How was prestige a motivator for European imperialism?

The Mahdist War - Wikipedia is something of an example. Essentially you had a Sudanese guy rise up to proclaim himself a sort of Islamic demi-prophet/redeemer. The idea being independence from Egypt/Ottomans and reintroducing things like slavery. read more

Prestige is a basic human need and goal that is a mascot for status, power, sexual success, intellectual dominance and control. On the global scale, it is heavily magnified in the form of imperialism. European nations competed with each other and were small compared to the geographic extent of Africa, the Americas, Asia and Russia. read more