Modern Colonialism, Monoculture, and the Macabre Rise of the Banana Republic

Abstract

This presentation will examine the impact of commercial fruit plantations on Central American states during the 20th Century. Central to this topic will be the political maneuvering of the United Fruit Company and its predecessors, creating an entirely new type of nation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. One revolutionary form of agriculture enabled their meteoric rise to the top of the global fruit industry: the plantation. Oft maligned yet widely embraced, plantations are hotbeds of historical content. The domination of local economies by plantations created puppet states throughout Central America.