This image comes not from the era of the Atlantic slave trade, which the British had abolished in the early part of the nineteenth century, but from the beginning of the age of European imperialism. Note the variety of African and European vessels. In this illustration, a British warship is firing its cannons. One can also discern a smokestack on the warship, an early example of the industrialization of the British Navy. The industrialization of warships and improvements in the accuracy and lethality of weapons altered the balance of power between Africans and Europeans that had been relatively unchanged for over three centuries.