what was central, and point, to Imperial Britain's unstoppable spread across the globe, was the mechanised weapon - the musket squad loading, firing, and reloading ad infinitum, made from easily source-able local parts, as long as it had hands to hold the musket, fingers to pull the trigger, and a mind to dress up, march around, and follow orders. 

as if by magic, there suddenly popped up musket platoons all around the world, as if they waiting dormant all along. the life-long learning curves and career commitments of the sword  and spear were replaced by quick short training, and squads were ready to go topple kingdoms. 

product placement came next. instead of continuing to only shoot their neighbours across the channel, the other invention, the corporation, took to the 'third-world', supplying (in actuality, leasing) the modern mechanised weapon of devastating effectiveness, to rajas  of this-stan who wanted to teach rajas of that-stan a lesson. eventually, the rajas realised that the weapons were not theirs, and neither was the sovereignity over the land

the rest of the industrial revolution came about as a means to make better faster bigger guns,  move more  troops, carrying said guns and munitions, and  later, administrators and their retinues. 

given that  the earth is three-fourth's water, it is only fitting that a seafaring nation would take to it, like a fish to water

to be clear, it was the lend-lease program of musket-squads, of the EIC, that old chestnut debt ( hello graeber) that transformed the rest-of-the-world into colonies