http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/27901/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22795/ 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z How global is the world economy? Does it also encompass the remote corners of the Third World where subsistence agriculture still predominates and where the first hard-surface roads have yet to be built? And if it does, when did these areas become incorporated into the world economy? Whereas by 1919 northernmost Togo had hardly any economic contacts with the outside world, the impact which the Great Depression had on it serves as evidence that only 10 years later this rural periphery had lost part of its former isolated, self-sufficient existence. Since then, capitalist penetration has made further inroads into the area. With most other Third-World ‘backwaters’ having experienced similar developments since the turn of the century, today's world economy does appear to be one globe-spanning, interdependent system. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/23432/ 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z The Third World is too diverse to allow us to make many meaningful generalizations. No matter how we define the Third World, some countries will fit the definition better than others. Pretty much the same can be said with regard to "underdevelopment". No one theory can explain underdevelopment everywhere, just as no one development strategy can solve all problems of underdevelopment throughout the Third World. In the same way that likenesses are hidden under apparent divergences, so differences are hidden under apparent resemblances.