This article argues that spatial re-ordering in the interests of globalisation goes back to the very beginning of modern Western empires. It does this by exploring the role of land law in globalisation. It shows that there is a remarkable continuity stretching back some 800 or more years in the use of land law to spearhead first English, but now Anglo-American, inputs into and interference with the spatial ordering and national land laws of countries in the developing world. This interference extends even into attempts to re-order land laws and land management as part of programmes of post-conflict statebuilding
