The desire to spread Christianity is stronger than...

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I remember when I was writing an essay on a history topic (what do you think are the causes of imperialism?)at a University in England where I studied History and Sociology, I included 'religious zeal' as the strongest reason for imperialism (apart from greed for wealth and power). That essay didn't get a high mark from my tutor but I like the comment he gave: 'This essay has merit...' In writing my points, I compared the strength of religious zeal (Christianity) with the strength of desires for wealth and power (fame). I wrote that religious zeal (divine motive) is the strongest reason for imperialism as it is directly referring to God, and this zeal is backed up by God, whereas, the search for fame or wealth is driven by the human flesh and this motive could become weak in the middle of life difficulties, say for example, in the middle of a stormy sea. But, to spread the Gospels of Christ to all parts of the world is biblical and a divine calling by God. It withstands whatever hardships. I would say here that religious zeal gives legitimacy to imperialism and saves the latter from being blamed as merely caused by human greeds. To My fellow myLotters, what do you think is the strongest reason for imperialism?