Because the West was the country that invented the industrialization (steam engine, textile and steel factories, electricity, combustion, robotization, miniaturization, computerization, etc.). It seems pretty obvious. If you were to be taken in the 1860's or 1870's all non-Western countries (from Morocco to Japan) were still in the Middle Ages while Europe and America had railways, factories, telegraphs, photographs, baloons, steamships and even the first submarines. In Japan ordinary people were still travelling on ox-drawn carts, whle the samurai only could ride horses (there were no carriage like in the 17th and 18th century in Europe) and were fighting with swords instead of guns.Originally Posted by Keeni84
At that point in the late 19th century, some non Western countries realised the huge gap between them and Westerners and decided to copy as much as they could. Japan was far from being the only one. Turkey (with Kemal Ataturk) and to a lesser extend Thailand also did it spontaneously. China, at the contrary, was weak and obstinate, and they stayed so until they realised the importance of coyping the West about 20 years ago. Most of the rest of the world adopted at least a Western-style political system through the colonization (India, SE Asia, Africa..), although they stopped developping in this direction after their independence.
India is one of the non-Western countries that has learnt the most (politics, universities, medicine, railway...), but its antiquated caste system and utter lack of natural resources have given it a harder time (partly because they did not adopt more on their own and reform themselves culturally as well, as Japan, which was in very similar posture as India, did since 1868). In other words, India learnt mostly about the Western system except for the industrialization (as it has little coal, iron or other raw material, it is hard to create an industry other than high-tech).
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