BHIC 106 key facts: June 2026
- Course code: BHIC-106
- Subject: The Rise of the Modern West-I
- Programme: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History (BAHIH)
- Credits: 6 (core course)
- Units: 11 units in one course book
- Maximum marks: 100 (term-end exam 70 per cent, assignments 30 per cent)
- Duration: 3 hours
- Questions in the paper: 8 in two sections; attempt any 5, at least 2 from each section; 14 answerable items in all
- Expected length: about 400 words per essay, 200 words per short note
- Samples shown on this page: 2 (Q1 and Q7); all 14 answers in the paid file
BHIC 106 Solved Question Paper June 2026 gives you complete, exam-length answers to the official IGNOU term-end paper for The Rise of the Modern West-I. Two answers are printed in full below so you can judge the depth for yourself, and all 14 answers to the paper's 8 questions are in the full file.
1. What the June 2026 Solved Paper Covers
BHIC 106 is a six-credit core course of IGNOU's BA (Honours) History that traces how Europe moved from feudal society to the commercial, religious and political world of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The June 2026 paper tested that whole arc in eight questions. Section I asked about humanism, scholars' views on the commercial revolution and colonial empires in America, with short notes ranging from Japanese feudalism to trade in Italian city states.
Section II moved to print culture in the Reformation, Eastern Absolutism and the motives behind the voyages, with short notes on the Black Death, early banking, Martin Luther and Western Absolutism.
Our solved paper answers every one of those, including all four options in both short-note questions, so you are covered whichever two you pick. That is 14 written answers in one file, each tagged with the course unit it comes from.
One detail stands out in the June 2026 paper: the short-note option on Japanese feudalism did not appear in any of the six earlier official papers we checked, from June 2022 to December 2025. It is the kind of surprise that catches students who revise only from guess lists.
2. Two Answers Solved in Full, Twelve Held Back
Two complete answers from the June 2026 paper are shown below, one from each section, written to the 400-word length the paper asks for.
Humanism as the dominant theme of the Renaissance
Question 1: The most dominant theme of the Renaissance in Europe was humanism. Discuss. (20)
Humanism was the intellectual programme that gave the Renaissance its character. It began in fourteenth-century Italy as a revival of classical Latin and Greek learning and grew into a new way of thinking about human ability, civic life and education. Most historians treat it as the dominant theme of the age, although not the only one.
Origins
Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), often called the father of humanism, searched monastic libraries for lost classical texts and held up Cicero as a model of style and moral life. His followers built the studia humanitatis, a course of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy meant to produce eloquent, virtuous citizens rather than scholastic theologians.
Civic humanism
In Florence the movement took a political turn. Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni, both chancellors of the republic, used classical models to defend republican liberty, and Bruni's History of the Florentine People presented the city as the heir of Rome. The historian Hans Baron later named this outlook civic humanism.
Critical scholarship
Humanist method sharpened critical thinking. In 1440 Lorenzo Valla showed through the study of language that the Donation of Constantine, a document used to support papal claims to worldly power, was a later forgery. Close reading of sources became a tool for questioning authority.
The dignity of man
The new value placed on human potential is clearest in Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486), which argued that humans could shape their own nature. Marsilio Ficino's Latin translations of Plato, made under Medici patronage, spread Neoplatonic ideas that linked human beauty with the divine.
Art and the northern Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti's treatise On Painting (1435) set out linear perspective and treated the painter as a learned man, and the realistic human figures of Masaccio, Leonardo and Michelangelo reflect the same confidence. North of the Alps, Erasmus (Praise of Folly, 1511) and Thomas More (Utopia, 1516) turned classical learning towards Biblical study and social criticism.
Limits of the argument
Humanism was not the whole Renaissance. Jacob Burckhardt's 1860 picture of the age as the birth of the individual has been criticised as too sweeping, and Paul Oskar Kristeller argued that humanism was mainly an educational and literary programme rather than a complete philosophy. Religion stayed central, and science, such as Copernicus's De revolutionibus (1543), drew on other traditions too.
Conclusion. Humanism was the most dominant theme because it linked education, politics, art and scholarship. It gave the Renaissance its method and its ideal of the active, learned citizen, even though economic change, religion and science also shaped the age.
Motives behind the European voyages
Question 7: Discuss the motives that led the Europeans to undertake voyages in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. (20)
The European voyages of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, led first by Portugal and Spain, grew out of a mix of economic need, religious zeal, political ambition and new technical ability. Historians often sum these up as God, Gold and Glory, though the economic motive was usually the strongest.
- The spice trade. Pepper, cloves and cinnamon were in heavy demand for flavouring and preserving food and for medicine. Venetian merchants and Muslim intermediaries in Egypt and the Levant controlled the supply, so prices in Europe were high. A direct sea route to India promised to cut out these middlemen and capture their profits.
- The search for bullion. Europe faced a shortage of gold and silver in the fifteenth century, partly because coin flowed east to pay for Asian goods. Portuguese voyages down the West African coast aimed to reach West African gold directly instead of buying it through trans-Saharan traders.
- Religion. The Portuguese capture of Ceuta in 1415 and the fall of Granada in 1492, which completed the Reconquista, carried a crusading spirit overseas. Explorers hoped to spread Christianity and to find the legendary Christian ruler Prester John as an ally against Islam.
- State ambition. The new centralised monarchies wanted revenue and prestige. Prince Henry of Portugal, known as the Navigator, sponsored expeditions along the African coast, and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain financed Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Rivalry between the two crowns was settled for a time by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.
- Technology and knowledge. The caravel, with its lateen sails, could sail closer to the wind than older ships. The magnetic compass and the astrolabe helped sailors hold a course and find latitude, and the recovery of Ptolemy's Geography revived interest in mapping the world. Ability turned ambition into action.
- Social pressures. Population recovery in the later fifteenth century and rising prices pushed younger sons of nobles and ambitious merchants to seek fortunes abroad. Sugar planting on Atlantic islands such as Madeira had already shown that overseas settlement could pay.
Results. The motives produced quick results. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498, and the Magellan expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522.
Conclusion. No single motive explains the voyages. Spices and bullion supplied the push, while faith, the ambition of new monarchies and better ships and instruments made the effort possible.
3. Questions Answered Only in the Full File
The remaining 12 items from the June 2026 paper are listed below exactly as printed. Their answers are in the full file only.
Section I
Question 2: Examine the different views of scholars on the advent of the commercial revolution in early modern Europe. (20)
Question 3: Discuss the nature of early colonial empires in America in the 16th and 17th centuries. (20)
Question 4: Write short notes on any two of the following in about 200 words each. (10 + 10)
(a) The features of the early modern West
(b) Japanese feudalism
(c) Slavery in plantation and mining
(d) Trade and exchange in the Italian city states in the 16th century
Section II
Question 5: Discuss the changes that came with the rise of print culture during the Reformation. (20)
Question 6: Describe the main features of Eastern Absolutism. (20)
Question 8: Write short notes on any two of the following in about 200 words each. (10 + 10)
(a) The Black Death and demographic trends
(b) Early banking institutions
(c) Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
(d) Features of Western Absolutism
4. Unit-Wise Syllabus
BHIC 106 is taught through one course book of 11 units, running from the definition of the early modern West to the European state systems.
| Unit | Unit title | Core topics | Recent question |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introducing the Early Modern West | Problems of defining the period; the defining features of the early modern West; its social structure and institutions | Jun 2026 Q4(a) |
| 2 | Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism: Debate-1 | Maurice Dobb's thesis on the internal crisis of feudalism; the responses of Paul Sweezy and Kohachiro Takahashi | Jun 2025 Q1 on Dobb's views |
| 3 | Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism: Debate-2 | The demographic model; Robert Brenner's class-structure argument; Guy Bois on the crisis of feudalism | Dec 2025 Q7 on the demographic model |
| 4 | European Voyages of Discovery | Motives for the voyages; navigational and ship technology; Portuguese and Spanish routes | Jun 2026 Q7 (Sample 2) |
| 5 | Economic Trends: Shifts, Continuities and Transformations | The sixteenth-century price rise; demographic trends after the Black Death; industrial production | Jun 2026 Q8(a) |
| 6 | Plantation Economies, Slave Labour and Slave Trade | Sugar plantations in Brazil; slave labour in mining; growth of the Atlantic slave trade | Jun 2026 Q4(c) |
| 7 | Commercial Revolution in Europe | Banking institutions and credit; joint stock companies; the rural base of commercial growth | Jun 2026 Q2 and Q8(b) |
| 8 | Renaissance: Humanism, Ideas and Science | Humanism and the classical revival; Renaissance art and society; achievements in science | Jun 2026 Q1 (Sample 1) |
| 9 | Reformation | Martin Luther and the break with Rome; Calvinism and the idea of calling; social and political effects | Jun 2026 Q8(c) |
| 10 | Emergence of the Print Lead Public Sphere | The printing press and the spread of Reformation ideas; literacy; a new public sphere | Jun 2026 Q5 |
| 11 | European State Systems | New monarchies; western absolutism; eastern absolutism and the Prussian model | Jun 2026 Q6 and Q8(d) |
Unit titles follow the IGNOU course book, which you can check in the official BHIC-106 course book on eGyanKosh. Read alongside our BHIC 106 Study Material, the table shows where each June 2026 question sits.
5. Question Paper Pattern and Marks Distribution
The term-end paper carries 100 marks over 3 hours: you attempt any five of eight questions, at least two from each section, each worth 20 marks.
| Section | Question type | June 2026 questions | Expected length | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section I | Long answer | Q1, Q2, Q3 | About 400 words | 20 each |
| Section I | Short notes, any two of four | Q4 (a) to (d) | About 200 words per note | 10 + 10 |
| Section II | Long answer | Q5, Q6, Q7 | About 400 words | 20 each |
| Section II | Short notes, any two of four | Q8 (a) to (d) | About 200 words per note | 10 + 10 |
The same pattern runs through every BAHIH Question Paper for this course since June 2022. Because the short notes count as one question, two good notes can earn as much as a full essay.
BHIC 106 is a six-credit course, so IGNOU sets three tutor-marked assignments for it each year, carrying 30 per cent of your final result.
6. Most Repeated Topics Across Seven Papers
Print culture, the voyages of discovery, the Reformation, absolutism and plantation slavery appeared in all seven official BHIC 106 papers we checked, from June 2022 to June 2026.
| Topic | Sessions where it appeared | Sessions (of 7) | June 2026 question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Print culture with the Renaissance or Reformation | All seven papers | 7 | Q5 |
| Voyages of discovery, motives and navigation | All seven papers | 7 | Q7 (Sample 2) |
| Reformation, Luther and Calvinism | All seven papers | 7 | Q8(c) |
| Western and eastern absolutism, new monarchies | All seven papers | 7 | Q6 and Q8(d) |
| Plantations, sugar and slavery | All seven papers | 7 | Q4(c) |
| Commercial revolution, banking and trade | Dec 23, Jun 24, Dec 24, Jun 25, Dec 25, Jun 26 | 6 | Q2, Q4(d) and Q8(b) |
| Transition debate: Dobb, Brenner, demographic model | Jun 22, Dec 23, Jun 24, Dec 24, Jun 25, Dec 25 | 6 | — (last seen Dec 2025 Q7) |
| Defining features of the early modern West | Jun 22, Dec 23, Jun 24, Dec 25, Jun 26 | 5 | Q4(a) |
| Renaissance humanism | Jun 22, Dec 23, Jun 24, Jun 25, Jun 26 | 5 | Q1 (Sample 1) |
| Science during the Renaissance | Jun 22, Dec 23, Jun 24, Dec 24, Dec 25 | 5 | — (last seen Dec 2025 Q3) |
| Renaissance art and society | Jun 22, Dec 23, Jun 24, Jun 25 | 4 | — (last seen Jun 2025 Q5) |
| Colonial empires in America | Jun 24, Jun 25, Jun 26 | 3 | Q3 |
| Social structure of the early modern West | Dec 24, Jun 25, Dec 25 | 3 | — (last seen Dec 2025 Q8(d)) |
| Demographic trends and the Black Death | Jun 24, Jun 26 | 2 | Q8(a) |
| Japanese feudalism | Jun 26 only | 1 | Q4(b), first appearance |
Counts are sessions, not questions: a topic set twice in one paper counts once. Papers used were June 2022, December 2023, June 2024, December 2024, June 2025, December 2025 and June 2026, all from IGNOU's own websites. The December 2022 and June 2023 papers could not be found, so they are left out.
Use the table with our IGNOU Solved Guess Paper lists: the five every-session themes are the safest place to start, and Japanese feudalism shows the paper can still add something new.
7. How Our Answers Are Written and Checked
Each BHIC 106 answer is drafted against the IGNOU course units and reviewed before it goes into the file.
Writers start from the unit that the question comes from, so the names, dates and debates match what IGNOU teaches. Long answers follow an introduction, themed body points and a conclusion; short notes stay close to 200 words.
History examiners reward balance. Where a question asks you to discuss or examine, the answer weighs the claim against its critics, as the humanism answer above does with Burckhardt and Kristeller.
Before writing, the team studied earlier papers from our IGNOU Previous Year Question Paper collection, so answers stress the angles IGNOU keeps returning to, such as print and the Reformation.
8. Solved File Index for Every June 2026 Item
The full file answers all 14 items in the June 2026 paper; 2 are shown on this page and the other 12 are in the full file only.
| Item | Section | Topic | Type and marks | Unit | Where the answer is |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | I | Humanism as the dominant Renaissance theme | Long, 20 | Unit 8 | Sample 1 above |
| Q2 | I | Scholars' views on the commercial revolution | Long, 20 | Unit 7 | Full file |
| Q3 | I | Early colonial empires in America | Long, 20 | Units 4 and 6 | Full file |
| Q4(a) | I | Features of the early modern West | Short note, 10 | Unit 1 | Full file |
| Q4(b) | I | Feudalism in Japan | Short note, 10 | Units 2 and 3 | Full file |
| Q4(c) | I | Slave labour on plantations and in mines | Short note, 10 | Unit 6 | Full file |
| Q4(d) | I | Commerce in sixteenth-century Italian city states | Short note, 10 | Unit 7 | Full file |
| Q5 | II | Print culture and the Reformation | Long, 20 | Unit 10 | Full file |
| Q6 | II | Absolutism in eastern Europe | Long, 20 | Unit 11 | Full file |
| Q7 | II | Motives behind the European voyages | Long, 20 | Unit 4 | Sample 2 above |
| Q8(a) | II | Plague and population change | Short note, 10 | Unit 5 | Full file |
| Q8(b) | II | The first banking houses | Short note, 10 | Unit 7 | Full file |
| Q8(c) | II | Luther and the Protestant break | Short note, 10 | Unit 9 | Full file |
| Q8(d) | II | Absolutism in western Europe | Short note, 10 | Unit 11 | Full file |
BHIC 106 is a theory course with no practical or record work, so this index replaces a practical file list. Topic labels are short summaries; the exact question wording appears once, in the sections above.
9. Programmes That Include BHIC 106
BHIC 106 is a core course in IGNOU's Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History, programme code BAHIH.
Students of the IGNOU Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History programme take BHIC 106 as a compulsory core paper, and it is printed with the BAHIH code on every term-end paper we checked. If you are enrolled in another history programme, check your latest programme guide to confirm the course code before ordering.
The story continues in BHIC 108 Rise of the Modern West-II, which moves on to seventeenth-century politics, the Enlightenment and the American Revolution. Doing well in BHIC 106 gives you the base for it.
10. How to Get the Full Solved Question Paper
Send "BHIC 106 June 2026" on WhatsApp to 9899436384 and our team will share the full solved file with all 14 answers.
The file adds the 12 answers not shown here, covering commercial revolution debates, colonial empires in America, print culture, Eastern Absolutism and all eight short notes.
Our team confirms the price and payment details on chat and then shares the PDF. If you need a related course, mention its code in the same message.
11. BHIC 106 FAQs
Quick answers to the questions students ask most about the BHIC 106 June 2026 solved file.
How do I get the full solved file on WhatsApp?
Send a WhatsApp message to 9899436384 with the words BHIC 106 June 2026. Our team replies with the price and payment details, then shares the full solved file as a PDF. It holds 14 answers: the 6 long questions plus all 8 short-note options from questions 4 and 8. Two of those answers are already on this page, so the file adds 12 more.
Why does the file have 14 answers when the paper has 8 questions?
Questions 4 and 8 are short-note questions with four options each, and you choose any two. We solved all four options in both, so whichever two you prefer are ready. That gives 6 long answers of about 400 words and 8 short notes of about 200 words, making 14 answers in total across both sections of the paper.
What is the BHIC 106 exam pattern?
The term-end exam lasts 3 hours and carries 100 marks. The paper has two sections with four questions each. You attempt any five questions, with at least two from each section, and every question carries 20 marks. Long answers are expected in about 400 words, while questions 4 and 8 ask for two short notes of about 200 words each.
Which BHIC 106 topics repeat most in IGNOU papers?
Across the seven official papers we checked, from June 2022 to June 2026, five themes appeared in every session: print culture, the voyages of discovery, the Reformation, absolutism and plantation slavery. The transition from feudalism to capitalism and the commercial revolution each appeared in six. The papers for December 2022 and June 2023 could not be found, so they are not counted.
Who writes and reviews the BHIC 106 answers?
The answers are written by our subject team at Unnati Educations and reviewed by Sheetal Kirola before release. Each answer is checked against the IGNOU course units for names, dates and historians' arguments, and against the word limit printed on the paper. The two sample answers on this page went through the same process as the 12 in the full file.
Does BHIC 106 have a practical file?
No. BHIC 106 is a theory course with no practical or record work. Your marks come from the term-end exam, weighted at 70 per cent, and three tutor-marked assignments, weighted at 30 per cent. That is why this page carries a solved file index instead of a practical index, showing every June 2026 question, its course unit and whether its answer is on this page.
How many credits does BHIC 106 carry?
BHIC 106 is a six-credit core course in IGNOU's Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History. IGNOU's assignment booklet for the course confirms the six credits and the three assignments that go with them. The course book has 11 units, starting with the idea of the early modern West and ending with the European state systems of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Can the June 2026 solved paper help with the December 2026 exam?
Yes, because BHIC 106 recycles its themes closely. Print culture, the voyages, the Reformation, absolutism and plantation slavery appeared in all seven papers we checked. Working through the 14 June 2026 answers covers most of the units a December paper can draw on. Pair the file with older official papers to practise the different ways IGNOU words the same topic.
12. Who Wrote and Checked the BHIC 106 Answers
The BHIC 106 answers were written by Prateek Talwar and reviewed by Sheetal Kirola.
Prateek Talwar, founder of Unnati Educations, leads the IGNOU solved-paper series and prepares answers from the course units and the official term-end paper. Sheetal Kirola, Academic Head (M.Ed.), checks every name, date, text and historian's argument against the course book before release.