If you really want to see how a country can start from NOTHING and go on to become a leader in a certain industry - in this case, the steel industry, please pay a visit to Japan, esp. Kitakyushu city, a city that hosts Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation Yawata Works. Japan was 100 years behind the European countries in industrialization, but within 15 years, the country was on bar with the West. What makes this success an astonishing feat is that Japan didn't have the resources required to feed the steel industry. For Japan, the know-how, not natural resources, was/is a secret to compete.
