Economic forces, such as raw materials and trade, social forces, such as racism and humanitarianism, and political forces, such as rivalries and nationalism, are the reasons responsible for imperialism by the European nations. European leaders wanted to get rich, wealthy, and have more control, and using imperialism, they thought, was the best way to meet these goals. It didn’t matter what the African people thought, only what the Europeans thought. This was proven at the Berlin Conference, where 14 European countries decided on how to divide up Africa, while no country from Africa was represented at this meeting.
The need for raw materials and markets drove European countries to take over less developed areas of the world.