Which American author popularized the term 'banana republic'?

Which American author popularized the term “banana republic”? O. Henry popularized the term “banana republic.”

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter, an American short-story writer known for twist endings and depictions of ordinary life. He used the phrase in his 1904 story collection Cabbages and Kings, which presented the fictional Central American country of Anchuria.

The setting drew on Porter’s experiences in Honduras, where he spent several months while avoiding prosecution in the United States. His fictional country was shaped by the region’s banana trade, foreign commercial influence, political instability, and powerful local elites.

The phrase later became a broader political term for a country whose economy and government are heavily influenced by foreign businesses and a narrow ruling class. It is not simply a synonym for any poor country, tropical country, or nation with banana farms. Earlier usages have been debated, but O. Henry is the canonical attribution in general-reference works and quiz settings.