Banana republic is a politically unstable country with an economy dependent on limited resource products such as minerals and bananas. A banana republic country has extreme social classes usually with a huge group of a poor working class and a ruling class including politicians, businessmen and military. This ruling class has the primary control of the economy. The phrase banana republic was coined by the American writer O. Henry in 1901, with the book Cabbages and Kings (1904). The book consists of short stories inspired by his life living in Honduras for 6 months. There is a movie called Bananas (1971) by Woody Allen, a movie that portrays a fictional banana republic called San Marcos. There are games with themes of banana republic such as Tropico a simulation game and the Red Dead Redemption 2, a 2018 video game.
The modern-day banana republic countries are Honduras, the first country to be named banana republic and has a low development rate and high crime levels. Guatemalas status as banana republic is debatable but their coffee, banana and sugar plantation produce a huge amount of the country’s budget. Other countries such as Nigeria, Cuba, Zambia, Laos and Botswana can be seen as modern-day banana republic countries.
Banana Republic is also an American clothing and accessories retailer, they sell clothes for women and men as well as shoes, accessories and jewelry. Banana Republic was founded by Mel and Patricia Ziegler in 1978 with the name Banana Republic Travel & Safari Clothing Company, but got changed to banana republic in 1983 by the now owned corporation Gap inc. Their items used to be eccentric tourist oriented and had hand drawn catalogs. Today the brand is known for their luxurious items. The brand has stores in 32 different countries. They have 40 stores in Canada, over 500 stores in the United States and 61 outside of North America and is expanding international to Asia, Europe and Middle East. Contemporary clothing for women and men that is Banana Republic!