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In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. In 1904, American author O. Henry coined the term [ 1 ] [ 2 ] to describe Guatemala and Honduras under economic exploitation by U.S. corporations, such as the United Fruit ...
Entrance façade of the old United Fruit Building at 321 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana The United Fruit Company (later the United Brands Company) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe.
The U.S. did not need to use its military might in Guatemala, where a series of dictators were willing to accommodate the economic interests of the U.S. in return for its support for their regimes. [8] Guatemala was among the Central American countries of the period known as a banana republic.
The US government supported the 1971 coup led by General Hugo Banzer that toppled President Juan José Torres of Bolivia. [9] Torres had displeased Washington by convening an "Asamblea del Pueblo" (Assembly of the Town), in which representatives of specific proletarian sectors of society were represented (miners, unionized teachers, students, peasants), and more generally by leading the ...
By 1902 local railroad lines were being constructed on the Caribbean coast to accommodate the expanding banana production. [7] The economic dominance and political influence of these companies was so great from the late 19th until the mid 20th century that Honduras became the original model for the banana republic. [8]
In American literature, the term banana republic originally denoted the fictional Republic of Anchuria, a servile dictatorship that abetted, or supported for kickbacks, the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, especially banana cultivation. [33] In U.S. politics, the term banana republic is a pejorative political descriptor ...
The Union of Banana Exporting Countries (Spanish: Unión de Países Exportadores de Banano or UPEB) was a cartel of Central and South American banana exporting countries established in 1974, inspired by OPEC. Its aim was to achieve better remuneration from the North American banana trade oligopoly, which consisted of three US companies.
Honduras: Where the United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company dominated the country's key banana export sector and associated land holdings and railways, saw insertion of American troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, and 1925. [14] The writer O. Henry coined the term "banana republic" in 1904 to describe Honduras. [15]