The United Fruit Company in Colombia: Labor, local elite, and multinational enterprise, 1900--1970

The traditional Latin America historiography has portrayed the United Fruit Company (UFCO) as a canonical case of economic imperialism. It assumes an exploited labor force, the presence of a local submissive elite and a weak government. This dissertation argues that these assumptions are not reasonable. The UFCO had to adapt to a changing institutional environment in both Colombia and Central America, which witnessed stronger unions and nationalist governments. Land and railway ownership turned into risky investments, since they were easy targets for the local government and unions. Thus, UFCO's adapted by transforming itself from a direct producer into a marketing company. The Colombian case also illustrates that the company had to work with a dynamic local banana entrepreneurial class and a strong national government. Neither of these could be easily manipulated by UFCO. This dissertation uses United Fruit internal archives never used by any other scholar.