Because of the industrial revolution, countries wanted to expand their empires and colonies as a way to expand trade and gain more natural resources, which led to the rise in imperialism,which was wanting to expand a countries territory. Along with this new idea of expansion, Social Darwinism spawned from Darwinism, basically stating that one race could be superior to another both technologically and socially, just as one species could be superior to another. This was used as an excuse for imperialism, and is often why racism still exists today.