Which country was the original banana republic?
Honduras. It was in Honduras that the United Fruit and Standard Fruit companies dominated the country’s key banana export sector and support sectors such as railways. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic The quintessential ” banana republic” Honduras became a foreign enclave as a result of Anglo-American control over it’s railroads, mining industry and banana production in the 1800’s. U.S. banana companies were to dominate the country for many years. After the turn of the century, The United Fruit Company and the Standard Fruit and Steamship Company expanded their control over the rich alluvial plains of Honduras’ Atlantic coast. By 1929, the United Fruit Company owned or controlled 650,000 acres of the best arable land, along with railroads and ports. The banana operations were run like private cheifdoms, in which the companies kept order and crushed labor organizing with their own securi
