There is multiple reasons. One of those reasons being that those nation's were extremely Catholic. So all these counties were Catholic religion based and their idea was that they needed to spread the faith and religion. It was to them their lives calling and duty. Britian starting spreading out as far as over seas to get out and let the people know and the other nations felt they needed to catch up and started to look at it as a competition instead of the team effort. They believed the more they soreaded the faith out the more God would reward them. That's one of the main reasons that those counties spreaded out, to find economic growth and find their faith.
Hope this helped
