Business of Empire

M. Colby Jason

Description

The link between private corporations and U.S. world power has a much longer history than most people realize. Transnational firms such as the United Fruit Company represent an earlier stage of the economic and cultural globalization now taking place throughout the world. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources in the United States, Great Britain, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, Colby combines "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches to provide new insight into the role of transnational capital, labor migration, and racial nationalism in shaping U.S. expansion into Central America and the greater Caribbean. The Business of Empire places corporate power and local context at the heart of U.S. imperial history.In the early twentieth century, U.S. influence in Central America came primarily in the form of private enterprise, above all United Fruit. Founded amid the U.S. leap into overseas empire, the company initially depended upon British West Indian laborers. When its black workforce resisted white American authority, the firm adopted a strategy of labor division by recruiting Hispanic migrants. This labor system drew the company into increased conflict with its host nations, as Central American nationalists denounced not only U.S. military interventions in the region but also American employment of black immigrants. By the 1930s, just as Washington renounced military intervention in Latin America, United Fruit pursued its own Good Neighbor Policy, which brought a reduction in its corporate colonial power and a ban on the hiring of black immigrants. The end of the company's system of labor division in turn pointed the way to the transformation of United Fruit as well as the broader U.S. empire.

Sujets

• États-Unis
• Agriculture
• SS Central America
• Central America
• History of the Americas
• International relations
• Ethnic studies
• United States of America
• USA
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 27 octobre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801462719
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE BUSINESS OF EMPIRE

Avolumeintheseries

The United States in the World edited by Mark Philip Bradley and Paul A. Kramer

Alistoftitlesinthisseriesisavailableatwww.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

THEBUSINESSOFEMPIRE

UnitedFruit,Race,andU.S. Expansion in Central America

JasonM.Colby

CornellUniversityPress Ithaca and London

Copyright©2011byCornellUniversity

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, NewYork 14850.

Firstpublished2011byCornellUniversityPress

PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica

LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Colby, Jason M. (Jason Michael), 1974–  The business of empire : United Fruit, race, and U.S. expansion in Central America / Jason M. Colby.  p. cm. — (The United States in the world)  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801449154 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Central America—Foreign relations—United States. 2. United States—Foreign relations—Central America. 3. Central America— Commerce—United States—History. 4. United States— Commerce—Central America—History. 5. Central America—Race relations—History. 6. Industrial relations—Central America—History. 7. United Fruit Company—History. I. Title. II. Series: United States in the world.  F1436.8.U6C65 2011  327.730728—dc23 2011020198

CornellUniversityPressstrivestouseenvironmentallyresponsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

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Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction

Part I. Foundations of Empire 1. Enterprise and Expansion, 1848–1885 2. Joining the Imperial World, 1885–1904

Part II. Race and Labor 3. Corporate Colonialism, 1904–1912 4.DividedWorkers,1912–1921

Part III. Imperial Transitions 5.The Rise of Hispanic Nationalism, 1921–1929 6. Reframing the Empire, 1929–1940

Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

ix 1

19 47

79 118

149 175

199 211 239 265

Acknowledgments

The seeds of this book were planted fifteen years ago, when I attended the University of Costa Rica as an exchange student. I went there to pol ish my Spanish and to have a good time. Instead, the people I met in and beyond San José opened a new world for me. It was there that I first heard of United Fruit and Minor Keith, first felt the staggering heat of a banana plantation, and first thought seriously about the U.S. role in the world. My time in Central America raised questions and instilled intellectual passions that remain with me to this day. In the ensuing years, I had the good fortune to learn from extraordinary scholars and teachers. During my final year at Whitman College, I took three courses with David Schmitz, who inspired me to choose the field of U.S. international history and helped me navigate the passage to graduate school. At Cornell University, I encountered a group of remarkable histo rians, among them Walt LaFeber,Tom Holloway, Mary Roldán, Mary Beth Norton, and Raymond Craib. But I must extend special thanks to Tim Borstelmann and Nick Salvatore. Tim is a superb mentor and dear friend who has guided me through the vagaries of academia and parenthood alike. For his part, Nick not only trained me in the craft of history but also (along