Hey! I can only really speak for European imperialism in the Far East, as that's the course I took for IB (high school diploma). To a large extent, I would say that European technology did help in advancing imperialism - it certainly didn't hurt, let's say.

It doesn't have to be limited to guns - when Commodore Perry arrived in Japan in 1853 in order to open it up as a trading port for the United States, the mere size of the ship frightened the shogunate (Kenneth B. Pyle).

Similarly in China, during the Opium Wars it would be very difficult to make an argument against Britain's use of technology during the wars. During the Boxer Rebellion of 1898, for example, the Qing dynasty's dignity "sank to a nadir" (Immanuel Hsü) when the West essentially took over the court during the Protocols. How did they do this? Guns, really. They had been able to vanquish the Boxers, so they basically took over Beijing and "established a sort of super-government" (Immanuel Hsü).

Sorry I can't give you a bigger scope, but I do recommend Immanuel Hsü's The Rise of Modern China (it's big, but don't let that intimidate you!) and Kenneth B. Pyle's The Making of Modern Japan as further reading - both do delve into European technology as a weapon for imperialism!