To whom and in what way was it profitable to form colonies?

Colonial empires reached their greatest scope during the 17-19 centuries. The seizure and annexation of new territories not only enriched the central mother state, but also brought a huge amount of strategic resources: gold, precious stones, wood, oil, etc. The largest colonial empires in the world were: France, Spain, England, Portugal, Italy and Germany. In fact, the British Empire was considered the largest of them; it occupied an area of 37 million square kilometers, and its population reached 500 million.