ABSTRACT
This chapter continues exploring the export-led growth period (1870–1930) from a production standpoint. On the capital side of the equation, it highlights how smaller countries approached building railroads and infrastructure. Land concessions ceded to foreign capitalists and companies, like the United Fruit Company, meant considerable land accumulation accompanied railroad expansion and export growth. By the onset of World War I, the role of the United States had already grown substantially in the circum-Caribbean, a position that would expand further south in the post-war period. These dramatic changes failed to move the status quo for many campesinos and industrial laborers. As the twentieth century progressed, marginalized groups expressed their discontent, calling for fair working conditions and land reform. The Mexican Revolution was the greatest expression of this dissatisfaction, but it was accompanied by strikes in both rural and urban settings throughout the region. The frequency of strikes increased after World War I, but it was in urban areas, where workers could use the general strike, that labor mobilization proved more effective.
