The answer is: Increased a Little.
During the New imperialism that stated between the end of 1800s and the beginning of 1900s, the increased their strength with several economic, political and religious reasons. The number of settlers increased due the growth of the natives and also some political reasons, the industrialized nations were willing to expand, their military forces were needed based all around the world in order to stock up of coal and supplies, they started handling international investments, The Suez Canal were formerly opened in 1869, the colonies were saw as a status mark for the countries, among other fact the influenced the age movement to increase the settlers.