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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 ...
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.
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 ...
They are the founders of Banana Republic, a clothing and accessory retailer. [1] Alongside William Rosenzweig, they co-founded The Republic of Tea. They eventually sold both companies. [2] [3] The Zieglers subsequently founded another apparel company, Zoza, [2] [3] [4] but this was shut down in the dot com crash of 2000. [5]
United Fruit had a deep and long-lasting effect on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism , and they described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the so-called banana republics.
According to a book review by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton of Larry Tye's biography of Bernays, The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR, "the term 'banana republic' actually originated in reference to United Fruit's domination of corrupt governments in Guatemala and other Central American countries." [5]
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]
The general strike of 1954 was a watershed political and economic event in the history of Honduras that ushered in widespread change.. When former United Fruit Company lawyer Juan Manuel Gálvez became president in 1954, following the contested election of 1953, he surprised everyone by adopting a pro-labor stance, introducing, among other things, an 8-hour work day, including extra pay for ...