If Poland did perfect industrial processes where did it got the natural resources from if not from rest of Europe which were brought into Europe through imperialism? Becoming an Industrial power is not possible without importing resources.
>> Take Poland, which was one of the major powers of the pre-industrial Europe (around XV-XVII centuries), and which never ventured outside Europe.
It seems to support my claim perfectly. Poland was only able to become a major power because it did not have an excess of those resources, partly because it did not venture outside Europe. It had no option but to polish its industrial strength in order to compete with rest of Europe.
There was literally no incentive for other European countries of that time to become a major industrial power, they were awash with wealth and resources.