ABSTRACT

Whereas the historical political economy of agriculture in the North Atlantic and the communist countries can be recounted in comparatively simple terms, the post1930 history of the globally peripheral regions is more complex. Latin America and Australasia have been politically independent throughout the twentieth century; by a quirk of history one is classed as developing and the other as developed, though the economies of southern South America and Australasia have strong similarities. The countries of the tropical Asian and African regions gained independence only in the mid-twentieth century. The Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s happened most extensively in Asia; periods of military rule intervened mainly in Latin America and Africa; major warfare happened mostly in parts of Asia and Africa; and ‘economic miracles’ on a sustained basis have been characteristic mainly of Asia. Two forces have been general. These are the post-1945 drive for state-led economic development, converted during the 1980s into the neo-liberal project of globalism. This chapter can only be an essay on these events, though with specific focus on selected and contrasted countries.