Analyses of problems in international development have often been criticized for being a-historical. Similarly, it is argued that routine disregard of past experience on the part of development policy-makers is the reason why so many development interventions fail. In order to understand contemporary problems of development in the Global South the most directly relevant historical experience is undoubtedly that of the colonial era since the late nineteenth century. For it was during this period that the modern concept of "development"emerged and practices designed to stimulate economic growth were devised. If future development projects continue to fail to take the longstanding and fundamental nature of these problems into account, they are destined to founder.
Nowhere is this more evident than in current attempts to promote agricultural development in the South. In this project, accordingly, I examine the major obstacles commonly encountered in such interventions and show that the origins of these obstacles can be traced to the colonial era. In each case European colonial administrators pushed through measures designed to further European interests, the ultimate effect of which was to deform the colonies’ indigenous (peasant) agriculture in ways which continue into the present.