Or you could heavily industrialize by imposing massive protections for your nascent domestic industry, which is how U.S became an industrial powerhouse in the f

Or you could heavily industrialize by imposing massive protections for your nascent domestic industry, which is how U.S became an industrial powerhouse in the first place. In fact part of the reason why U.S went to war in the first place was because Britain was quite content using it as a raw material hub and Alexander Hamilton himself was explicit in stating this argument. Recently you can also look at what China has done as well, most of the strategic industries were massively subsidized by the state.