With the ever-growing industry in Western Europe and bigger and bigger production of manufactured goods, they needed a bigger market for selling the products, and also enable the industry to grow and make more profit. So he logical solution was to try and open up new markets on a global scale, and that was very advantageous in the sense of getting the raw materials from less developed countries, manufacture them, and them sell them all around the world and make much bigger profit.
One similarity is that for each form of government, the people elect their representatives. Both leaders roles (president and prime minister) are sorted in the executive branch of government.