By 1870, major portions of the Western world had achieved or were on the road to a sophisticated level of industrialization, although areas such as southern Italy, Spain, Portugal, and a few isolated other isolated spots within the Western orbit such as Ireland and the American South, had made only minimal progress by comparison. In other parts of the globe, no set of favorable conditions similar to that of the Western nations, such as the availability of abundant resources, enterprising entrepreneurs, technological advances, the growth of capital for investment, rapid urbanization, etc., existed to facilitate industrial growth. That is not to say that industrialization had no impact on the non-Western regions. On the contrary, the rapid trends in industrialization in Western nations in the 19th century led to their intrusion into other parts of the world for both economic and strategic reasons. Western entrepreneurs built factory enterprises and introduced technology into these areas and sought resources and markets, while some Western workers sought opportunity in the newly emerging enterprises. As a result, significant interaction with Western nations occurred and in many instances left these regions with no easy path to industrialization and an increased dependence on the West for economic viability. Until the 1860s, East Asia (except for China and Japan) and sub-Saharan Africa remained virtually free from Western industrial intrusion, while the Middle East, Latin America, and India experienced some degree of influence. However, only Russia and Japan, for very different and unique reasons, began a significant economic transformation within their societies, based upon national decisions to industrialize.
World History
