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What would happen if the response of the entire non-Western world to the European challenge was the same as Japan's? What if India modernized her army in the 1600's and China, the Ottomans, even SE Asia and the African kingdoms did the same? Nothing else changes, they don't have any more money or different cultures, they just modernize their military and as much of their culture as necessary to support this. They do it at the crucial moment also, when they have enough money and have not been so coopted as to make the effort futile.

I'm not putting this in ASB because I don't think it is, even on a plausibility definition of ASB. On the contrary, I wonder why they didn't do this.
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