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Honduras BANANA BOATS AND GUNBOATS: THE RISE OF UNITED STATES INFLUENCE, 1899-1932
The Growth of the Banana Industry
Although the peaceful transfer of power from Bonilla to
General
Sierra in 1899 was important as the first time in decades
that such
a constitutional transition had taken place, that year was
a
watershed in another, even more important, sense. In 1889
the
Vaccaro brothers of New Orleans, founders of what would
become the
Standard Fruit and Steamship Company (later known as
Standard Fruit
Company), shipped their first boatload of bananas from
Honduras to
New Orleans. The fruit found a ready market, and the trade
grew
rapidly. By 1902 local railroad lines were being
constructed on the
Caribbean coast to accommodate the expanding banana
production.
Sierra's efforts to perpetuate himself in office led to
his
overthrow in 1903 by General Manuel Bonilla, who proved to
be an
even greater friend of the banana companies than Sierra
had been.
Companies gained exemptions from taxes and permission to
construct
wharves and roads, as well as permission to improve
interior
waterways and to obtain charters for new railroad
construction.
Conservative Manuel Bonilla was an opponent rather than
a
relative or friend of Sierra's liberal predecessor,
Policarpo
Bonilla. During Manuel Bonilla's term in office, he
imprisoned expresident Policarpo Bonilla for over two years and took
other steps
to suppress his political opposition, the liberals, who
were the
only group with an organized political party. The
conservatives
were divided into a host of personalist factions and
lacked
coherent leadership. Manuel Bonilla made some efforts to
reorganize
the conservatives into a "national party." The present-day
National
Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras--PNH)
traces its
origins to his administration.
Manuel Bonilla promoted some internal improvements,
notably road
building. He improved the route from Tegucigalpa to the
Pacific
coast. On the international front, he concluded friendship
pacts
with Nicaragua and later with Guatemala and El Salvador.
Of perhaps greatest significance was the work
accomplished
during Manuel Bonillo's administration to delineate the
longdisputed border with Nicaragua. The area, called the
Mosquitia
region, was located in the eastern part of the country in
the
department of Gracias a Dios. The area was large but
virtually
unpopulated except for small groups of Miskito who owed
little
allegiance to either nation. In 1894 a treaty provided for
the
establishment of a boundary commission, composed of
representatives
of Honduras and Nicaragua, to resolve the dispute. By 1904
the
commission had been able to agree on only the lower part
of the
boundary. In that year, to reach agreement on the upper
part, the
representatives of the two nations picked King Alfonso
XIII of
Spain as a neutral, third member of the commission, in
effect
making him the arbiter. His decision, announced in 1906,
gave the
bulk of the disputed territory to Honduras, establishing
the upper
boundary line along the Río Coco. At the time, both
governments
accepted the decision, but in 1912 Nicaragua raised new
objections.
The dispute was finally resolved in favor of the 1906
arbitration
only in 1960
(see Foreign Relations
, ch. 4).
In 1906 Manuel Bonilla successfully resisted an
invasion from
Guatemala, but this was his last major success. The
friendship pact
with Guatemala and El Salvador signed in 1906 was
interpreted as an
anti-Nicaraguan alliance by the Nicaraguans. Nicaragua's
powerful
President Zelaya began to support exiled Honduran liberals
in their
efforts to topple Manuel Bonilla, who had become, in
effect, the
Honduran dictator. Supported by elements of the Nicaraguan
army,
the exiles invaded Honduras in February 1907 and
established a
provisional junta. With the assistance of Salvadoran
troops, Manuel
Bonilla tried to resist, but in March his forces were
decisively
beaten in a battle notable for the introduction of machine
guns
into Central American civil strife.
Data as of December 1993
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