china
The United States send more Christian missionaries abroad than any other country. Approximately 127,000 Americans traveled abroad as missionaries in 2010.
kongo
Malawi is a peaceful and safe country. Most people are Christian. So missionaries are not in any major danger.
It still is in my country
The nineteenth largest country by land area is France.
There probably are a few Christian missionaries, but the Syrian Civil War is hindering their access to the population and large swathes of Syria are under control of ISIL which imposes Shari'a Law and murders missionaries. Historically, Syria was a Secular country with a Pro-Muslim bent. Missionaries would be heckled and possibly physically attacked. Additionally, proselytization of Muslims (to convert them to another religion like Christianity) was illegal and could lead to the imprisonment or deportation of foreign missionaries.
Missionaries didn’t create a country in the 1700, but they did go with explorers in the 1500’s.
They were missionaries to Chinkiang, China at the time of her birth.
South Korea previously sent more Christian missionaries per congregation than any other country. It is currently sends the third highest number of missionaries, with the United States and India coming in second. It is second highest in sending missionaries to foreign lands, second only to the United States. (see "The Future of the Global Church" by Patrick Johnstone, pgs. 229, 233)
Missionaries wanted to each Christian religion to Native Americans, Fur traders went there to hunt, and some just wanted to start new lives.
Christian Ministries International is a ministry based organization dedicating themselves to historic Biblical Christianity. Seminars are held in churches around the country, and they train pastors and missionaries to respond to cults and other religions in the missionary field.
I don't know what country you are in, but most missionaries are either Christian or Muslim. There are Christians of all kinds-- Catholics, Lutherans, Mormons, Baptists, etc-- who send their members to various countries. Muslims have also sent out people to teach about Islam and spread the Muslim faith to other countries. Missionaries usually are there to teach you about their religion, in the hope that you will convert to it. Some missionaries also set up houses of worship (whether churches or mosques), so that you will have a place to practice your new faith. Missionaries believe that they are supposed to spread their faith; for example, Christian missionaries believe Jesus himself instructed them to do so. Most missionaries sincerely believe their religion is the only one that has the truth, so they want to share it with those who may not know much about it. Some religions do not send out missionaries. There are very few Buddhist missionaries these days (although there were some in the generation after the Buddha died; those missionaries spread Buddhism to a number of Asian countries). And Jews do not send out missionaries at all, because Jews do not believe they have the only true religion, nor do they believe they are supposed to actively try to convert people. As with Buddhism, centuries ago, some Jews did send out people to teach about Judaism, but this is not a part of modern Jewish practice. (People can and do convert to religions like Buddhism and Judaism. But these faiths do not have an organized group of people who go out to persuade you to join their religion.) Thus, given that the majority of today's missionaries are Christian or Muslim, the chances are good that the missionaries you met were from some denomination of Christianity, or possibly from Islam.