ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes, from a long-term and global perspective, the rural world and focuses on the agricultural sector. It explores two themes in detail: first, the role of the state in the organization of the food system; and second, various forms of rural planning and internal and external colonization projects. These state initiatives served multiple objectives, from improving living standards to strengthening national identity. Certain developments, such as increasing state interventionism, had their roots in the late nineteenth century. Other processes, such as the changing relations between the West and its colonies, would only become fully significant after the Second World War. Geographically, a growing paradox stands out. Progressive market integration made rural areas more connected to the world than ever before while simultaneously the (alleged) typical features of rural life were valorized. Thus, the global and the local influenced the character of the countryside in the interwar decades.
