United Fruit Company

As I was reading my history textbook I came across a small article about the United Fruit Company that interested me-

"In 1899 the United Fruit Company began to build a network of wholesale houses, and within two years it had opened distribution centers in twenty-one major cities. Eventually it controlled an elaborate system of Central American plantations and temperature-controlled shipping and storage facilities for its highly perishable bananas. The firm became one of the nation's largest corporations, its 'empire in bananas" dominating the economic and political life of whole nations in Central America".

As I continued reading, I couldn’t help feeling slightly guilty about this exploitation of many Central American countries by the United States. I'm sure that if we had not taken advantage of the region's natural resources the countries would be a lot better off both politically and economically today!