How industrialization happened and how economic development started ? This book approaches industrialization and economic development globally, taking into account the emerging economies represented by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and MIST (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, and Turkey), together with emerging nations in Latin America and Africa. The experiences of the Western European forerunners, along with the paths taken by the United States, Canada, Japan, and Central and Eastern European countries, are revisited under a new light of historical studies.