The three goals were to find a north west water passage from north America to Asia, exploit nearby fishing water and develop a fur trade, and they wanted to convert Canadian Indians to roman catholicism.
By The German Radio. Back In WW2 Germans Were Forbidden To Use Radios Other Than The Ones Given To Them By Hitler. ( If They Were Caught With Outside World Radios They Were Killed) The Nazi Radio Transmitted The Laws And German Victorys And Other News
Due to public pressure and timely diplomatic impositions, he was forced to relinquish the Congo.
An economic downturn.
http://factsanddetails.com/russia/History/sub9_1f/entry-4990.html
The Soviet Union turned a rural, agrarian society into one of the largest economic powerhouses in the world. The breakup greatly effected it.
The Black Plague didn't help improve the lives of anybody - it was such a horrible disease and spread so quickly throughout Europe that it decreased the population dramatically.