The Banana Wars: A Captivating Guide to the Interventions of the United States in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean

by Captivating History

The United States Marine Corps once fought for God, country, and bananas.

This book is about the Banana Wars that lasted from the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898 until Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy of 1934. When you read this story, you’ll learn how and why the US Marines invaded Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. You’ll also learn how the US Marines occupied and ruled Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic for years.

You’ll read about why bananas became such an important commodity and how a combination of technologies made it possible. And you’ll learn how the American public was persuaded to start buying all those bananas. You’ll see how the United Fruit Company put all the pieces together to form an incredibly efficient company powerful enough to overturn presidents and dictators.

You’ll find out how gaining possession of California inevitably led the United States to see the Caribbean and Central America as vital to American national security.

You’ll learn that an episode in a world-famous novel by the Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez is true.

You’ll discover the story of the battleship USS Oregon circumnavigating South America in a 12,000-mile, sixty-day voyage to join the Atlantic fleet as the Spanish-American War broke out—and how the epic journey played into the design of the Panama Canal.

You’ll read about a 1903 crisis that led to German, British, and Italian warships blockading Venezuela and to Teddy Roosevelt amending the Monroe Doctrine.

When you read this book, you’ll also discover the An amendment by a US Senator to an obscure piece of legislation controlled the destiny of Cuba for a generation.The kind of banana all this was about has gone extinct.The Germans planned to conquer an island near Puerto Rico and use it to attack the United States.A US Marine major general wrote a book about being a gangster for capitalism.The owner of a banana corporation kept mercenary soldiers like Machine Gun Molony on the payroll in case he needed to overturn an uncooperative government.An insulted US Navy admiral almost started a war with Mexico.A defeated Mexican dictator conspired with German spies to keep the United States out of World War 1.
So, if you want to learn more about the Banana Wars, then scroll up and click the “add to cart” button!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, American History

119 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 10, 2023

Reviews

[Robert Bishop · Rating 1 out of 5]

No author listed, apparently lifted wholesale from perhaps an eighth-grade history textbook. Advertisements within the book for more books if you opt in to an email list. Many of the claims are bizarre (it’s not well-known that the United States is interventionist?) and some of the more outlandish ones aren’t even cited. It appears that someone is trying to build a brand by pumping out lots of low quality content.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "Captivating Guide" series of historical books is...well, it's kind of like a "history CliffsNotes". They're fine as VERY basic introductions to a topic, and the series does deserve a lot of credit for covering things that are sadly underrepresented on the shelves of most bookstores and libraries. This volume, for example, covers the U.S. military interventions on behalf of large fruit companies in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean from the late 19th century through almost until WW2, a series of endeavors of which no one involved was particularly proud, and of which the U.S. government wanted little publicity at the time and fervently wished most people would forget. Kudos to the series for documenting it. It could prove rather eye-opening to some people and go some way towards explaining attitudes towards America in some parts of the Western hemisphere that persist to this day. As I said, however, this is a very basic and brief work. It provides a good amount of information given the length, and I would say that it serves best as a starting point for learning more. I would still recommend it as worth your time.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The United States Marine Corps once fought for God, country, and bananas. The Banana Wars lasted from the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898 until Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy of 1934. This is an interesting look at why US Marines invaded Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, and why the Marines occupied some of these countries for years. It explains why bananas became such an important commodity and how a combination of technologies made it possible. And you’ll learn how the American public was persuaded to start buying all those bananas. The United Fruit Company put all the pieces together to form an incredibly efficient company powerful enough to overturn presidents and dictators. It’s a great summary of important events taking place in Central America and the Caribbean Basin during this time period.

[Beth Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting. I had no idea the U.S. was so involved in Central America. It's sad the number of wars over "protecting American interests" in this case, bananas and sugar. It seems like better tactics could be used. This was one time I wish the book was longer so there could be more details. I felt like more details would have enhanced understanding of the situation. In partocular the section on the Dominican Republic felt rushed. Overall very eye opening.

[Jorginho]

I feel that this book is a very nice introduction to the banana wars that took place in both Central America and the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the history that took place revolves around so much detail that this introduction merely begins to peel off the blinders. I highly encourage anyone who is interested to know more about the banana wars to simply continue to gather more resources by way of books, people’s stories, audio books, news clips, etc.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but lacks adequate explanation of alot of events and figures. Poorly written with grammar issues and awkward syntax - possibly a translation ? While I learned a decent amount of superficial information, i had to puruse further information elsewhere moreover found the positive light or benevolent colonizer portrayals of the "benefits" or "improvements" via occupation and slavery among other oppressive institutions alarming and disturbing.

[Debbie Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. This book has interesting information on what was behind the banana wars, the politics of the time and the building of the Panama Canal.

[John Fetzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the US Intervenes

A concise overview of American military interventions in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. It includes history and political narrative to hive context to the military interventions.

[Amanda Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too generic or simplified for my liking. Nevertheless, it is a good and quick read primer on US interventions in the Caribbean for many parts of US history that are overlooked in public education.

[Rana Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid read

This was a quick and easily digestible book about the US and the big business that drove thousands of deaths. Why is this not taught in US schools? Whitewash history to further the narrative.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely learned more about the history but I was unpleasantly surprised by the the clearly white and American lens from which this was written, especially given that this was published in 2023. Not sure what I was expecting but that was disappointing.

[George Polansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief account of the intervention of the US in Central and South America. An interesing and fact filled account of this era.

[peter lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

If you're not familiar with the history of the Banana Wars this is a good introduction. Short but packed with information.

[Terrence Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book..A part of the history of the Americas that doesn't get a lot of attention..I found it an interesting introduction to the subject

[Kenneth Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

History of the central American world that I did not learn in school. Interesting about the world of bananas we eat today.

[Warren Russo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, informative and well written. I found “Banana Wars” rather appeeling!😊

[Art · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thin and lacks detail.

Not much meat on the bone. I expected more on actual operations, particularly those involving Chesty Puller. Will look further.

[Derek Kreider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually a very informative book for how short it is. Great details and snapshots of some specific instances.

[Candida · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short narrative gives the reader a great deal of little known history and educates about political climates, and policies of the Latin American countries around the United States.

[Merry Jelks-Emmanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a great overview of the Banana Wars. It doesn't go into detail but provides great tidbits that leads you in the direction to seeking detailed information on the subject.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great

Overall a good book about USMC in the Caribbean and foreign policy in that region. No more reviews on books.

[Leah Shepard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just now realizing I never reviewed this book when I first read it. Now that I’ve had a few months to ruminate on it, my opinion is largely unchanged from when I first read it. This book falls short in so many ways. It skims over so many details of the banana wars big and small, while lending little time to each particular country affected. It attempts to justify the grotesque violence inflicted on these countries by their own governments and the US military, even sometimes downplaying the barbarity of it all. Overall, it comes across as largely biased and poorly researched. 2/5