ABSTRACT
Ecology, technology, and social forces encouraged differentiation between groups and varied socio-spatial systems. The size and reliability of the surplus affected levels of labor division, social stratification, and political centralization. Colonial spatial specialization and inequality produced four types of regions based, in turn, on peasant cash-crops, estates and plantations that produced crops for export with imported labor, labor reserves, and a peripheral role and location. The political principles underlying Ujamaa made villagization a crucial policy piece, a vehicle for addressing a variety of aims. More policy changes came about because of slow, voluntary villagization, economic decline, and the state’s need to penetrate rural areas, accelerate development, and prove socialism’s superiority. Settlement structure has been a core element of Tanzania’s development policy. The use of settlement structure in development strategies raises questions of villagization’s theoretical and practical soundness and the question of how crucial spatial issues are to development.
