industrialization

my prior knowledge about industrialization was limited to that of the united states. I figured that it was the first area to organize industry. I did not know that nearly a century before the U.S. had industry great Britain and the rest of europe were already underway with their own industrial revolution. The next question that arose, why was the U.S. so successful? It turns out that it was a huge advantage to have a basically virgin land full of resources available to everyone. This began to make sense after i realized the U.S. was the only country with such an advantage. Nevertheless I was surprised to find out that democracies were not the only successful governments leading their country through a industry boom. Russia had a very different and interesting system. However even though they were not quite as up to date i feel that hardships were caused by war rather then a flaw in the system. Also when the southern americas come to mind, i felt as if they could have been a industry powerhouse if their resources were not striped from them and sent back to europe with basically no reimbursement towards southern america.