An Empire Three Continents - Solutions

 CBSE Class 11 History

NCERT Solutions
Chapter - 3 An Empire Across Three Continents


NCERT Textbook Questions Solved

I. Answer in Brief

Q1. If you had lived in the Roman Empire, where would you rather have lived—in the towns or in the countryside? Explain why?

Ans. In the roman empire one would have preferred to live in the towns due to :

  1.  Available of better facilities as compared to countryside.
  2. Town apart from governace were centres of art,learning and various inellectual activities.
  3. During the time of famine, town people would not suffer food scarcity.
  4. Cities provided the populations a much higher level of entertainment.

Q2. Compile a list of some of the towns, cities, rivers, seas and provinces mentioned in this chapter, and then try and find them on the maps. Can you say something about any three of the items in the list you have compiled?

Ans. 

  • Continents: Europe, North Africa.
  • Island: Sicily
  • Rivers: Nile, Rhine, Danube, Sind
  • Sea: Mediterranean, Caspian, Black sea, Aegean sea.
  • Provinces: Gaul, Numidia, Tunisia, Macedonia, etc.
  • Towns and Cities: Constantinople, Naples, Damascus, Alexandria and Rome. (See NCERT Page 59)

Description of three items compiled in the list:

  1. Rivers helped in providing irrigation facilities for agriculture.
  2. Seas and oceans helped in the promotion of trade and commerce.
  3. Towns and cities were the main centres of economic, social and political activities of the empire.

Q3. Imagine that you are a Roman housewife preparing a shopping list for household; requirements. What would be on the list?

Ans. Being a Roman housewife, I would like to include bread, butter, milk, eggs, meat, spices, oil, pulse ect. In while preparing a list of household requirements.


Q4. Why do you think the Roman government stopped coining in silver? And which metal did it begin to use for the production of coinage?

Ans. The Roman government stopped coining in silver and began to use gold for coinage because silver was limited and the mines of silver were exhausted due to over excavation.


II. Answer in a Short Essay

Q5. Suppose the emperor Trajan had actually managed to conquer India and the Romans had held on to the country for several centuries. In what ways do you think India might be different today?

Ans.  If roman emperor Trajan had actually managed to conquer India, India would bbe different today on following aspects:

  1. Change in art, architecture, literature and law as was evidennt even in the case pf indo Greek.
  2. Conversion and Christianization.
  3. Concept of public baths and entertainment.
  4. Indian agriculture would have benefitted from roman diversified application of water.
  5. The hitherto caste and class differences would have been  further stratified.
  6. The pattern of Indian trade, would probably have under grown vast changes.

Q6. Go through the chapter carefully and pick out some basic features of Roman society and economy which you think make it look quite modern.

Ans. We found that in Roman society women were quite financially independent in spite of getting married but got share of property from her natal house. It was the main feature of Roman society. This feature shows us that women were holding a strong status in the society.
Another modern feature, we found from Roman economy was that there were very strong trading relations from across the Roman empire's provinces, which shows that Roman economy was also very strong and provided the revenue to its government.