This article seeks to indicate both the nature and significance of the factors relevant to North-South relations and to show what their effect is on actual policies. In order to make the topic manageable the discussion has been grouped under three headings (debatable though such a classification may be): theory, politics, and economics.

This paper is a report of ongoing work at the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economics, Historical Systems, and Civilizations. The premises of our research were published in “Research Proposal: Patterns of Development of the Modern World-System.” These premises can be stated briefly as follows.

Deux questions fondamentales dominent la problématique des conséquences économiques du colonialisme européen. La première tourne autour des effets de ce colonialisme sur ce qui est devenu le Tiers-Monde: s'agit-il là du principal facteur explicatif du sous développement? La seconde question concerne la contribution du colonialisme au dévelop-pement du monde occidental: le colonialisme a-t-il apporté à ce développement une contribution décisive ou négligeable? C'est sur ces deux questions que nous voudrions faire une série de réflexions personnelles basées en partie sur nos recherches en ce domaine.

As historians, living in the contemporary world, we ask and are asked about the causes of underdevelopment. And, as most of the former colonies belong today to the underdeveloped countries of the Third World, we are confronted with the question as to what importance the colonial era plays in the history of these countries. There is a consensus that the history of colonialism can only be meaningful approached in the broader spectrum of underdevelopment and the specific problems of the Third World. There is no satisfaction in retreatingto the ostensibly objective approach of the historian and wanting tolimit ourselves in showing how colonialism came into being, what administrative structures arose, what economic policies were followed and finally how the colonized revolted and the process of decolonization got under way. Society will simply not allow us to do so. Equally, if not more important, is the question regarding the impact of colonialism on the colonized societies and how far it may be held responsible for the existing structures of underdevelopment.