Banana Republicanism
"The Fruit Company, Inc.
Reserved for itself the most succulent,
The central coast of my own land,
The delicate waist of the Americas."
Banana Republicanism is an ideology where a whole country's economy depends on upon the exportation of a limited-resource product, such as bananas or minerals. The country is lead by a de facto ruling class who hold control over the main export by exploitation of labor of the nation then there is an impoverished middle class who collect the product. Thus, the term banana republic is a pejorative descriptor for a servile Oligarchy that abets and supports, for kickbacks, the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, especially banana cultivation.
It's to be noted that people living under a Banana Republic don't usually choose to be under a Banana Republic. This is usually forced upon by other nations or groups.
History
In 1873, to produce food for their railroad workers, the American railroad tycoons (Henry Meiggs and his nephew, Minor C. Keith) established banana plantations along the railroads they built in Costa Rica; recognizing the profitability of exporting bananas.
In the mid-1870s, to manage the new industrial-agriculture business enterprise in the countries of Central America, Keith founded the Tropical Trading and Transport Company (Now called UFC) Not the fighting championship
By the late 19th century, three American multinational corporations (the United Fruit Company, the Standard Fruit Company, and the Cuyamel Fruit Company) dominated the cultivation, harvesting, and exportation of bananas, and controlled the road, rail, and port infrastructure of Honduras. Among the Honduran people, the United Fruit Company was known as El Pulpo ("The Octopus"), because its influence pervaded Honduran society, controlled their country's transport infrastructure, and manipulated Honduran national politics with anti-labor violence. The term "Banana Republic" was coined by the American writer O. Henry in 1904.
In 1924, despite the UFC monopoly, the Vaccaro Brothers established the Standard Fruit Company (later the Dole Food Company) to export Honduran bananas to the U.S. port of New Orleans. The fruit-exporting corporations kept U.S. prices low by legalistic manipulation of Latin American national land use laws to cheaply buy large tracts of prime agricultural land for corporate banana plantations in the republics of the Caribbean Basin, the Central American isthmus, and tropical South America; the American fruit companies then employed the dispossessed Latin American natives as low-wage employees.
By the 1930s the United Fruit Company owned 1,400,000 hectares of land in Central America and the Caribbean and was the single largest landowner in Guatemala. Such holdings gave it great power over the governments of small countries, one of the factors confirming the suitability of the phrase "banana republic".
How to Draw
- Draw a white ball
- Draw yellow boundary
- Draw a green circle
- Add the eyes and you're done!
Color Name | HEX | RGB | |
---|---|---|---|
White | #FFFFFF | 255, 255, 255 | |
Yellow | #FFDD56 | 255, 221, 86 | |
Green | #80FF25 | 128, 255, 37 |
Relationships
Friends
- Corporatocracy - My best friend. The rule of corporations is BASED!
- Oligarchy - My father who I learned a lot from!
- Plutocracy - Rule by the rich? Based!
- Imperialism - I wouldn't be here without him!
- Illiberal Democracy - I use him a lot to help me stay in power.
- State Capitalism - My economic system and his are very similar!
- Agrarianism - Keep on making me those bananas!
- Neoliberalism -
Am I a good boy? :3 - Agrarian Capitalism - Based, but make sure not to let too much power of business fall into the hands of the lower class!
- Authoritarian Capitalism - Now THAT’S more like it!
- Aristocracy - He has an incredible class system!
- Kleptocracy - Also me!
- Republicanism - Father who obsesses with his enmity of monarchism.
-
Slavery - If only I could make the lower classes be banana-harvesting slaves, society would be perfect!
Frenemies
- Capitalism - Private property for me, not for thee! Be more like him!
- Corporatism - Cooperation between the state and employers are based, but the employees should take a back seat. Also a bit too authoritarian towards companies.
- Democracy - I only care about him if I can mess with his elections so candidates will like me.
- Anarcho-Primitivism - He's a great banana buddy, but a filthy anti-capitalist anarchist too.
- Kirchnerism - Too friendly with commies and for some reason a hater of oligarchies and dictators, but I heard my name used to describe Argentina under his presidencies, so he must be doing something right.
- Bidenism - Same as the above.
- Kakistocracy - Dumb kid who makes weird jokes about bananas and "gyatts". Sometimes I give him bananas out of pity.
Maybe we can revive child labour. -
Hive-Mind Collectivism - Too extreme, but Felonious Gru was based and epok thought. - Monarcho-Capitalism - Rule by the rich and hating p**rs are based but monarchy is cringe.
Enemies
- Monarcho-Socialism - I always knew there was something fishy about monarchs, death to tyrants!
Unless it's my tyranny... - Primalism - Weird savage who likes to try to steal my bananas!
- Socialism - The 99% are filthy p**rs for a reason, don't liberate them.
- Marxism - The above but worse!
- Anarchism - Punk who hates my established hierarchies!
- Anarcho-Communism - An anarchist AND a communist. Probably my worst enemy.
- Agrarian Socialism - DIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
- Post-Humanism - I’d rather be a banana myself than some computer code.
Further Information
Wikipedia
Gallery
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Credit: Vizdun's drawing