Empires taking over

I found it interesting on how many empires started to emerge around 1450-1750, it was kind of like how the different parts of the world started to all of a sudden get power hungry.  From China all the way to Europe, for example Spain France, and the British.  But the view on how the empires' motives were very different because the Chinese empire was looking more to unify the country and put the ideas of Buddhism in the people.  The Chinese people looked to advance and depend on more of expanding their population and agriculture, they were even willing to take in outsiders to expand their country.  Unlike the european empires that were looking forward to more power hungry ideas.  While not only expanding on the size of their countries but they wanted to gain access to the entire world.  Driven by wealth the Europeans empires were always looking to gain the edge on everyone else, they wanted to get at and surpass the level at which the Chinese Empire was at.  Spain for example started to use the idea of GOd to employ on the people in order to control and take over them.  Acting like they were doing good, when they actually weren't.