Before we get started, This is an introduction to a series of history videos that will be
listed under as the Banana wars.
Now, this video is simply acting as a bit of a background of the United Fruit company,
a US company that has essentially caused a massive amount of issues within Central America
for over a century, and had a massive hand in causing the banana wars.
This video will cover the companies history up until the 1930's and the adoption of the
US's good neighbor policy.
Their is a massive amount of horrible events and information that this company has done
following that time-frame, but that will not be the scope of this video.
Just wanted to get that out of the way, before continuing on.
Anyway, let's begin.
In 1871, U.S entrepreneur Henry Meiggs signed a contract with the government of Costa Rica
to build a railroad connecting the capital city of San Jos� to the port of Lim�n.
Meiggs was assisted in the project by his nephew Minor C. Keith, who took over Meiggs's
business in Costa Rica after his death in 1877.
Keith began experimenting with the planting of bananas as a cheap source of food for his
workers.
When the Costa Rican government defaulted on its payments in 1882, Keith had to borrow
1.2 million pounds to continue the engineering project.
In exchange for this and for renegotiating Costa Rica's own debt, the administration
of President Pr�spero Oreamuno agreed to give Keith 800,000 acres of land along the
railroad, plus a 99-year lease on the train route.
The railroad was completed in 1890, but the flow of passengers proved insufficient to
offset the debt.
On the other hand, the sale of bananas grown in his lands and transported first by train
to Lim�n, then by ship to the United States, proved very lucrative.
Keith eventually came to dominate the banana trade in Central America and along the Caribbean
coast of Colombia.
In 1899, Keith lost $1.5 million when a New York City broker, went bankrupt.
He traveled to Boston, to participate in the merger of his trading company, Tropical Trading
and Transport Company, with the rival Boston Fruit Company.
Boston Fruit had been established by Lorenzo Dow Baker, a sailor who, in 1870, had bought
his first bananas in Jamaica, and with buisnessman Andrew Preston.
The merger formed the United Fruit Company, based in Boston, with Preston as president
and Keith as vice-president.
Preston's lawyer Bradley Palmer, became a permanent member of the executive committee
and for long periods of time acted as the director.
Together, these men had a massive influence over the market.
Preston brought his plantations from the West Indies, a fleet of steamships, and his market
in the U.S. Northeast.
Keith brought his plantations and railroads in Central America and his market in the U.S.
South and Southeast.
The company at Palmer's direction proceeded to buy, or buy a share in, 14 different competitors,
assuring them 80% of the banana import business in the United States, then their main source
of income.
The company catapulted into financial success following this.
Bradley Palmer overnight became a much-sought-after expert in business law, as well as a very
wealthy man.
He later became a consultant to presidents and an adviser to Congress.
The company would often bribe the central American governments for special treatment,
and they had in-grown monopolies on transportation, communication, and land ownership in these
nations.
Various economic exclaves existed, where the companies investment only helped itself and
it's investors, while providing little to no of the export wealth to the host country.
One of the company's primary tactics for maintaining market dominance, was to control the distribution
of lands.
The company claimed that hurricanes, and other natural threats required them to hold extra
land or reserve land that wasn't owned by them.
In practice, what this meant was that the fruits company was able to prevent the government
from distributing banana lands or other crops land to peasants who wanted a share of the
trade.
The fact that the company relied so heavily on manipulating land use rights, had a number
of long-term consequences for the region.
For the company to maintain its unequal land holdings it often required government concessions.
And this in turn, meant that the company had to be politically involved in the region even
though it was an American company, and the term Banana Republic comes from this.
This resulted in a massive amount of public unrest in these nations, and the United States
on more then one occasion, invaded, occupied, policied, or over-threw the nations government
to install a pro-American, Pro United Fruits government/dictator, all in the name
of profit.