Beginning in the early 20th century, we begin to witness the rise in neocolonialism throughout many Latin American countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, and Costa Rica for example. One prominent example of neocolonialism would be the United Fruit Company which at its greatest heights, had a complete monopoly over banana exports across the globe, primarily in the United States.
In the photo selected above, we see massive amounts of bananas being boarded onto a United Fruit train car for exportation in Costa Rica. The exploitation of cheap labor, abundance of fertile lands, and weak governments paved the way for United Fruit to establish almost complete control of the countries It did business in through influencing local and national elections to ensure that they would remain the only exporter of bananas in Central and South America which would later coin the term “Banana Republics”. Without a doubt, countries that did business with United Fruit were the losers in this deal as they rarely reaped in any of the profits made on their land since United Fruit was a U.S. based corporation. This went on for much of the first half of the 20th century in which over time, the United Fruit Company would go on to become one of the biggest landowners in Central and South America by promising job creation and investing in infrastructure in the countries it operated in. Most notably, United Fruit was responsible for expanding railroads, radio and telegraph systems throughout the regions which was initially built to keep in constant communication with its ships and plantations.
While the legacy of the United Fruit Company is anything but controversial and its impact can still be seen today in the nations it operated in. It did provide many of the impoverished nations with up to date infrastructure on roads and railways while also unintentionally teaching local plantation owners and laborers on more sustainable agriculture techniques.
https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A11664