Was it possible for ANYONE to pull a Meji?

Other than Japan itself? I've seen a few threads pop up about various other nations, but all of them have been rebuffed for various reasons. So is there really any other country capabable of this?
 
Other than Japan itself? I've seen a few threads pop up about various other nations, but all of them have been rebuffed for various reasons. So is there really any other country capabable of this?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this.

The Meiji Period in Japan begot the following events/trends (in very general terms):

1. The placement of the Emperor as a "divine right" ruler
2. The dissolution of the Tokugawa shogunate and many of its social structures, as well as modifications to samurai culture
3. Rapidly increasing westernization (trade, culture, government, law)
4. The movement towards imperialism, militarism, and eventually the theocentric-fascist military dictatorship of the 1930s and 1940s.

You would have to find a society that shunned outside contact to the extreme degree Japan did from the late 16th century to the mid 19th century. Tsarist Russia, for example, maintained a great many strands of contact with Western Europe. Distance, then, does not preclude cultural contact and influence.

Might I suggest that the westernization of Japan after the mid-19th century parallels Western colonization? In particular I think of places like New Zealand where European contact with the Maori resulted in a profound modification to the culture (and freedom) of a previously homogeneous society. Remember, the Tokugawan Japanese were forced open to trade and westernization in the mid 19th century. The attendant changes resulted in part from a colonization of ideas from foreign cultures. In many respects Japan's rapid socio-anthropological change resembled a colonization not unlike Western conquest, rule, and subjugation of other peoples.
 
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I could see potential for Madagascar (though not to industrialise), for Korea (especially), at periods for China itself, or for Tunis or Egypt.

Madagascar probably couldn't hope to do much better than Siam

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Japan had many advantages over other non-western nations when it comes to westernization.

It had a very high degree of literacy, it was an independent nation, it was culturally homogenous, it was never invaded by westerners and the government was relatively stable and centralized.

I think that Korea could have made a Meiji if it was not controlled by China, but both Madagaskar and Siam was to de-centralized and Madagascar had bad experiences from past european invasions.

China, could have done it if it was not for the Opium War which caused a generel distrust in China and the world for the Qing governments ability to industrilize and modernize.

Tunis, Egypt and Morrocco could probably have industrialized, as well as most of the arab middle east. (Not the bedouins of course)

I don't think Persia, Mughal Empire or Ethiopia could have made it, there was too much ethnical conflicts inside the nations.
 
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