Question

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.

Hint:

Ask what actually destroyed the American populations. The chapter says it was not a military weapon at all. Judge the Reason on that point before looking at the options.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Concept:

• The four options split into two groups: those that accept the Reason as true and those that do not. Deciding the Reason alone therefore halves the work.
• The Reason here repeats a common misconception, which is exactly what the question is testing.

Step 1: Attack the Reason first.
Options (A), (B) and (D) all treat the Reason as true. Only option (C) treats it as false. So if the Reason can be shown false, the answer is settled in one move.

Step 2: Weigh the claim about weapons.
The Spanish forces that entered America were tiny, a few hundred men against states of millions. Numbers that small cannot be explained by better guns and swords alone. Something else must account for the collapse.

Step 3: Name the real cause.
The population of America had been isolated for a very long time and had built up no immunity to diseases from the other continents. Smallpox carried by the Spanish travelled faster than the soldiers themselves and killed on a scale no weapon could match.
So the strongest weapon was biological, not conventional. The Reason is false.

Step 4: Confirm the Assertion stands.
Even with the Reason false, the Assertion itself is correct, since conquest and colonisation were clearly under way by the mid-sixteenth century. A true Assertion with a false Reason is option (C).

Final Answer: (C) Assertion (A) is true, but Reason (R) is false.