Why do nations practice imperialims ?

In my opinion nations practice imperialism because they want to
take over other nations. They might practice it for a reason an example of
why is maybe because they want to look more powerful than other nations
or maybe they want to show them that they're better than them. There are a
ton of different reasons for why they practice imperialism but, I think it's
because they want others to be afraid of them so, that if they were thinking
of taking there land they wouldn't do it because others don't want them to
take away there land for what they did to them. These are the reasons why
I think nations practice imperialism.