Due to strong rulers in different countries in Europe, Italy had to develop strong defenses and had to also be strong country itself or perish and be anhiliated by other strong rulers. They partially did this by becoming a state of trade that was valuable to anyone who traded with them.
FOR APEX: I am positive the answer is mail empire
The Taj Mahal was built during the Mughal rule in India.
H. Americans had to find new ways to meet their needs for cloth.
The word that would best describe the effect on each of these four groups would be regression.