In the nineteenth century, American businesses gained increasing access to land in other countries, and they tended to focus on growing the one or two products that promised the highest profits

The legacies brought to foreign lands by the United States has been incredibly destructive and altering of both cultures and environments for corporate profit. The mass production of single crops was especially degrading to the ecosystems and economies, leading to inevitable hardships brought by crop diseases. As seen in Panama in 1903, the concentration of a single species of banana production allowed for the decimation of many plantations due to a root mold attacking the only banana variety in mass production at the time. This led to the abandoning of farms by the corporations and their investment in tropical crop research facilities to maximize growth and profits with the development of pesticides and disease resistant banana varieties (Tucker 147-149). Corporate banana operations radically transformed the natural environment, needing to clear forests, fill in swamps, and install various water drainage systems to meet their needs. Tucker words this greatly on page 130, stating " They transformed natural or roughly settled ecosystems into rational, orderly biofactories" so banana production could be maximized without taking into consideration the alterations various impacts on the environment. People also suffered at the hands of these American monopolies, often being taken advantage of because of their past and lack of options available to them post slavery. "United relied upon the impoverished rural descendants of Jamaican ex-slaves" for their labor force (Tucker, 135). The handful of major corporations profiting off the exploitation of labor and resources throughout Central America and the Caribbean also often had close ties to the governments and were influential in inserting US interests into them. Growing labor movements led to the US backing any local regimes that supported US economic interests, and "furthered American domination" of these regions (Tucker 154). In Honduras in 1929, protests took place demanding that the United Fruit company be forced to pay more per acre than $2.50 for irrigation water, in an attempt to break the company and the government apart. Death tolls continued to rise and inevitably the demands were no threat to the company (Tucker 156). The examples laid out by Tucker of the so called "Banana Republics" alone are enough to understand the legacy of US economic practices outside of the US.  It is one of imperialism, with no regards to human, animal, or environmental impact and only in search of domination for profit.