Nineteenth-century international system by which wealthy countries acquired and exploited underdeveloped countries for financial and military advantages. A colonial empire was desired as a mark of prominence and to a lesser extent as a means of transferring the advantages of western culture to less well-regarded cultures. It caused numerous wars such as the Anglo-Boer, Balkan and Indian wars, presented to the European public as noble and heroic, though these wars were often times of near genocide.