Aconcagua Mountain at 6959 meters in height
Think of it as a giant chain. You have the President at the top, then followed by the vice president, and so on to the bottom of the chain. if the first link of the chain is broken, then you replace it with the chain link below it. So, the Vice president would replace the President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives would replace the Vice President, and so on.
The motives, at their core, was to basically conquer the world.