W. Europe and Japan colonised the rest of the world for almost 400 years until the end of WW2 – after which the losers (Germany, Japan and Italy) and the winners (USA, UK and Russia), both agreed to set their colonies free, and make fair trade, not war, the basis of relations between every nation of the free world that emerged.
And every nation of this free world then agreed on the terms of such fair trade by signing formal treaties such as GATT and, later, WTO.
This ushered in the era of globalisation, during which, apart from Germany and Japan – whose vast industrial complexes were razed to the ground in WW2 – the biggest beneficiaries have been erstwhile Asian colonies such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore – whose economies now afford their citizens standards of living that are amongst the best in the world.
China, initially slow, undertook major economic reforms and today has a GDP of over USD 15Tn – close behind that of the USA.
But because China’s 1.3 Bn is 4-5 times larger than USA’s, its per-capita GDP is much lower. But, to China’s credit, by 2020 it had to lift every one of its citizens above the IMF’s “Poverty Line” – an income of USD 3 per day.
Why has India lagged behind?
India has the largest English-speaking population in the world – many of whom are more eloquent than even the British (!!!), one of whom argues that colonisation by the British is to blame, and another who claims that globalisation itself is not fair.
For a contrarian argument do see this 7 min. talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVBWGZoBOEY&t=29s