Genuine question.
As long as National security is not the biggest concern , a homogeneous population or at least a shared of common values in the country controlled by a single party with a goal for the greater good can achieve economic development unlike anything else. It also helps being an outlier in the given region and attracting industries that other neighboring countries can't.
Except for Chinese provinces (which is a magic in itself due to the ruthlessness of a single party system) no other developing areas of the world have developed faster. Most of them share similar problems which have although reduced a lot over the past couple of decades. Even these places want a better future for themselves, the spread of information has made many individuals in all these areas aware of the world around them and they aspire for a better standard of living.
Sure, I don't think the present European powers would take quite the same approach to Belgium, but that has more to do with the nature of politics rather than the availability of education.
[1]http://www.radiolab.org/story/mau-mau/
Edit: err, not 70+ years ago, don't do simple math on the fly...
Take the Algerian independence struggle which was long and harsh, culminating in a final war into the early 1960s leaving hundreds of thousands (probably over a million) dead. France committed some ridiculous levels of atrocities, this was 53 years ago, my dad was already an adult at the time and he was raised in a country where he wasn't allowed to go to school because he was a native. Literally a generation ago in some families like mine. (I'm just 25 years old by the way).
But yeah I agree, it is pretty shocking and often untold. We're all aware of the colonial era, mostly aware of the low levels of autonomy for the local population, the desire for self-determination and the final years of the eventual independence movement. But the atrocities are usually glossed over, you'll scarcely be confronted with pictures of French or Spanish soldiers holding the heads of decapitated freedom fighters in school (partially understandable, of course), although it was pretty common. Somehow we pretend like only ISIS is capable of doing something like that. I mean take Jean-Marie le Pen, father (and indeed still alive) of Marine le Pen who just doubled her seats in a record election result for her party Front National in France, he's been accused of torture of Algerians in credible French newspapers and books, none of this is all that long ago. And hell that's in Algeria, a lot of people don't know of things like the Paris Massacre, where French protesters were killed and thrown in the Seine, some of them tortured, by government forces. That's just absolutely shocking, the moment you kill civilians and throw them in the river (i.e. they're not even pretending these civilians were a threat, were killed in self-defence, then brought in for identification, investigation and ultimately buried by family... but rather just murdered and ditched in the nearest river), you know something is really fucked up and indeed it feels very recent.
Anyway, the colonial atrocities are one thing, but the effects of colonialism are still very much felt today. Take Angola for example, independent in 1975 (quite recent) after a 13 year (nasty) war for independence, but embroiled right after in a civil war that ended only in 2002, lasting more than 25 years. The latter is in many ways a product of the former. A bit simplistic of course, but ultimately the colonial story is one of arbitrary geographical borders being drawn, exploitation, a bloody independence movement, and a post-colonial consolidation/playing-out of the various ethnic groups that were arbitrarily grouped together in a new nation state, who often have different cultures, political ideas and are all driven by their own desire for self-determination. This process is bloody, too, it's like grouping the US, Canada and Mexico in one big area, having them partially mingle for a century, and then allowing their independence once more, having them fight for the establishment of new borders of their new nation states. It's not pretty, especially when you do it in some of the poorest and least educated areas in the world. It's really sad, but the post-colonial era too is one in which we have more blame than we behave like we do.
As for German exceptionalism in 1939 - this is what economic depression and a charismatic leader can do to a people. The difference between the Germans and say descenats of the Ottomans is that the former are still paying reparations to this day though while the later are busy burning churches in Kosovo.
Go ahead, try to debate me muslim-lovers and Islam apologists. Millions of Christians live in the Middle East as 2nd rate citizens - dhimmis with no practically no rights.
Where are the Assyrians of Iraq? You know the answer. This is whats attempting to spread to Europe and the rest of the world.
So are the Albanian Catholics who aren't in Italy "fake Albanians"?
And don't give me the bullshit of the islamic "Golden Age" in Spain pushed by the MSM. If it were that good, native Spaniards wouldn't have to melt down their church bells to make cannons.
Is there any region outside Arabia that got better? I can't think of a single one.