Q1. [1] § 1.3 Conquest, Disease and Trade
Two statements labelled as Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are given below. Read both the statements carefully and choose the correct option :
Assertion (A) : The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonisation of America was decisively under way by the mid-sixteenth century.
Reason (R) : The Spanish conquerors had the most powerful conventional weapons.
- (A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
- (B) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true, but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
- (C) Assertion (A) is true, but Reason (R) is false.
- (D) Assertion (A) is false, but Reason (R) is true.
Previously asked in CBSE board exam
2026 32/3/1 Q2
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-15 07:01 · grounding rag
Model Answer
(C) Assertion (A) is true, but Reason (R) is false.
The passage clearly states that the most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a conventional military weapon, but germs such as smallpox.
Explanation
The textbook explicitly says: "the most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a conventional military weapon at all. It was the germs such as those of smallpox." So Assertion (A) is correct (colonisation was underway by mid-sixteenth century), but Reason (R) is false because it wrongly credits conventional weapons. Option (C) is correct.
If a question refers to an image, map, graph or diagram that is not shown here, find the actual CBSE question paper on the CBSE website:
cbse.gov.in.