Was there any other backward nation that tried to industrialize like Japan or was Japan just a single case?
Can you define "backwards" better? Russia and China experienced rapid industrialization in the 20th century. South Korea and Taiwan share the moniker "Asian tiger economies" with Japan too.
Specifically, I want to know if there were (failed) ATTEMPTS from some poor nations and write an alternate history.
Pre-Meijii Japan wasn't "backwards", it had a self imposed isolation prior to opening up.
Every country was originally poor. So they all qualify under the right PoD if we extend things to 2022.
Almost every non-European country in the late 19th and early 20th century tried modernization campaigns. Korea before the Japanese take over, China in the late Qing modernization efforts and then during the Nanjing decade, the Ottoman Empire with the Young Turks and after 1908 (with various scattered reform efforts before then), Thailand particularly from the 1930s onwards, most South American countries had their own path to development with export economies, etc. Japan is the only, mostly unequivocal, success story in regards to transformation to a reasonably modern industrial power.
I personally consider every country to the east of the Rhine to be a failed state but unfortunately few people share this opinion
The OP post and title didn't mention anything about failed states. Certainly what can be said is that Germany, after unification, tried to industrialize- and it succeeded at its try.
After 1930, yes. But in the 20th century, national modernization/industrialization plans were quite common. Japan is more unique if you(the OP) mean in the 19th century.
Garrison
Donor
I don't think you can call Japan's pre 1941 effort a failure, incomplete perhaps but not a failure. They faced problems with raw materials but that applied to any nation that didn't have large deposits of coal, Iron ore and later oil.
Madagascar tried it in the late 19th century, but there was a contradiction between the need for roads to get the embryonic industries (textiles IIRC) to ports and then to world markets, and the army's belief that building roads would just make things easier for any foreign invader.
In the end the French took Madagascar in 1895 anyway.
In the end the French took Madagascar in 1895 anyway.
Egypt tried under Mehmet Ali and his immediate successors in the 19th century, IMO.
RousseauX
Donor
China, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and tried this in the 19th century
They all had some degree of success, just less than Japan's
It's probably easier to do it with a smaller country that's still a regional power, so Egypt would be a better bet.
Were there any sub-Saharan states that could've done it? Kongo or Sokoto or somewhere?
Feels like most of Latin America was close enough to industrialization, the problem was political and (socio)economic stability.
Were there any sub-Saharan states that could've done it? Kongo or Sokoto or somewhere?
Feels like most of Latin America was close enough to industrialization, the problem was political and (socio)economic stability.
Too little and too subject to the vagaries of internal politics to be seen a continuous, consistent program.