What were the various goals of the colonial European powers in the expansion of their empires? To what extent were they able to achieve these goals? Where did they fail?

Britain gave imperialism the boost by starting with strategic footholds, having many islands in the South Atlantic or Indian Ocean. From there, merchants had access to the interior; years later, the British launched into the exploration of the interior, and thus managed to reconstitute what was surely the largest empire in history, they controlled territories on all six continents. The objectives were to have access to the important commercial potential, territories within which all commerce, finances and customs were controlled.

However, these empires (Germany, France, Russia) could not be maintained. This time it was due to the development of nationalist movements that made colonial rule less and less legitimate.  Other factors were the impact of the two world wars. With the First World War (1914-1918) the legitimacy of European domination in the world began to be questioned and this legitimacy was shattered by the Second World War (1939-1945).