Basically, the superior weaponry and technology enabled Europeans to dominate the globe, and colonize the Americas.
Many peoples, particularly in the Americas, the Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa, did not develop the sort of highly specialized economies that Europeans did, which ultimately became their downfall as European colonialists overwhelmed the natives in each region. This ultimately shifted the center of industrial output and economic power to Europe, in a process that would eventually be termed <em>The Great Divergence</em>. This also had the effect of knocking other great civilizations, such as the Indians and Chinese, down a peg and establishing European dominance over them as well.
