3 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Cornelius Vanderbilt's transit company that operated a cross-Nicaragua route linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans — before the Panama Canal — which was one of Vanderbilt's most profitable enterprises and which he fought to control against William Walker and his own business partners.
Rich Cohen's 2012 biography of Sam Zemurray — the Russian immigrant who transformed United Fruit into the world's most powerful banana company and staged a corporate coup that gave him control of Central America — a story about obsession, corruption, and the power of will.
American filibuster and mercenary who invaded Nicaragua in 1855 — briefly declaring himself President of Nicaragua — and who was executed in Honduras in 1860, representing the violent American adventurism in Central America that preceded the business empires of the banana companies.