Improved conditions in europe meant that:

a. the number of headright claims increased.
b. fewer europeans became indentured servants.
c. treatment of slaves improved.
d. fewer goods were needed from the americas.

china unilaterally claims the entire south china sea as sovereign territory, then builds artificial islands to bolster its claim. it suddenly activates an air defense identification zone over the east china sea, and threatens to down any aircraft that does not report its position. it builds roads into indian territory, then redraws the maps to show that it is actually chinese territory. the people's republic under president xi jinping is quickly becoming the bully of asia.

the answer to fill in the blank in this question would be the word resource, it is defined as the money, material or people (since human resource is a very valuable good) that a company or a person has at disposition (meaning they can use the resource as they see fit), to be able to complete a task or achieve a goal.