European empires were triggered by maritime expansion while others were military and imperial expansion such as in China. Russian empires were different since they were not defensive instead they were potentially threatening. Many of the territories conquered by the European empire were oceans away while the Chinese stayed closer to their imperialistic power. The empires also attempted to encompass most of the Americans normally, while Chinese was an imperialistic power. In addition the empires started since they were at an advantage geographically while the Chineses started military expansion
