Banana Wars

Banana Wars
Banana Wars
	United States Marines with the captured flag of Augusto César Sandino in Nicaragua in 1932
Objective	To enforce American and private interests in Central America and the Caribbean
Date	April 21, 1898 – August 1, 1934; (36 years, 3 months, 1 week and 4 days)
Executed by	United States
Outcome	Santo Domingo Affair; Border War; Negro Rebellion; Occupation of Nicaragua; Occupation of Haiti; Occupation of the Dominican Republic; First Honduran Civil War; Second Honduran Civil War; Sugar Intervention;

The Banana Wars were a series of conflicts that consisted of military occupation, police action, and intervention by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean between the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the inception of the Good Neighbor Policy in 1934.^[1] The military interventions were primarily carried out by the United States Marine Corps, which also developed a manual, the Small Wars Manual (1921) based on their experiences. On occasion, the United States Navy provided gunfire support and the United States Army also deployed troops.

With the Treaty of Paris signed in 1898, control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines fell to the United States (surrendered from Spain). The United States conducted military interventions in Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. These conflicts ended when the US withdrew from Haiti in 1934 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The term "banana wars" was popularized in 1983^[2] by writer Lester D. Langley. Langley wrote several books on Latin American history and American intervention, including: The United States and the Caribbean, 1900–1970 and The 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 these warring tropical countries, lawless societies and corrupt politicians; essentially establishing US reign over tropical trade.

Origins

Most prominently, the US was advancing economic, political, and military interests in order to maintain its sphere of influence and to secure the Panama Canal (which opened in 1914). The US had recently built the Panama Canal in order to promote global trade and to project its naval power. US companies, such as the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) and Standard Fruit Company (now Dole plc), also had financial stakes in the production of bananas, tobacco, sugarcane, and other commodities throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America. The latter had a history of political intervention, most notably overthrowing the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1898.

Combat history

Interventions

William Allen Rogers cartoon depicting Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick ideology

Panama/Colombia: US interventions in the isthmus go back to the 1846 Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty and intensified after the so-called Watermelon Riot of 1856. In 1885, US military intervention gained a mandate with the construction of the Panama Canal. The construction effort collapsed in bankruptcy, mismanagement, and disease in 1889, but resumed in the 20th century.^[2] In 1903, Panama seceded from the Republic of Colombia, backed by the US government,^[b] during the Thousand Days' War. The Hay–Pauncefote Treaty allowed the US to construct and control the Panama Canal. In 1903, the United States established sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone.^{[citation needed]}
Spanish–American War: In 1898, Spain relinquished control of Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico to the US. The end of the Spanish–American War led to the start of the Banana Wars.
Cuba: In December 1899, US President William McKinley declared Leonard Wood, a US Army general,^[4]^: 93–105 to have supreme power in Cuba.^[5] The US took control of Cuba from Spain. It was occupied by the US from 1898 to 1902 under Wood as its military governor, and again from 1906 to 1909, in 1912, and from 1917 to 1922,^[6] subject to the terms of the Cuban–American Treaty of Relations (1903) until 1934. In 1903, the US took a permanent lease on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

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 (the Santo Domingo Affair), and 1914 (US Naval forces engaged in battles in the city of Santo Domingo^[7]); occupied by the US from 1916 to 1924. When a rebellion in the Dominican Republic, for example, damaged an American-owned sugar cane plantation, American troops were sent in, starting in 1916. They took over a small castle called Fort 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 the US Marines in conventional battles, but were defeated at the Battle of Las Trencheras (the trenches), Battle of Guayacanas and the Battle of San Francisco de Macoris. Despite having much greater firepower, it took the US Marines five years to suppress an insurgency in the eastern provinces of El Seibo and San Pedro de Macorís. During the occupation, 144 US Marines were killed in action and 50 were wounded.^[8] The Dominicans suffered 950 casualties.^[8]
Nicaragua: Occupied by the US almost continuously from 1912 to 1933, after intermittent landings and naval bombardments in the prior decades. The US had troops in Nicaragua to prevent its leaders from creating conflicts with US interests in the country. To add more on the reason for the US invading Nicaragua was what President Taft and Coolidge protested to the Nicaraguan government stating that their purpose invading was to come to an agreement of a treaty or start processing one.^[2] The bluejackets and marines were there for about 15 years.^[2] The US claimed it wanted Nicaragua to elect "good men", who would not threaten to disrupt US interests.^[2]

Mexico: US military involvements with Mexico in this period had the same general commercial and political causes, but stand as a special case. The Americans conducted the Border War with Mexico from 1910 to 1919 for additional reasons: to control the flow of immigrants and refugees from revolutionary Mexico (pacificos), and to counter rebel raids into US territory. The 1914 US occupation of Veracruz, however, was an exercise of armed influence; not an issue of border integrity; it was aimed at cutting off the supplies of German munitions to the government of Mexican leader Victoriano Huerta,^[9] which US President Woodrow Wilson refused to recognize.^[9] In the years prior to World War I, the US was also alert to the regional balance of power against Germany. The Germans were actively arming and advising the Mexicans, as shown by the 1914 SS Ypiranga arms-shipping incident, German saboteur Lothar Witzke's base in Mexico City, the 1917 Zimmermann Telegram and the German advisors present during the 1918 Battle of Ambos Nogales. Only twice during the Mexican Revolution did the US military occupy Mexico: during the temporary occupation of Veracruz in 1914 and between 1916 and 1917, when US General John Pershing led US Army forces on a nationwide search for Pancho Villa.
Haiti: Occupied by the US 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 the First and Second Caco Wars.^[10]
Honduras: Where the United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company dominated the country's key banana export sector and associated land holdings and railways, saw insertion of American troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, and 1925.^[11] The writer O. Henry coined the term "banana republic" in 1904 to describe Honduras.^[12]

Other Latin American nations were influenced or dominated by American economic policies and/or commercial interests to the point of coercion. Theodore Roosevelt declared the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe 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 their international debts. From 1909 to 1913, President William Howard Taft and his Secretary of State Philander C. Knox asserted a more "peaceful and economic" Dollar Diplomacy foreign policy, although that too was backed by force, as in Nicaragua.

American fruit companies

The first decades of the history 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 the Carias government.^[13] This instability was due in part to American involvement in the country.^[13]

One of the first companies that concluded an agreement with the Honduran government was the Vaccaro Brothers Company (Standard Fruit Company).^[13] The Cuyamel Fruit Company then followed their lead. United Fruit Company also contracted with the government through its subsidiaries, Tela Railroad Company and Truxillo Rail Road Company.^[13]

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.^[13]

However, banana producers in Central America (including Honduras) "were scourged by Panama disease, a soil-borne fungus (...) that decimated production over large regions".^[14] Typically, companies would abandon the decimated plantations and destroy the railroads and other utilities that they had used along with the plantation,^[14] 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.^[13] According to Rivera and Carranza, the indirect participation of American companies in the country's armed conflicts worsened the situation.^[13] The presence of more dangerous and modern weapons allowed more dangerous warfare among the factions.^[13]

In British Honduras (now Belize), the situation was significantly different. Although the United Fruit Company was the sole exporter of bananas there, and the company also attempted to manipulate the local government, the country did not suffer the instability and armed conflicts that its neighbors experienced.^[14]

Smedley Butler

Perhaps the single most active military officer in the Banana Wars was US Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, nicknamed "Maverick Marine", who saw action in Honduras in 1903, served in Nicaragua enforcing American policy from 1909 to 1912, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in Veracruz in 1914, and 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 titled War 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".^[15]

Notes

^ The United States declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898, but dated the beginning of the war retroactively to April 21.
^ 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.^[3]

References

^ Gilderhurst, Mark (1999). The Second Century: U.S.-Latin American Relations Since 1889.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Langley, Lester D. (1983). The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898–1934. University Press of Kentucky. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8420-5047-0.
^ Roosevelt, Theodore (December 7, 1903). Theodore Roosevelt's Third State of the Union Address – via Wikisource.
^ McCallum, Jack (2006). Leonard Wood: Rough Rider, Surgeon, Architect of American Imperialism. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-5699-7 – via Google Books.
^ Musicant, Ivan (1991). 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. ISBN 978-0-02-588210-2. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
^ History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America
^ "US Military and Clandestine Operations in Foreign Countries – 1798–Present". Global Policy Forum. 2005. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Congressional Bills 117th Congress". GovInfo. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
^ ^a ^b Hickman, Kennedy (August 4, 2015). "Mexican Revolution: Battle of Veracruz". ThoughtCo. Dotdash. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ Hubert, Giles A. (January 1947). "War and the Trade Orientation of Haiti". Southern Economic Journal. 13 (3): 276–84. doi:10.2307/1053341. JSTOR 1053341.
^ History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America
^ "Where did banana republics get their name?". The Economist. Economist Group. November 21, 2013. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Rivera, Miguel Cáceres; Carranza, Sucelinda Zelaya (2005). "Honduras. Productive security and economic growth: the economic function of the cariato". Yearbook of Central American Studies. 31: 49–91. ISSN 0377-7316. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Moberg, Mark (1996). "Crown Colony as Banana Republic: The United Fruit Company in British Honduras, 1900–1920". Journal of Latin American Studies. 28 (2). Cambridge University Press: 357–381. doi:10.1017/S0022216X00013043. JSTOR 157625. S2CID 146293096. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
^ Butler, Smedley (1933). War is a Racket (Speech). US. Archived from the original on May 24, 1998. Retrieved March 4, 2020.

External links

Media related to Banana Wars at Wikimedia Commons

[1] The United States declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898, but dated the beginning of the war retroactively to April 21.

[5] 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.^[3]

[2] Gilderhurst, Mark (1999). The Second Century: U.S.-Latin American Relations Since 1889.

[:0-3] Langley, Lester D. (1983). The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898–1934. University Press of Kentucky. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8420-5047-0.

[4] Roosevelt, Theodore (December 7, 1903). Theodore Roosevelt's Third State of the Union Address – via Wikisource.

[McCallum-6] McCallum, Jack (2006). Leonard Wood: Rough Rider, Surgeon, Architect of American Imperialism. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-5699-7 – via Google Books.

[:1-7] Musicant, Ivan (1991). 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. ISBN 978-0-02-588210-2. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2021.

[8] History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America

[9] "US Military and Clandestine Operations in Foreign Countries – 1798–Present". Global Policy Forum. 2005. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020.

[govinfo-10] "Congressional Bills 117th Congress". GovInfo. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved December 4, 2022.

[kkjop-11] Hickman, Kennedy (August 4, 2015). "Mexican Revolution: Battle of Veracruz". ThoughtCo. Dotdash. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved March 17, 2016.

[12] Hubert, Giles A. (January 1947). "War and the Trade Orientation of Haiti". Southern Economic Journal. 13 (3): 276–84. doi:10.2307/1053341. JSTOR 1053341.

[13] History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America

[14] "Where did banana republics get their name?". The Economist. Economist Group. November 21, 2013. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved February 16, 2016.

[SeguridadProductiva-15] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Rivera, Miguel Cáceres; Carranza, Sucelinda Zelaya (2005). "Honduras. Productive security and economic growth: the economic function of the cariato". Yearbook of Central American Studies. 31: 49–91. ISSN 0377-7316. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2021.

[Moberg-16] Moberg, Mark (1996). "Crown Colony as Banana Republic: The United Fruit Company in British Honduras, 1900–1920". Journal of Latin American Studies. 28 (2). Cambridge University Press: 357–381. doi:10.1017/S0022216X00013043. JSTOR 157625. S2CID 146293096. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2021.

[17] Butler, Smedley (1933). War is a Racket (Speech). US. Archived from the original on May 24, 1998. Retrieved March 4, 2020.

[a]

[1]

[2]

[b]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[3]

v t e Armed conflicts involving the Armed Forces of the United States
Listed chronologically
Domestic	Shays' Rebellion Whiskey Rebellion Fries's Rebellion 1811 German Coast uprising Turner's Rebellion Mormon War Dorr Rebellion Bleeding Kansas Utah War Harpers Ferry raid American Civil War New York City draft riots American Indian Wars Brooks–Baxter War Battle of Liberty Place Range War Hamburg riot Lincoln County War Johnson County War Coal Creek War Homestead strike Pullman Strike Colorado Coalfield War Red Summer Battle of Blair Mountain Tulsa riot Bonus Army Puerto Rican revolts 1960s ghetto rebellions 1969 Greensboro uprising Kent State shootings 1992 Los Angeles riots 2020 racial unrest 2021 U.S. Capitol attack
Foreign	American Revolutionary War American–Algerian War (1785–1795) Quasi-War First Barbary War War of 1812 Second Barbary War First Sumatran expedition Second Sumatran expedition Ivory Coast expedition Mexican–American War First Fiji expedition Second Opium War Second Fiji expedition Formosa Expedition Korean Expedition Spanish–American War Philippine–American War Boxer Rebellion Banana Wars Border War World War I Russian Civil War World War II Korean War Bay of Pigs Invasion Vietnam War Dominican Civil War Invasion of Grenada Lebanese Civil War Invasion of Panama Gulf War Somali Civil War Intervention in Haiti Bosnian War Kosovo War War in Afghanistan Iraq War War in North-West Pakistan First Libyan Civil War War against the Islamic State Iraq Syria Cameroon Libya Yemeni civil war
Related	Conflicts in the U.S. Wars involving the U.S. Timeline of U.S. military operations Length of U.S. participation in major wars Territorial evolution Military history History of the Central Intelligence Agency Casualties of war Peace movement List of anti-war organizations Conscientious objector Cold War War on terror War crimes

v t e International relations (1814–1919)
Great powers	Austria-Hungary France Germany Italy Japan Russia United Kingdom United States
Alliances	Triple Alliance Dual Alliance Triple Entente Franco-Russian Alliance Entente Cordiale Anglo-Russian Convention Anglo-Japanese Alliance League of the Three Emperors Eight-Nation Alliance Balkan League
Trends	European balance of power Ottoman decline Eastern question Spread of nationalism Sovereign debt French–German enmity Revanchism Pax Britannica New Imperialism Scramble for Africa Egyptian Lever In Asia Great Game Scramble for China Open Door Policy Meiji era Pan-Slavism Great Rapprochement Second Industrial Revolution Industrial warfare
Treaties and agreements	Congress of Vienna Treaty of Versailles (1871) Treaty of Frankfurt Treaty of Berlin Reinsurance Treaty Treaty of Paris Treaty of Björkö Taft–Katsura agreement Hague Conventions Martens Clause Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty Racconigi agreement 1917 Franco-Russian agreement
Events	Formation of Romania Unification of Germany Unification of Italy Great Eastern Crisis Congress of Berlin Berlin Conference Kronstadt–Toulon naval visits Weltpolitik Naval arms races Anglo-German Dreadnought German Naval Laws Austro-Italian Fashoda Incident Annexation of Hawaii Venezuela Naval Blockade Alaska boundary dispute First Moroccan Crisis Algeciras Conference Agadir Crisis Treaty of Fes Bosnian Crisis July Crisis
Wars	Russo-Turkish Anglo-Egyptian First Sino-Japanese Spanish–American Banana Wars Philippine–American Boxer Rebellion Second Boer Russo-Japanese Italo-Turkish Balkan Wars First Second Albanian Revolts First Second Third World War I

v t e United States intervention in Latin America
Policy	Monroe Doctrine (1823) Platt Amendment (1901–1904) Roosevelt Corollary/Big Stick ideology (1904) Good Neighbor policy (1933) Dollar diplomacy Banana Wars
Wars	Mexican–American War (1846–1848) Spanish–American War (1898) Mexican Border War (1910–1919) United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution (1916–1919)
Overt actions and occupations	Paraguay expedition (1858) First Occupation of Cuba (1899–1902) Separation of Panama from Colombia and Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1903) Occupations of Honduras (1903–1925) Second Occupation of Cuba (1906–1909) Occupation of Nicaragua (1912–1933) Occupation of Veracruz (1914) Occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) Occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924) Occupation of the Dominican Republic (1965–1966) Invasion of Panama (1989)
Covert actions	1954 Guatemalan coup d'état 1954 Paraguayan coup d'état Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961) Operation Mongoose (1961) 1964 Bolivian coup d'état Operation Condor (1968–1989) Project FUBELT (1970) 1971 Bolivian coup d'état 1973 Chilean coup d'état 1973 Uruguayan coup d'état Limazo (1975) 1976 Argentine coup d'état 1979 Salvadoran coup d'état 1989 Paraguayan coup d'état
Other	United States involvement in regime change in Latin America Contras (1979–1990) Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) Nicaragua's case against the United States (1986)
Foreign policy of the United States Latin America–United States relations