292 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
Figure 7.10 Oil fields of Veracruz, Mexico, around the turn of the twentieth century. Source
unknown.In Central America, coffee became the leading export item, accounting for over
50 percent of the area’s export values in 1917, and foreign investors increasingly mo-
nopolized its production, processing, and shipping (Figure 7.11). As in Mexico, min-
ing was foreign owned and operated in Central America, although with the exception
of the Nicaraguan gold mines near Puerto Cabezas, the yields were not substantial.
U.S. control of the area’s economy was most visibly manifested in the growing power
of the United Fruit Company (UFCO). Formed around the turn of the century as a
U.S. exporter of bananas, UFCO eventually came to monopolize not only banana
production in Central America but also the area’s railroad, shipping, and commu-
nication systems. The UFCO received huge land concessions from all the Central
American countries and exercised enormous influence over economic and political
matters there, even though the company was exclusively U.S.-owned, and its sub-
stantial profits were largely remitted to the parent company in Boston.
Politically, the countries of the region were ruled by dictators manipulated be-
hind the scenes by foreign powers. Populist slogans helped create an image for the