What is a Banana Republic? A Banana Republic is a small, poor, politically unstable country with an economy dependent on one export and usually controlled by foreign companies. The existence of US controlled banana republics have created an environment where drug cartels can rise up.
Banana Republic is not a positive term. The economy is usually controlled by a foreign company, and there is often a wide gap between the rich and the poor. Not always, but there is often a lot of corruption as well. The expression was first used in 1901 by an author called O. Henry (real name William Sydney Porter) in his book of short stories “Cabbages and Kings”. It is a work of fiction set in a made-up country called the Republic of Anchuria, but O. Henry had lived in Honduras for six months, and he wrote the story while he was there, so it is most likely based on his experiences. He calls Anchuria a “small maritime banana republic.” It had an economy based solely on the export of bananas. O. Henry may have come up with the name for these republics, but he was only giving a name to a concept that already existed.
A banana republic doesn’t have to have an economy based on bananas, but that is how they started. In 1870, a ship captain called Lorenzo Dow Baker brought bananas to the US from Jamaica, and they were incredibly popular. He could make a huge profit, even while selling them for less than the price of other US grown fruit. They were very popular, and two railroad magnates realized that they could use them as food for their railroad workers. They were building railways in Costa Rica, and they also realized that not only was the Costa Rican climate perfect for growing bananas, but they also owned a lot of land along the railways they were building. Costa Rica had not been able to pay for the railroad, so they took the land in lieu of the debt. They started to make banana plantations and export the bananas to the US. One of the magnates, Minor C. Keith, set up a fruit company called the Tropical Trading and Transport Company. After several years, his fruit company merged with several others to form the United Fruit Company. This is the one associated with banana republics and the company that became known as “El Pulpo”, the octopus, by people in Central America.
The United Fruit Company started to move into other countries. They entered Guatemala in 1901 and bought up the fruit company that controlled Honduras in 1929. That deal put the United Fruit Company in control of 14,000 km2 of land in Central America. On top of their banana plantations, they also started to control the infrastructure of the countries. To get bananas out of the countries as quickly as possible, they needed railways and roads, which they built for each country, but didn’t give to the country. They also ended up controlling the post office, the telecommunications of each country, and the ports. Then, in the 20th century, the fruit companies really showed their power by overthrowing the governments in both Honduras and Guatemala. They wanted to get rid of the democratically elected government and install a government that was more in line with what they were trying to do and their business interests. A government that could be bought, in other words. The government of Honduras they overthrew with a private army. The US government was persuaded to look the other way.
Then, in 1954, the United Fruit Company managed to persuade President Eisenhower to use the CIA to overthrow the government of Guatemala under the pretense that the democratically installed government was becoming communist. This was basically because the president was giving the fruit company’s land back to the peasants. Eisenhower sent in the CIA, and they staged a successful coup d’etat, replacing the president with one more friendly to the United Fruit Company.
The United Fruit Company controlled the governments, the infrastructure, and the people. They had their own access to low-paid slave labor, and they paid off the governments. All for the sake of profit. These countries have still not recovered and probably won’t for a long time. However, there was an unseen consequence that the US would come to regret. Because the fruit companies had installed puppet governments that could be easily corrupted, when drug cartels began to appear, the machinery of the corrupt system made it very easy for them to operate. So long as they had money, they would have no problems. So, the cartels that produce and ship most of the drugs to the USA exist pretty much because of the fruit companies. Unfortunately, these countries have the highest murder rates in the world. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://hir.harvard.edu/the-dark-side-of-bananas-imperialism-non-state-actors-and-power
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company
https://sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2022/09/conversation_banana_republic.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbages_and_Kings_(novel)
https://www.thoughtco.com/banana-republic-definition-4776041
Photo by AHMED ABUBAKAR BATURE: https://www.pexels.com/photo/harvested-green-bananas-at-nigerian-market-31537314/