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The Seldom Taught History of the Banana Wars
How an American led cycle of instability, exploitation and intervention engulfed a region for nearly four decades
The Spanish American War was the start of an era in American history. It is widely seen as America’s first serious step into becoming a global empire rather than a regional power. Indeed, less than twenty years following the end of that war, the United States will intervene in The Great War and embark on a well known period of global expansion, military might and economic growth as the world had never seen before.
Underlying the well-told story is another lesser-known story. The story of the Banana Wars and America’s heavy handed involvement in Central America and the Caribbean is a seldom taught period of American history. After the end of the Spanish American War, the United States embarks on a campaign of meddling, military occupation and police actions in a variety of countries to our south. We invaded Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and more. These so-called Banana Wars stretched from 1898 all the way until 1934 and is rarely discussed today.
This period of history is especially noticeably absent in modern discourse considering that the large presence of countries such as Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela have in our…
