Industrialization in Europe and the United States created an endless demand for more raw materials to produce goods and more markets in which to sell those goods. This led to what policy to occur to
met those demands?

imperialism
absolutism
empiricism
constitutionalism

nothing certain is known about what happened, but it seems that the country declined gradually, perhaps due to bad government, or, more likely, due to a series of bad harvests, which resulted in widespread and recurrent famine.

the real answer is b

it foreshadows the theme of the paragraph and hints the topic that will be discussed in the paragraph!

the answer would more than likely a.)falling crop prices  

hope the answer is right and ,either way have a nice day.