Two key historical processes that led to this era of intensifying european imperialism in asia and/or africa.

- the first half of your essay might examine how the "industrial revolution" (and the related rise of the "free trade" british empire, which grew powerful with colonial sugar production and slave labor in the atlantic world) led to intensifying european imperialism in the nineteenth century.

-the second half of your essay should show how the first opium war (india/china/asia) and/or the scramble for africa provide examples of intensifying european imperialism in the nineteenth century.

in your conclusion, you need to consider whether the center of the world had in fact shifted back to the indian ocean zone by the nineteenth century.