Coffee and Bananas
A major turning point in Guatemalan politics came in 1871, when Rufino Barrios arrived from Mexico with an army of just 45 men and started a liberal revolution . Rufino Barrios was a charismatic leader with tyrannical tendencies (monuments throughout the country testify to his sense of his own importance), who regarded himself as the great reformer and was intent on making sweeping changes. He was undoubtedly a man of action: he restructured the education system, attacked the power of the Church and modernized the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City. Underneath the new liberal perspective lay a deep arrogance, however. Barrios would tolerate no opposition and developed a network of secret police and an army academy that became an essential part of his political power base. Alongside all this, Barrios set about reforming agriculture, particularly coffee farming . Cultivation had increased fivefold by 1884, creating an economic boom. The railway network was expanded, ports developed and a national bank established. Between 1870 and 1900 the volume of foreign trade increased twenty times. Much of the coffee trade was bound for Germany and many of the plantations were owned by an immigrant German elite - reflecting Barrios's perspective that foreign ideas were superior to indigenous ones; the Maya population were regarded as hopelessly inferior. Maya society was also deeply affected by the coffee boom as Barrios instituted a system of forced labour to safeguard harvests. Up to a quarter of the male population was despatched to work on the fincas, where conditions were appalling and the workforce treated with utter contempt. Many lost not only their freedom but also their land . From 1873, the government began confiscating land and selling it to the highest bidder, sparking village revolts throughout the western highlands that continued into the twentieth century. The loss of their most productive land also ensured that the Maya became dependent on seasonal labour. By the early twentieth century, a new and exceptionally powerful player was becoming involved in Guatemala: the United Fruit Company . It first moved into Guatemala in 1901 after previous successes in Costa Rica and initially bought a small tract of land on which to grow bananas . Soon after, it was awarded railway contracts and built its own port, Puerto Barrios, giving it a virtual monopoly over transport. Large-scale banana cultivation took off and United Fruit got very rich very quickly. The company's power was by no means restricted to agriculture, and its influence was so pervasive that it earned itself the nickname "El Pulpo" (The Octopus). In 1919, President Carlos Herrera threatened to terminate United Fruit Company contracts. He lasted barely more than a year. Jorge Ubico became president in 1930 and embarked on a radical programme of reform, including a sweeping drive against corruption and a massive road-building effort which won him great popularity in the provinces. Despite his liberal pretensions, however, Ubico sided firmly with big business when the chips were down, always offering his assistance to the United Fruit Company and other sections of the land-owning elite. Peasants were still compelled to work the fincas by a vagrancy law and there were more revolts in the late 1930s and early 1940s. But while Ubico tightened his grip on every aspect of government through internal security and repression, the rumblings of opposition grew louder. In 1944 discontent erupted in a wave of student violence, and Ubico was finally forced to resign after 14 years of tyrannical rule
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