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Salemicus comments on Open thread, 16-22 June 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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And I deliberately gave the example of Japan. I don't know enough about Native Americans to say exactly how I'd go about the equivalent of a Meiji Restoration, but that's what I would attempt. I'd pass laws mandating compulsory Westernisation, forcibly settle the nomadic peoples, do my best to Christianise the country, and try and import as much technology and Western practices as I possibly could. And naturally I'd try and crush my rivals to make sure there was no alternative plan. I'd have tried to make Western contact as much of an opportunity as possible - Western imperialism was the best thing that ever happened to the country my family are from.
Definitely so. The ones who suffered less are generally the ones who adapted. There is no alternate history where a nation of nomadic hunter-gatherers are wandering the Great Plains hunting buffalo in 2014. And frankly that would have been a pretty miserable outcome even from the Native Americans' perspective. Unfortunately, it's that rather romantic vision that inspires, rather than a more pragmatic one of a rich and populous Native American nation, but which is culturally not much different from its "American" neighbours.
Then Japanese were much more similar to the Europeans then Native Americans. For starters they had a government. Furthermore, they had developed some institutions that were similar to western institutions, or at least more similar than anything else outside the West.
First you'd need to create a bureaucracy capable of enforcing laws.
If you want to give an example of successful Westernization, Japan is a terrible example.
In the 17th century, the Dutch broke the commercial monopoly the Portuguese had over Japan, and the infighting between Dutch and Portuguese bothered the Japanese so much that they closed off the country. Only the Dutch (who had the wisdom to never use missionaries) were allowed to keep trading, and only through one port in one island.
Fast forward to Commodore Perry and his gunboat diplomacy. Panicked, the Japanese quickly copied the ways of the West, including the industrial revolution and the German education system, and by the next century they had become an imperialistic oppressor over much of East Asia. It took WW2 to put a stop to that. Then the Americans took charge of ruling the country until it didn't appear to be a threat anymore.
During the 1980's it seemed Japan was headed for big things, but they didn't know what to do with that promise. Maybe they panicked again. Now Japan is a toothless beast, unsure of its future, economically uncertain (still the world's 3rd, but stagnant), and demographically doomed.
I was tempted to give Siam as a successful example instead, if only because they managed to never be colonized, but right now they're such a political joke that my first impression on this matter stands: there's no way colonization can end well.
I am confused as to why your potted history indicates that Meiji Japan is a bad example of successful westernisation.
The reason Siam was never colonized was that it served as a buffer state between British Burma and French Indo-China. This suggests another method to avoid colonization. Play rival would-be colonizers against each other.