With the last coup attempt on 19th September 2002, a conflict latent in C?te d'Ivoire since 1999 has possibly turned into a fierce civil war or perhaps even a regional conflagration. This is the outcome of a long historical process. It could be associated with an exhaustion of the domestic development model, or with some other African conflicts ? there are numerous possible explanations ? but one can only understand this crisis by reintroducing economic factors into the tangle of explanations and areas of conflict.