Development economics have over the years produced several one-factor explanations by one-sidedly focusing on specific development factors or mechanisms as for example natural resources, saving and investment, human capital, free markets, technology, institutions and production structure. In this paper we term such narrow monocausal explanations as “fundamentalisms”. We identify and discuss several types of fundamentalism. We then argue that these diverse explanations of development in reality are interdependent and complement each other. Through out the paper there is a focus on resource-based development. It is not enough to have access to abundant natural resources. That can be a curse as well as a blessing. But if you can build an institutional framework for the utilization of specific natural resources, which supports development of new knowledge and competences that can be applied in a range of different activities, resource based development may be possible. This possibility is illustrated by the development of competitive positions, which build on growing sugar cane in Brazil. It is not the various endowments per se that are “fundamental” for development, but rather the by institutions sustained interdependency and interaction between the different types of development factors, and how these are managed or coordinated.