What are the causes of imperialism?

Answer 1

In the Age of Imperialism, there were a few factors common to imperial powers. England, France, Spain, Holland and Portugal, the biggest imperial powers of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries.

1 - they wanted cheap raw materials - these could be acquired by theft (Spain, gold & the Americas), slavery (all five), and later by colonization and gunboat diplomacy (all five, plus latecomers Italy, the United States and Japan)
2 - they wanted markets for their manufactures (made with cheap raw materials)
3 - they had decisive military advantages over culturally different people with resources they wanted or land to conquer

That said, I now want to quibble with the question. Imperialism is a label for policies that governments choose to make. If the question is why countries chose imperialist policies, anyone answering honestly would have to have specific references. I've just assumed likely ones here to have something for you to start with.

Good luck!

Answer 2

The desire for a better life at the expense of those who are content with rotting away and not developing their unearned resources.

Also, as Polybius wrote about the Roman Republic, the solution to continual raids by a neighbor is to take that land away. The punishment for aggression should be loss of homeland. Israel followed that policy in 1967 and should have kept the territories that the Arabs should have forfeited because of their invasion.

Answer 3

Economic expansion. Wanting to gain prestige.

Answer 4

cluelessness, psychopathy, hubris, arrogance, hyper-materialism, heartlessness, megalomania, fear of death, low self esteem, impotence, obesity, severe lack of consciousness, lack of individuation, (among the self-proclaimed "elites" who enjoy the "power" and "prestige", that empire brings) the list goes on, and it's not pretty.:-).