Class 8 History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory Important Questions and Answers

CBSE Class 8 History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory Important Questions cover the major concepts of the chapter. Solving answers of these important questions help students to revise the Chapter most competently. We prepared these questions as per the latest NCERT book and CBSE syllabus. Practising the questions before the exam will ensure excellent marks in the exam.

CBSE Class 8 History Chapter 2 Important Questions PDF

Very Short Answer Type Questions

1. Who was the ruler of England in 1600?
Answer: Queen Elizabeth I was the ruler of England in 1600.

2. What caused huge loss of revenue in Bengal?
Answer: Aurangzeb’s farman had granted the Company only the right to trade duty free. But the officials of the Company, who were carrying on private trade on side, also stopped paying duty. This caused a huge loss of revenue for Bengal.

3. Why did the Company want a puppet ruler?
Answer: A puppet ruler would willingly give it trade concessions and other privileges.

4. What was the main reason for the defeat of Sirajuddaulah at Plassey?
Answer: Mir Jafar, one of Sirajuddaulah’s commanders, did not fight the battle.

5. Why did the Battle of Plassey become famous?
Answer: It was the first major victory the Company won in India.

6. Whom did the Company install in place of Mir Jafar?
Answer: Company installed Mir Qasim in place of Mir Jafar.

7. How did the Company purchase Indian goods?
Answer: It purchased Indian goods with gold and silver imported from Britain.

8. Who were called ‘nabobs’?
Answer: Several Company officials returned to Britain with wealth and led flashy lives and showed their riches with great pride. They were called “nabobs’.

9. Who were the Residents?
Answer: The Residents were the political or commercial agents and their job was to serve and further the interests of the Company.

10. What purpose did the Residents serve?
Answer: Through the residents, the Company officials began interfering in the internal affairs of Indian states.

11. Name the two rulers under whose leadership Mysore became powerful.
Answer: Haider Ali and his son, Tipu Sultan.

12. Why did Tipu Sultan develop a close relationship with the French in India?
Answer: He did so in order to modernise his army with their help.

13. What happened in the-Battle of Seringapatam?
Answer: Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam.

14. What was the result of the second Anglo-Maratha war?
Answer: The British gained Orissa and the territorries north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi.

15. What was the objective behind the Company’s new policy of ‘paramountcy’?
Answer: The Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme and therefore its power was greater than that of Indian states.

16. What was the result of Rani Channamma’s anti-British resistance movement?
Answer: She was put in the prison where she died.

17. What was Lord Dalhousie’s Doctrine of Lapse?
Answer: If an Indian ruler died without a male heir his kingdom would become the part of Company territory.

18. Name the Kingdoms which were annexed on the basis of ‘Doctrine of Lapse’.
Answer: Satara, Sambalpur, Udaipur, Nagpur and Jhansi.

19. What constituted the Mughal army?
Answer: Cavalry and infantry, that is; paidal soldiers.

20. Why was Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, tried after he returned to England?
Answer: He was tried for the misgovernance of Bengal.

21. What was the result of this trial?
Answer: Warren Hastings was impeached.

Short Answer Type Questions

1. Give an account of different European trading companies besides the British East India Company that entered the Eastern markets.

Answer: Different European trading companies were:
(a) The Portuguese. By the time the first English ships sailed down the West coast of Africa, round the Cape of Good Hope, and crossed the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese had already established their presence in the western coast of India and had their base in Goa.
(b) The Dutch. By the early 17th century, the Dutch too were exploring the possibilities of trade in the Indian Ocean.
(c) The French. The French traders soon arrived on the scene for the same purpose.

2. What were the grievances of the Company regarding the Nawabs of Bengal?

Answer: The Company declared that the unjust demands of the local officials were ruining the trade of the Company. Trade could flourish only if the duties were removed. It was also convinced that to expand trade it had to enlarge its settlements, buy up villages and rebuild its forts.

3. Write a note on Tipu Sultan—The ‘Tiger of Mysore’.

Answer: Tipu Sultan was the famous ruler of Mysore. He ruled Mysore from 1782 to 1799. Under his leadership Mysore became very powerful. It controlled the profitable trade of the Malabar coast where the Company purchased pepper and cardamom. In 1785 Tipu Sultan stopped the export of these items through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company. He also developed relationship with the French in India to modernise his army with their help. The British got furious. They waged four battles against Tipu Sultan. The last battle proved unfortunate for him. He was killed depending his capital Seringapatam. The way he resisted the British is undoubtedly praiseworthy.

4. Give a brief description of all the three Anglo-Maratha wars. Also write the main consequences.

Answer: The Company waged a series of wars against the Marathas in order to crush Maratha power:
(a) In the first war there was no clear victor, hence it ended in 1782 with the Treaty of Salbai.
(b) The second Anglo-Maratha War began in 1803 and ended in 1805. This war was fought on different fronts resulting in the British gaining Orissa and the territories north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi.
(c) The third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817-1819 crushed Maratha power. The Peshwa was removed. The Company now had complete control over the territories south of the Vindhyas.

5. What administrative reformations were brought in the sphere of justice?

Answer: Before the reformations were brought, there were Maulvis and Hindu pandits who interpreted Indian laws for the European district collectors who presided over civil courts. The criminal courts were still under a qazi and a mufti. The Brahman pandits usually gave different interpretations of local laws. But there was no uniformity in them. To bring out about uniformity, in 1775 eleven pandits were asked to compile a digest of Hindu laws. N.B. Halhed translated this digest into English. By 1778 a code of Muslim laws was also compiled for the benefit of European judges, under the Regulating Act of 1773, a new Supreme Court was established, while a court of appeal—the Sadar Nizamal Adalat—was also set up at Calcutta.

Long Answer Type Questions

1. Give an account of the Battle of Plassey.

Answer: The Company was very keen to have a puppet ruler in place of Sirajuddaulah, so that it might enjoy trade concessions and other privileges. It began to help one of Sirajuddaulah’s rivals become the nawab. This infuriated Sirajuddaulah. He sternly asked the Company to stop meddling in the political affairs of his dominion. After negotiations failed, the Nawab marched with his soldiers to the English factory at Kasimbazar, captured the Company officials, disarmed all Englishmen and blocked English ships.

Then he marched to Calcutta to establish control over the Company’s fort there. As soon as the Company officials in Madras heard the news of the fall of Calcutta, they sent forces under the command of Robert Clive, reinforced by naval fleets. Prolonged negotiations with the Nawab followed. But no concrete solution came out. Finally, in 1759, Robert Clive led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey.

In this battle, Sirajuddaulah got defeated. The main reason was that one of his commanders, Mir Jafar, did not fight the battle. He, in fact, supported the Company by not fighting because the Company had promised to make him Nawab after defeating Sirajuddaulah.
The victory of the Company in the Battle of Plassey gave it immense confidence. It was the first major victory of the Company in India.

2. Who introduced the policy of ‘paramounty’? What did it mean? What sort of resistance did the Company face?

Answer: Lord Hastings, who was the Governor- General of India from 1813 to 1823, introduced a new policy of ‘paramounty’. Now the Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme, hence its power was greater than that of Indian states. In order to protect its interests it was justified in annexing or threatening to annex any Indian kingdom.

However, this process did not go unchallenged. For example, when the British tried to annex, the small state of Kitoor (in Karnataka today), Rani Channamma took to arms and led an anti-British resistance movement. She was arrested in 1823 and died in prison in 1829. But this resistance movement did not stop. It was carried on by Rajana, a poor chowkidar of Sangoli in Kitoor. With popular support he destroyed many British camps and records. He was also caught and hanged by the British in 1830.

3. How did the East India Company begin trade in Bengal?

Answer: The East India Company set up first English factory on the banks of the river Hugh in the year 1651. This became the base from which the Company’s traders, known at that time as ‘factors’, operated. The factory had a warehouse where goods for export were stored and it had offices where Company officials set. As trade expanded, the Company persuaded merchants and traders to come and settle near the factory.

By 1696 the Company began to build a fort around the settlement. Two years later it bribed Mughal officials into giving the Company zamindari rights over three villages. One of these was Kalikata which later developed into a city, known as Calcutta. The Company also persuaded the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to issue a farman granting the Company the right to trade duty-free. The Company tried continuously to press for more concessions and manipulate existing privileges. For instance, Aurangzeb’s farman had granted only the Company the right to trade duty-free. But Company officials who were carrying on private trade on the side, were expected to pay duty. But they refused to pay. This caused huge loss of revenue for Bengal.