AI-generated practice question — model-generated for extra practice, not a previous-year CBSE board question.
Before Rinderpest: Africa had abundant land and livestock, and few consumer goods that wages could buy. Since Africans could sustain their livelihoods through land and cattle, they had no reason to seek wage labour on European plantations and mines.
After Rinderpest: Rinderpest (arriving in the late 1880s) spread like wildfire, killing 90% of Africa's cattle. This destroyed African livelihoods. European planters, mine owners and colonial governments monopolised the remaining scarce cattle, forcing Africans — stripped of their means of subsistence — into the labour market.
Source: Chapter 3, Section 2.4 — Rinderpest, or the Cattle Plague
---
The examiner expects two clear parts: (1) why Africans had no incentive before the plague (land + livestock = self-sufficiency, no need for wages), and (2) how rinderpest broke that self-sufficiency by destroying cattle, enabling Europeans to monopolise the remaining cattle and coerce Africans into wage labour. Use the textbook phrases "90 per cent of the cattle" and "monopolised scarce cattle resources" for full marks.