<P> Some economic historians argue that the possession of so - called' exploitation colonies' eased the accumulation of capital to the countries that possessed them, speeding up their development . The consequence was that the subject country integrated a bigger economic system in a subaltern position, emulating the countryside, which demands manufactured goods and offers raw materials, while the colonial power stressed its urban posture, providing goods and importing food . A classical example of this mechanism is said to be the triangular trade, which involved England, southern United States and western Africa . Some have stressed the importance of natural or financial resources that Britain received from its many overseas colonies or that profits from the British slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean helped fuel industrial investment . </P> <P> With these arguments still find some favour with historians of the colonies, most historians of the British Industrial Revolution do not consider that colonial possessions formed a significant role in the country's industrialisation . Whilst not denying that Britain could profit from these arrangement, they believe that industrialisation would have proceeded with or without the colonies . </P> <P> Belgium was the first country to develop a proper industry in continental Europe and was the second in the world (after the United Kingdom). In Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Scandinavian countries a real modern industrialisation started only in 1840s . In Poland, Slovakia, Hungary after 1880 and in Baltics, Ukraine and Russia after 1890 . </P> <P> After the Convention of Kanagawa issued by Commodore Matthew C. Perry forced Japan to open the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade, the Japanese government realised that drastic reforms were necessary to stave off Western influence . The Tokugawa shogunate abolished the feudal system . The government instituted military reforms to modernise the Japanese army and also constructed the base for industrialisation . In the 1870s, the Meiji government vigorously promoted technological and industrial development that eventually changed Japan to a powerful modern country . </P>

Where did the industrialization first begin in europe