>feudal for thousands of years
>smaller than most european countries
>no natural resources
>just finished fighting a civil war sponsored by foreigners
>...
>sundenly turned into the world's second biggest economy, defeating russia and conquering french, dutch, british, korean and chinese territories along the way
how??? what was the secret to their success?
>>1376256
>smaller than most european countries
>>1376274
>mercator
>>1376281
thetruesize.com
Japan is larger than all but 6 European countries
>>1376281
>Japan
>377,972.28 km2
>France
>643,801 km2
>Italy
>301,338 km2
>Poland
>312,679 km2
>>1376274
Except for at the time the UK and France had like 3/4 of the Earth under their direct control and other countries also had shit tons of colonies all arround so yeah pretty much smaller if you consider colonies being exploited by Europeans.
>>1376256
not being colonized.
>>1376256
Japan is larger than pretty much every European country except Pre-WW2 Germany and maybe Russia if you count them as European.
>>1376256
>being feudal is a bad thing
Hohoho oh wow great exposition my Keynesian friend you couldnt be more right now let us talk about how terrible colonization was :DD
>>1376326
>Japan is larger than pretty much every European country except Pre-WW2 Germany and maybe Russia if you count them as European.
Why would you say something like this without checking if it is even close to true?
Japan has about 2/3 the area of France.
>>1376355
Quick, what other European country is larger than Japan?
>>1376256
>>just finished fighting a civil war sponsored by foreigners
What?
>>1376359
Do you not know roughly how big European countries are relative to each other?
>>1376368
Did you not watch The Last Samurai?
>>1376376
>I can't answer
Anyway my point was Japan is not a small country compared to European countries. I have no interest in feeding your autism by getting into a pointless argument over semantics.
>>1376377
Oh, I thought OP was talking about the Sengoku period.
And really, the premise isn't that far fetched. The only surprise comes from white people who can't understand that not every non-white civilization was a mud hut culture. East Asia has always had a very strong civilization that has emphasized some of the cultural attributes required to succeed in a Western-dominated world.
It was only European disdain for non-Europeans that led them to underestimate the Japanese, although Japan by 1941 was pretty shitty.
>>1376380
You're right, I totally can't use Google or Wikipedia or Wolfram Alpha, you got me.
Japan has 40% literacy, a large national pop size, and native coal, iron, and sulfur. It'll take a while to civilize, but once it does, you can easily take top 4.
"fuck off we're full"
large population + high technology + industrialization
also it's not fair. Korea had a population less than a third of Japan's 100 years ago
t. Park
>>1376409
You do realize the habitable parts of Australia are the coasts and a small part of the north yes?
>>1376509
Right.
It's not like I live here or anything :^).
>>1376394
I don't get this meme
>>1376509
Define 'habitable' and 'coast'.
With the exception of the deserts, which do make up about 10% of the country, most of country is very livable.
>>1376394
Victoria 2 is not real life my friend although they did have access to large amounts of coal and sulphur they lacked Iron and oil.
>>1376256
They were culturally hard working people.
>>1376256
Their own intense efforts to modernize without borrowing western money. They really wanted to modernize and industrialize. After all, only will power can change one's fate.
>>1376289
>6 European countries
Which ones?
I can only think of Sweden and Russia. Are you counting Greenland?
>>1376256
Nationalism.
Blessing of Amaterasu.
>>1376256
Their own will.
>>1376281
Japan is still pretty big on the Gall-Peters projection
>>1376355
Why would anyone ever count Russia as European am I missing something
>>1377869
>Which ones?
France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Ukraine, Russia
>>1377935
Russia spans Europe and Asia. Just the part in Europe is still larger than any other European country.
>>1377984
Of those, Sweden and Norway have even less natural resources (in 19th century terms) than Japan and were accordingly poor as shit. Spain was poor as shit for other reasons. Also Norway was not a country, and neither was Ukraine, and Russia was hardly European.
Out of the three European countries you list, only France was better off than Japan.
>>1377999
If we're talking "better off" that's a whole different list. I was just answering the question.
>>1377935
The part of Russia that holds most of the country's population is European both culturally and geographically.
>>1378011
The op suggested that Japan was somehow in a terrible position to become a great power. There's no reason to autistically isolate related points except pedantry.
Actually Portuguese missionary sealed Japan in 16th century but later USA accidentally broke the seal and Japan was released on the earth.
>>1377999
Russia is in the Euro Cultural Sphere ya nitpick. Idolized the romans like the rest of us
>>1377904
Earth is flat
>>1376377
Last Samurai was a fictitious Satsuma rebellion, the civil war was a decade earlier.
>>1376256
They were so successful because they're honorary Aryans, anon.
