This is a spin-off from another AskHistorians question Europa Universalis 4 depicts the Caribbean as one of the most productive regions in the Americas, only rivaled by parts of Mexico and the Andes. Were the tiny islands of the Caribbean really this economically valuable? If so, why?
Nowadays, the banana is a major worldwide crop and generally is quite cheap. But how did it gain such widespread appeal? What made bananas so popular that:
How come other widely-grown tropical fruits (e.g. mangoes, papayas, watermelons, mangosteens, guavas, passionfruit) don't have a political and historical impact as large as that of bananas (except, to a lesser extent, avocadoes)? Arguably, it's also easier to propagate and spread these fruits compared to the banana, since they easily grow from seeds, and are therefore not as susceptible when diseases wipe out entire varieties.
On a side note, how come the plantain doesn't share the same worldwide appeal as the banana?
This is a botany question as much as a history question!
Some quick points on bananas relative to other tropic fruits.
Bananas produce extremely quickly. Plant a banana tree and 9 months to a year later you'll be able to harvest a mature hand of bananas - some 80 to 125 pounds of fruit. You'll also have several offshoots you can transplant and use to propagate more bananas for exponential growth. The limiting factors become land and human labor. Bananas are quite tolerant of different soil and humidity levels and can even survive broad temperature ranges -- it's possible to grow and fruit bananas in California and Florida, though it's not economically competitive to do so.
Now compare that to mangosteen-- you'll have to wait an entire decade to harvest your first fruit. Mangosteen are notoriously fickle to grow and require a relatively narrow band of temperature and wind.
The real advantage of bananas in the 19th century international trade arena, however, is their transport stability. This is where they shine in comparison to your other tropical examples. Bananas, if picked green and kept cool to 57 F, will not ripen and spoil and can be shipped or stored for 6 weeks with no loss of quality. Even with 19th century rail and shipping technology, this was more than enough time for harvest in Latin American plantations, rail transport to ports, steamship transport to the US, then distribution.
The result of all this was that bananas became the cheapest fruit on the US marketplace. Pound for pound, late 19th century bananas were half the price of locally grown apples.
Source: Koeppel, Dan. Banana: the fate of the fruit that changed the world. 2008.