-American) economic and social life noticeable in nineteenth-century USA include:
- Economic Life:
- Expansion of territory through purchase (like the Louisiana Purchase from France) and war (winning southern USA from Mexico).
- Treating land differently from natives; clearing forests for farms, introducing crops like corn, rice, and cotton for sale and profit, which could not grow in Europe.
- Development of large-scale agriculture, clearing vast areas, and dividing them into farms protected by barbed wire (invented 1873).
- Hunting wild animals like wolves, mountain lions, and bison to extinction, partly to protect farms and partly ending the native hunting life.
- A ‘Gold Rush’ starting in the 1840s in California, attracting thousands of Europeans seeking quick fortunes.
- Building transcontinental railways (USA’s completed by 1870) to link distant places, often using immigrant labor (like Chinese workers).
- Rapid industrial development, manufacturing railway equipment and machinery for large-scale farming, making the USA the leading industrial power by 1890 from an undeveloped economy in 1860.
- In the southern states, a plantation economy dependent on slave labor, initially attempting to use natives, then relying on African slaves bought in Africa.
- Social Life:
- A strong belief in the individual’s ‘right to property’, enshrined in the constitution, which the state could not override, though this right, like democratic rights (voting), was initially only for white men.
- Waves of immigration from European countries (like Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Poland) driven by desires to own land they couldn’t inherit or had lost back home, attracted by cheap, large properties.
- Viewing native peoples as ‘uncivilised’ because they didn’t ‘own’ land in the European sense, didn’t produce goods for the market, were perceived as ‘lazy’, and didn’t adopt European language or dress. This view was used to justify taking their land.
- The institution of slavery, particularly in the southern states. Although the slave trade was banned, Africans already in the USA remained slaves, along with their children. This led to the Civil War (1861-65) between northern states arguing for abolition and southern states wanting to retain slavery. Slavery was abolished after the war, but segregation and denial of civil liberties for African Americans persisted.
- Development of anthropology from the 1840s, studying the differences between ‘primitive’ native communities and ‘civilised’ European ones, with some anthropologists believing natives would ‘die out’.
- The concept of a shifting western ‘frontier’ which moved as European settlement expanded, forcing natives back.
3. What did the ‘frontier’ mean to the Americans?
Answer: To the Americans, specifically the European settlers, the western ‘frontier’ of the USA was a shifting line that moved westward as they extended their control over more territory. It represented the edge of settled land and the beginning of areas predominantly inhabited by native peoples. This frontier pulled European settlers west for many decades, embodying, as Karl Marx described it, ‘limitless nature and space’ for expansion and profit. By 1892, the USA’s continental expansion was complete, the area between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans was divided into states, and the ‘frontier’ in this sense ceased to exist.
4. Why was the history of the Australian native peoples left out of history books?
Answer: The history of the Australian native peoples was largely left out of history books until the later twentieth century primarily because historical narratives focused on the European perspective. Textbooks typically described how Europeans ‘discovered’ Australia and hardly mentioned the native peoples except to suggest they were hostile. This exclusion was part of what anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner termed ‘The Great Australian Silence’. Furthermore, the government had always termed the land of Australia terra nullius, meaning belonging to nobody, which implicitly denied the natives’ long-standing presence, connection to the land, and therefore, their history prior to European arrival. Historians often wrote Australian history as though it began only with Captain Cook’s ‘discovery’, thus ignoring the preceding 40,000+ years of aboriginal history.
Answer in a Short Essay
5. How satisfactory is a museum gallery display in explaining the culture of a people? Give examples from your own experience of a museum.
Answer: Museum gallery displays can offer a valuable starting point for understanding the culture of a people, but their satisfactoriness varies greatly depending on how the culture is presented.
Today, it is possible to visit museums in countries like America and Australia and see galleries of ‘native art’ and special museums which show the aboriginal way of life. These displays, especially newer ones, sometimes include imaginatively designed rooms and dioramas that attempt to explain the culture. For instance, the new National Museum of the American Indian in the USA, which has been curated by American Indians themselves, likely offers a much more authentic and satisfactory explanation because it presents the culture from the perspective of the people themselves.
However, museum displays are not always fully satisfactory. Sometimes, objects are presented merely as ‘anthropological curiosities’ or artifacts removed from their original context, like the native lodge moved to a museum in Wyoming. This can make it difficult to grasp the true meaning or significance of the objects within the culture.
From my own experience visiting the Indian Museum in Kolkata, I saw many incredible artifacts representing various cultures and historical periods from across India. For example, the galleries displaying sculptures, coins, or textiles show the artistic skills and material life of different communities. There are also galleries dedicated to anthropology showing items related to the lives of different tribal groups. While these displays are informative and show aspects of culture – like crafts, art, and tools – they sometimes feel a bit static. Seeing objects behind glass, even with labels, doesn’t always fully convey the dynamism, beliefs, or the lived experience of the people. It can sometimes feel like looking at a collection of objects rather than understanding a living culture or the historical context as experienced by the people.
The text suggests that understanding native cultures requires appreciating their unique ways of understanding nature, their community sense, and their vast bodies of stories and skills, which should be understood and respected. A truly satisfactory museum display needs to go beyond just showing objects; it should provide context, respect the culture’s own perspective, and ideally, involve the people from that culture in telling their own story, much like the National Museum of the American Indian. While museums like the one I visited in Kolkata offer important glimpses, they might not always achieve the depth of explanation that comes from self-representation or more modern, contextualized approaches mentioned in relation to North American and Australian native cultures today.
6. Imagine an encounter in California in about 1880 between four people: a former African slave, a Chinese labourer, a German who had come out in the Gold Rush, and a native of the Hopi tribe, and narrate their conversation.
Answer: The sun was setting over California as four men, each from a different world, found themselves gathered around a small fire. They had all come to this land, willingly or unwillingly, seeking something—freedom, fortune, or simply survival.
The former African slave, now a free man, spoke first. “I was brought here in chains, forced to work on plantations in the South. Even after the war ended and we were freed, we still struggle for our rights. They say we are free, but we are not equal. Many of us are poor, forced to work the hardest jobs, while the whites look down on us. The landowners and businessmen control everything.”
The Chinese laborer, weary from years of laying railway tracks, nodded. “I came across the ocean to work on the railroads. Thousands of my people were brought here to build tracks across this land, but once the work was done, they turned against us. The government passed laws to stop more of us from coming. Many of my brothers were killed in riots, our businesses burned. They say we are taking their jobs, but we only do the work they refuse.”
The German, who had arrived during the Gold Rush, listened carefully. “I, too, came looking for opportunity. When I first arrived, there was gold in the rivers, and people thought they could become rich overnight. But soon, the gold was gone, and only the biggest companies made any money. Many miners like me became farmers, ranchers, or moved to the cities. I see how the big landowners push others aside, how they take the best land for themselves.”
The Hopi man, standing at the edge of the firelight, finally spoke. “Before all of you came, this land was ours. We did not own it like you do; we lived with it. But now, we are forced off our land, sent to reservations, given land that is not ours. They say we must become like them, farm like them, live like them. But we have our own ways, our own stories. They do not see that. They only see land they can take.”
A heavy silence fell among them. Each of them had suffered under a system that saw them as less than others. The fire crackled, and the wind carried their words into the vast California night.
Extras
Additional questions and answers
1. What does the term ‘native’ mean?
Answer: ‘Native’ means a person born in the place he/she lives in.
33. What factors led to the recognition of native rights in Australia during the 20th century?
Answer: Several factors contributed to the recognition of native rights in Australia during the 20th century. In 1968, a lecture by the anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner, entitled ‘The Great Australian Silence’, drew attention to the silence of historians about the aborigines. From the 1970s, there was an eagerness to understand natives not as anthropological curiosities but as communities with distinct cultures, unique ways of understanding nature and climate, and valuable skills, which should be understood, recorded, and respected. This was underlined by Henry Reynolds’ book, Why Weren’t We Told?, which condemned writing Australian history as though it had begun with Captain Cook’s ‘discovery’.
Since then, university departments have been instituted to study native cultures, galleries of native art have been added to art galleries, museums have been enlarged to incorporate native culture, and natives have begun writing their own life histories. From 1974, ‘multiculturalism’ became official policy in Australia, giving equal respect to native cultures and to the different cultures of immigrants.
From the 1970s, as the term ‘human rights’ began to be heard at meetings of the UNO and other international agencies, the Australian public realised with dismay that Australia had no treaties with the natives formalising the takeover of land. Agitation around these questions led to enquiries and two important decisions: one, to recognise that the natives had strong historic bonds with the land which was ‘sacred’ to them and should be respected; two, that there should be a public apology for the injustice done to children separated from their families. Key legal and governmental actions included the 1992 Australian High Court decision in the Mabo case declaring terra nullius legally invalid and recognising native claims to land from before 1770, the 1995 National Enquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, and the 1999 ‘A National Sorry Day’ as an apology for the children ‘lost’.
Additional MCQs
1. What regions saw increased European settlements from the eighteenth century?
A. Africa, Asia, Europe, Antarctica
B. South America, Central America, North America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand
C. The Middle East, India, China, Russia
D. Scandinavia, North America, Antarctica, Australia
Answer: B. South America, Central America, North America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand
55. According to Karl Marx, how was the American frontier described?
A. A failed economic system
B. The last positive capitalist utopia
C. An uninhabitable wasteland
D. A revolutionary society
Answer: B. The last positive capitalist utopia
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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