The term "banana wars" was popularized in 1983[2] by writerLester D. Langley. Langley wrote several books on Latin American history and American intervention, including:The United States and the Caribbean, 1900–1970 andThe Banana Wars: An Inner History of American Empire, 1900–1934. His work regarding the Banana Wars encompasses the entire United States tropical empire, which overtook the Western Hemisphere, spanning both Roosevelt presidencies. The term was popularized through this writing and portrayed the United States as a police force sent to reconcile warring tropical countries, lawless societies, and corrupt politicians, essentially establishing U.S. reign over tropical trade.
The U.S. justified its interventions in Latin America by stating they were necessary actions to protect its economic interest. The Panama Canal was used as a major justification of these interventions which America deemed essential for its trade and security over the Northern Hemisphere. With the 1901Hay–Pauncefote Treaty, granting the U.S. control to build the Panama Canal, the U.S. felt the need to protect its economic goals and strategic objectives in the region which would later set the stage for the Banana Wars.[3]
With financial stakes in many crops, the U.S. also felt compelled to protect these companies producing these goods. Major food companies like UFC, which was the major exporter of bananas to the U.S., needed the military's help in protecting its largeplantations and railroads from potential threats.[4] With the U.S. backing these companies, it allowed them to hold a large influence over the local governments. With an economic foothold in Latin America, the U.S. was able to assert control over the region and ensure its interests came first.[2]
Nicaragua was the main center of unrest against U.S. companies' interest. Two main figures involved were Guatemala's rulerManuel Estrada Cabrera, who ruthlessly modernized the economy with Indian slave labor, and Nicaragua's Liberal ruler,Jose Santos Zelaya. Both were forceful autocratic leaders and most importantly were mortal enemies. Cabrera managed to convince the U.S. representatives in Latin America that he was an enlightened progressive trying to bring Guatemala into the modern age like America. Zelaya was against picking favorites with other countries outside of Latin America; Zelaya would preach about how the Americans should not involve themselves with Latin American business and stick to their own country. Therefore, American opinion of Zelaya was much lower than that of Manuel.[2]
The Americans in Latin America did not like how Zelaya was involved in the economy of Latin America as well as his way of meddling in other countries' affairs to get what he felt was best. Zelaya's distaste of the Americans was exacerbated when the canal was built in Panama rather than Nicaragua.[2]
Spanish–American War: In 1898, Spain relinquished control of Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico to the US. The end of theSpanish–American War led to the start of the Banana Wars.
U.S. Marine Corps stationed in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1922
Marine machine gun unit in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1922
A group of peasant guerillas, known as gavilleros, who fought against the U.S. Marine occupation of the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic: Action in 1903, 1904 (theSanto Domingo Affair), and 1914 (U.S. Naval forces engaged in battles inSanto Domingo[9]);occupied by the U.S. from 1916 to 1924. When a rebellion damaged an American-owned sugar cane plantation, American troops were sent in, starting in 1916. They took over a small castle calledFort Ozama, killed the men inside and set up a military presence to protect their business interests. Dominican forces, who had no machine guns or modern artillery, tried to take on theU.S. Marines in conventional battles but were defeated at theBattle of Puerto Plata,Battle of Las Trencheras,Battle of Guayacanas and theBattle of San Francisco de Macoris. Despite having much greater firepower, it took the Marines five years to suppress an insurgency in the eastern provinces of El Seibo and San Pedro de Macorís. During the occupation, 144 Marines were killed in action and 50 were wounded.[10] The Dominicans suffered 950 casualties.[10]
Nicaragua: Occupied by the U.S.almost continuously from 1912 to 1933, after intermittent landings and naval bombardments in the prior decades. The U.S. had troops in Nicaragua to prevent its leaders from creating conflicts with U.S. interests in the country. In 1912 GeneralLuis Mena led a rebellion against the U.S. -backed leaderAdolfo Diaz.[11] This led to a U.S intervention to reinstate the president and protect American business interest and ideals. U.S. PresidentsWilliam Howard Taft andCalvin Coolidge protested to the Nicaraguan government stating that their purpose for invading was to come to an agreement of a treaty or start processing one.[2] Thebluejackets and Marines were there for about 15 years.[2] The U.S. claimed it wanted Nicaragua to elect "good men" who would not threaten to disrupt U.S. interests.[2]
The corpses of three U.S. sailors who were part of the U.S.landing party during the 1914 occupation of the Mexican port city of Veracruz
Mexico: U.S. militaryinvolvements with Mexico in this period had the same general commercial and political causes but stand as a special case. The Americans conducted theBorder War with Mexico from 1910 to 1919 for additional reasons: to control the flow of immigrants and refugees fromrevolutionary Mexico (pacificos), and to counter rebel raids into U.S. territory. The 1914 U.S.occupation of Veracruz, however, was an exercise of armed influence; not an issue of border integrity; it was aimed at cutting off the supplies ofGerman munitions to the government of Mexican leaderVictoriano Huerta,[12] which U.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilson refused to recognize.[12] In the years prior toWorld War I, the US was also alert to the regionalbalance of power against Germany. The Germans were actively arming and advising the Mexicans, as shown by the 1914SS Ypiranga arms-shipping incident, German saboteurLothar Witzke's base in Mexico City, the 1917Zimmermann telegram, and the German advisors present during the 1918Battle of Ambos Nogales. Only twice during the Mexican Revolution did the U.S. military occupy Mexico: during the temporary occupation of Veracruz and between 1916 and 1917, when U.S. GeneralJohn Pershing led U.S. Army forces on anationwide search for Pancho Villa.
Haiti:Occupied by the U.S. from 1915 to 1934, which led to the creation of a new Haitian constitution in 1917 that instituted changes that included an end to the prior ban on land ownership by non-Haitians. This period included theFirst andSecond Caco Wars.[13]
Honduras: The UFC and Standard Fruit Company dominated the country's key banana export sector and associated land holdings and railways, leading to the insertion of American troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, and 1925.[8] WriterO. Henry coined the term "banana republic" in 1904 to describe Honduras.[14]
Other Latin American nations were influenced or dominated by American economic policies and/or commercial interests to the point of coercion.Theodore Roosevelt declared theRoosevelt Corollary to theMonroe Doctrine in 1904, asserting the right of the United States to intervene to stabilize the economic affairs of states in the Caribbean and Central America if they were unable to pay theirinternational debts. From 1909 to 1913, Taft andSecretary of StatePhilander C. Knox asserted a more "peaceful and economic"Dollar diplomacy foreign policy, although that too was backed by force, as in Nicaragua.
The first decades of thehistory of Honduras are marked by instability in terms of politics and economy. Indeed, three armed conflicts occurred between independence and the rise to power of theCarias government.[15] This instability was partly caused by American involvement in the country.[15] One of the first companies that concluded an agreement with the Honduran government was the Vaccaro Brothers Company (Standard Fruit Company).[15] TheCuyamel Fruit Company then followed their lead. UFC also contracted with the government through its subsidiaries, Tela Railroad Company and Truxillo Rail Road Company.[15] Contracts between the Honduran government and the American companies most often involved exclusive rights to a piece of land in exchange for building railroads in Honduras.[15]
However, banana producers in Central America (including Honduras) "were scourged byPanama disease, a soil-borne fungus...that decimated production over large regions".[16] Typically, companies would abandon the decimated plantations and destroy the railroads and other utilities that they had used along with the plantation,[16] so the exchange of services between the government and the companies was not always respected.
The ultimate goal of the contracts for the companies was control of the banana trade from production to distribution. The companies would finance guerrilla fighters, presidential campaigns and governments.[15] According to Rivera and Carranza, the indirect participation of American companies in the country's armed conflicts worsened the situation.[15] The presence of more dangerous and modern weapons allowed more dangerous warfare among the factions.[15]
InBritish Honduras (nowBelize), the situation was significantly different. Although UFC was the sole exporter of bananas there, and the company attempted to manipulate the local government, the country did not suffer the instability and armed conflicts that its neighbors experienced.[16]
The most influential figure outside of the U.S. government in Latin America during this time was UFC. Led by CEOSamuel Zemurray who was known as the Banana Man used the United States military to exercise his influence over Latin America for his own economic gain.[4] UFC held large amounts of land, railroads, and ports across Latin America which allowed them to essentially rule over these nations.[4] By owning railroads across the continent, UFC was able to lower transportation costs and have an advantage over the other fruit companies.[17] Zemurray followed a business strategy calledvertical integration, which allowed him to control every aspect of the supply chain allowing them to maximize profits. UFC and Zemurray left a lasting legacy on Latin America by using political influence as a business in order to achieve the business interests.
In Honduras, UFC actively supported another regime and with the help of the insurgents staged a coup in 1911. During this time Zemurray actively supported the insurgents with weapons and with the help of the U.S. Navy, led to the removal ofMiguel R. Dávila, who was removed because he had implemented laws that hurt UFC's profits. Following the coup, former PresidentManuel Bonilla was reinstated as president. Bonilla allowed Zemurray to run his company as he pleased and set him in charge of the country's finances.[4]
Perhaps the single most active military officer in the Banana Wars was U.S. Marine CorpsMajor GeneralSmedley Butler, nicknamed "Maverick Marine", who saw action in Honduras in 1903, served in Nicaragua enforcing American policy from 1909 to 1912, was awarded theMedal of Honor for his role in Veracruz in 1914, and received a second Medal of Honor for bravery in Haiti in 1915. After his forced retirement for making reckless statements, Butler made a career of speaking to left-wing groups denouncing capitalism. His standard speech after 1933 was titledWar is a Racket, where he denounced the role he had played, describing himself as "a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers...a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism".[18]
^The United Statesdeclared war on Spain on April 25, 1898, but dated the beginning of the war retroactively to April 21. This war ended on August 13, 1898. The Spanish-American War is not one of the Banana Wars.
^In December 1903, President Roosevelt put the number of "revolutions, rebellions, insurrections, riots, and other outbreaks" in Panama at 53 in the space of 57 years.[5]
^abcd"Bananas: how the United Fruit Company shaped the world".Choice Reviews Online.45 (12): 45–6894-45-6894. August 1, 2008.doi:10.5860/choice.45-6894 (inactive July 1, 2025).ISSN0009-4978.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Delgadillo, Roberto Carlos. The Last Banana War: United States Policy and the Second United States Intervention in Nicaragua, 1927–1933. Order No. 3147708 University of California, Los Angeles, 2004 United States -- CaliforniaProQuest. 12 Nov. 2024 .
Langley, Lester D.; Schoonover, Thomas David (1995).The Banana Men: American Mercenaries and Entrepreneurs in Central America, 1880-1930. Lexington, Ky:University Press of Kentucky.ISBN978-0-8131-1891-8.
Musicant, Ivan (1990).The Banana Wars: A History of United States Military Intervention in Latin America from the Spanish-American War to the Invasion of Panama. New York:Macmillan Inc.ISBN978-0-02-588210-2.
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