Why do you think the process of modernization in the 19th and early 20th centuries hardly

Why do you think the process of modernization in the 19th and early 20th centuries hardly touched the countries of the East?

The countries of the East during this period had a conservative leadership, for example, the Empress Tsi Xi in China (the Qing Empire), were also cut off from the most advanced countries of Europe, since railways were not laid to them, which made it possible to deliver goods faster. Consequently, trade was carried out only by sea. Plus the policy of isolation, for example, in China it lasted until the middle of the 19th century, and even longer in Korea.

Many countries became colonies (Burma by 1885, Indian states), others were simply distant from Europe and cut off by mountains and deserts, for example, Afghanistan.

The Ottoman Empire was also distinguished by conservative leadership in the 19th and 18th centuries, there was much less progress there than in the Russian Empire.