In chapter 12, Strayer discusses how the world is connecting during the 15th century. The Paleolithic people changed over time and the Europeans arrived to Australia in the 18th century. In North America, complex gathering hunting cultures rose and the 15th century numbers contracted greatly as the Agricultural Revolution unfolded across the planet. The Igbo usually had small village based communities organized in terms of kingship relations. They traded cotton, fish, copper, and other things between themselves. The Igbo people ended when the slave trade started. In Central Asia and West Africa, the Turkic leader, Timur, brought immense devastation again to Russia, Persia, and India. He hosted an elite culture, combining Turkic and Persian elements. Their homelands were defeated by the expanding Russia and Chinese Empires. In Europe, there were processes of demographic recovery, political consolidation, and cultural flowering. Western Europe survived the Mongol invasion, but they couldn't survive the Black Death. There were some major differences between the Chinese and European Empires. The biggest one was the size. Columbus captained 3 ships and a crew of 90, while Gama had 4 ships and 170 sailors. Sheng He had over 1000 ships and sailors. The Europeans were seeking the wealth of Africa and Asia, and they wanted the Christian converts as allies so they could fight the crusades versus the Muslims. The Chinese didn't really need any allies in the Indian Ocean invasion, nor did China want to impulse the Chinese culture or religion like the Europeans did. Overall, there were tensions between the rich and the poor within societies were now paralleled by new economic inequalities among entire regions and civilizations. Western Europe and North America became both a threat and source of envy too much of the rest of the world. Modern societies emerged and spread with destructive patterns of human life. Europeans created new societies all across the Americas and as far away as Australia and New Zealand. Their languages were spoken and their Christian religion was widely practiced throughout the Americas and parts of Asia and Africa. Scientific and Industrial Revolutions first took shape, when enormously powerful intellectual and economic consequences for the entire planet. Despite their many differences of people of Asia, Africa, Middle East and the Americas all found themselves confronted by powerful and intrusive Europeans.