ABSTRACT
The early and significant historical turning point with respect to the destruction of the whole space economy of Tunisia began to appear far later than with the eleventh century. The disintegration of the urban economy was further accelerated when the strategists of the protectorate launched the same barbaric policy of destruction and disintegration on the precolonial rural economy, the traditional market and the supplier of raw materials for the local urban economy. The chapter aims to provide a thorough understanding of the “genesis” of regional disparities in Tunisia through the analysis of their historical origins. It provides an analysis of the fallacy that stipulates that the “causes” of regional underdevelopment lie in the underdeveloped regions themselves. Based on both “geographical determinism” and on “ahistorical” explanations, the fallacious views stipulate, therefore, that the main causes of regional underdevelopment are due strictly to “internal factors.”
