To industrialize so that they could catch up with western powers or stay strong, they had to constantly use natural resources. Once they realized that their own natural resources were not enough, they had to expand imperialistically; that is, acquiring overseas/overland colonies, such as the British in India producing cotton and textiles and the Spanish in Latin America.
As time went on and the abuses of these mother nations went on, those who were ruled over decided to band together as a common ethnic group with the same goal of getting rid of their rulers and unifying their split up groups. This resulted in the unification of people, an independent nation, as well as the removal of foreign powers within that nation.
Examples include the various revolutions throughout the west: the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions, as well as the revolutions throughout Africa: the revolutions in Algeria, Angola, and Ghana.
However, not all people within a nation were entirely for this idea, resulting in the competing forces of nationalism and sectionalism. For example, during the process of unification in Italy, there were areas of modern Italy that were very different from the other parts of Italy, becoming an obstacle for unification. Specifically, Piedmont, which is Northern Italy today, was industrialized and had a centralized system of governance, while areas in Southern Italy, such as Sicily, were poor and still had an agrarian society.
The other areas to greatly impact Japan were the regions of Korea, which was the closest culture to Japan and therefore the main point of contact between Japan and Asia. Through Korea, the major Asian religion Buddhism traveled from China to Japan and became a major influence on Japanese culture. Hope this helped :)
