Q1. [1] § 1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade
Two statements are given below. They are Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Read both the statements carefully and choose the correct option :
Assertion (A) : The discovery of sea routes to Asia and America shrank the pre-modern world in the sixteenth century.
Reason (R) : During this period European entry into Indian ocean expanded trade.
- A Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
- B Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
- C (A) is true, but (R) is false.
- D (A) is false, but (R) is true.
Previously asked in CBSE board exam
2026 32/5/1 Q2
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-15 07:00 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Option B — Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
The world shrank because sea routes were discovered connecting continents. European entry into the Indian Ocean expanded trade, but this does not explain why the world shrank.
Explanation
- (A) is true: The textbook states "the pre-modern world shrank greatly in the sixteenth century after European sailors found a sea route to Asia and also successfully crossed the western ocean to America."
- (R) is true: European entry did expand/redirect trade flows toward Europe.
- But (R) does not explain (A): The shrinking refers to the discovery of sea routes connecting previously isolated regions — not to trade expansion in the Indian Ocean. These are two separate facts, so (B) is correct.
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