Plantation Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Plantation Economy - Essay Example (West and Augelli, 1999) The history of Central America is linked with the growth and development of the plantation economy. When the colonialists reached the land, they found enabling climate and they set of establishing plantations to create what came to be known as the sugar kingdom in the history of America. The economy of the region is large reliant on Agriculture. There is production of cash crop like coffee, bananas, sugarcane and cotton which is produced through large holding and most of the products is exported to the Northern American and to Europe. However there is also the growth of subsistence crops like corns, beans, bananas, mains, rice and pulley. In the drier regions there is the production of beef cattle. The large holdings most employee modern farming while the subsistence farmers still use the simple farming techniques that have been in use for along time now. (Wrigley, 1999) Plantation farming has been practiced in the region since the settlement of colonialists in the region. However the region still lags behind in economic development despite producing agricultural products to the world. Has the plantation economy helped the region develop economically or has it helped the investors in the large holdings' This paper represents a well arranged and researched inquisitive essay on the impact of large holding farming in the region. The first part will look at the historical development of the large scale farming over the time and how it has developed in the region. Then it will look at the impact this has been making on the economy of the region and at the end it will look at the present economic situation of these countries so as to make a conclusion of there the plantation economy has been of use to the region of if it has not helped the region. In the conclusion it will look the problem that the region has been facing and what can be done on the situation. Development of plantation economy in the region The historical development of plantation economy in the region dates back when the Spanish colonization was started. With the arrival of Spanish and other colonialist in the region, there was increased development of agrarian economy which was favored by the Amazon climate that extends to the region. When the Spanish came, they immediately stated planting bananas in large plantation around 1860s and by 1870 there was increased growth of banana in the region. Most of the plantations in the region were started along the railway lines which were by then expanding northward to America. When an American entrepreneur was commissioned by the Costa Rica government to build a transition railroad, he started growing bananas along the railway road and immediately began exporting them to United States. Keith was highly successful in the venture and he embarked on the same plantation economic along all other major railway roads that he built. He was able to acquire large tracks of undeveloped la nd and in the process expanded the development of banana plantation to Guatemala and Hondura. In 1869 he merged with Boston Fruit Company and formed the United Fruit Company which rapidly expanded to Central America and by 1955 the company had over 400,000 hectares under production of bananas. (Ferguson, 1998; Mahar and Schneider, 1994) As the colonialists settled there was