Scientific innovations played an important role in the success of explorers in being able to sail to the new lands.
By the end of the 15th century, innovations in form of Compass helped in determining the location of ships, the Art of Mapping and development of better ships that could travel longer and improved the explorer’s knowledge of geography of the sea.
With the Discovery of New Sea-Route, new places and countries were discovered.
After Columbus had discovered America, the countries like Spain and Portugal established Colonies in that country.
When Vasco Da Gama discovered sea-route to India, Portugal had to establish its colonies in that country. Subsequently, France and England came to establish their colonies in India.
Geographical location played an important role. Without direct access to the Middle East, the Europeans were forced to pay high prices charged by Venice. Even the wealthy had trouble paying for spices. The routes to the east were known by the name of Silk Routes.
Growing population and need to resettle some portion of population triggereda rush among nations to capture favorable territories overseas.
Policy of Religious orthodox and religious persecution practiced by Catholic Church had also forced a large number of Europeans to migrate to newly acquired foreign territories to practice their faith freely.
During the Age of Discovery, the Catholic Church started a major effort to spread Christianity in the New World by converting indigenous peoples. As such, the establishment of Christian missions went simultaneously with the colonizing efforts of European powers such as Spain, France and Portugal.
Economic Consideration encouraged colonialism. The countries like England, France, Spain and Portugal established their colonies and wanted to be rich by bringing money from those colonies.
The Industrial Revolution prompted the countries of Europe to procure raw-materials from outside for their factories. Since, they had no huge quantity of raw-materials for their factories but they had no alternative to bring the same from their colonies. This gave rise to Colonialism.
Due to the Industrial Revolution, the Capitalists became richer. They decided to invest their surplus money outside. This also gave rise to Colonialism.
Some European countries having imperial tendencies wanted to send their Surplus Population to outside. That is why they wanted to have their colonies for absorbing a surplus population.
The Commercial Revolution in 1600 and 1700 with reforms and progress in accountancy and banking systems facilitated the rapid growth of trade and commerce.
The need of trade posts and factories had motivated the European trades to capture colonies in the different parts of the world.
The profits from trade increased the attraction of the European ports and the merchants made the ports their center of activity. Soon towns developed in coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea and places like Venice & Genoa increased in prosperity.
Many European countries wanted to educate the backward countries of Asia and Europe.
Rudyard keeping, a famous poet of England propounded the theory of ‘White man’s burden’. This prompted England to establish an overseas empire. In every sense, this view prompted colonialism.
Many countries of Europe felt that ‘Colonies are the Pride of a Country. Mainly England, France, Germany and Portugal championed this cause. This gave rise to unhealthy competition among the European countries for having more and more colonies.
The policy of Mercantilism was based on the premise that the economic development of the mother country (Metropolis) was most important and the colonies should be governed in such a way that they lead to the benefit of the mother country.
The unstable political condition of some of the countries of Asia and Africa gave scope for the rise of Colonialism. Taking advantage of such weakness, the European countries tried to establish their colonies in these countries and thus colonialism got a chance to grow.
Many of the Europeans were forced to exile forcibly by the Governments by way of punishments either due to criminal activitiesor due to radical political ideas. Australia was used as a place to send convicts during initial years by the British Government.