Panama Canal

The desire to find a quicker route to India and Asia had not waned since Christopher Columbus set sail and discovered the "New World" in what is today the Bahamas. The vision of a direct sea route was revisited three hundred years later. In the 1800s, the same hope of finding an easier way to trade with Asian markets rekindle. Except this time everyone knew a bit more about world geography. It wasn't until President Theodore Roosevelt's term, and after France's disastrous attempt at constructing a canal, that the Panama Canal as we know it took shape in 1904.

Panama Canal Map

The land between Panama and Colombia was considered an ideal place to build a canal because only about forty miles of land was between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The land on which the Panama Canal was built was chosen because it was an isthmus, meaning that the canal would only have to cross about those forty miles of land to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Fig. 1 The Isthmus of Panama.

The Panama Canal is a man made and narrow waterway that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the country of Panama. The Canal uses a lock system to move large ships from one side to the other. Here is a closer look at what the ship's journey through the Panama Canal would look like:

Fig 2. A close-up of a ship's journey through the Panama Canal.¹

Panama Canal History

The vision of a canal across the isthmus of Panama had inspired builders, politicians, and economists who saw the potential for a waterway that would allow ships to avoid the long trip around the South American continent. But building the Panama Canal was not an easy feat. There were multiple roadblocks, and it took a decade to build, from 1904 to 1914.

Previous Attempts at a Canal

In the early 1800s, the British and Americans were looking for a way that would lower their transportation costs and make shipping goods even faster. The two countries set their sights on the Republic of Nicaragua as the ideal location and negotiated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850 and promised to work on a canal together. However, a canal in Nicaragua never really took off.

The French were also interested in building a canal in Central America. In 1880, Ferdinand de Lessops (the same man who built the Suez Canal in Egypt) and the Panama Canal Company broke ground in Panama, but the project turned out to be harder than planned.

The land surrounding the proposed canal had thick vegetation, dangerous animals, and a hot and humid environment. Workers contracted diseases like malaria and Yellow Fever ran rampant and tens of thousands of workers died. The project was bankrupt before 1890.

Beginning of the Canal

The American interest in building a canal was solidified after the end of the Spanish-American War in 1901. The victorious US had acquired the territories of the defeated Spanish Empire, which meant that the US now had annexed Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

In addition to the increased trade potential a trans-isthmus canal would unlock, the US had to find a better way to get to the Philippines. Circumnavigating South America implied a significant time and cost to their journey.

Before the US could start construction, they had to void the previous treaty with Britain, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which said that the US and Britain would have joint control over a canal built in Central America. A second treaty had to be negotiated. In 1901 the Hay-Pauncefort Treaty allowed the US to independently construct and maintain a canal.

The next step was getting the Senate to agree on where to put the Canal. They debated on whether to build it in Nicaragua or Panama. The vote was originally tipped in favor of Nicaragua, however, after multiple volcanic eruptions in Nicaragua during the debates it was ultimately decided in 1902 that Panama–then a part of Colombia.

Panama Independence

Colombia knew that the land they had was incredibly valuable to the US. The US offered its final terms in the Hay-Herrán Treaty, which was signed by Colombia's President Herrán, but the Colombian Senate ultimately rejected the treaty as it infringed upon their sovereignty.

President Roosevelt abandoned the treaty and instead began to work with Panamanian revolutionaries who wanted Panama's independence.

The war for Panamanian independence was a short one. Between Panama and Colombia is a jungle that made it incredibly difficult for Colombia to move troops and supplies, and many of the Colombian soldiers who were there were bribed to lay down their weapons. President Roosevelt also supported the independence movement by sending two US Navy ships to sit on either side of the Isthmus of Panama. The revolution ended quickly and the Republic of Panama became an independent country on November 3, 1903.

Immediately, the new Republic of Panama began to negotiate a treaty with the US. Representing Panama was Philippe Bunau-Varilla, the first minister of Panama, a supporter of the US involvement in Panamanian independence, and a previous employee of the Panama Canal Company. Bunau-Varilla signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the American Secretary of State, John Hay, on November 18, 1903.

The stipulations of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty required that the US pay the Republic of Panama $10 million dollars, as well as an additional $250,000 annually, for full control of the 10-mile strip of land known as the canal zone. The decision to relinquish control of the Canal Zone to the US was highly criticized by the citizens of the Republic of Panama.

Construction of the Panama Canal

President Roosevelt wasted no time and established the Isthmian Canal Commission to watch over the construction of the canal. The construction of the Panama Canal officially began in 1904 as a joint effort between the US and a French company called the Panama Canal Company.

The process of building the canal included removing the soil from an area and filling it with water to make a canal large enough for ships to pass through. The beginning of construction was led by Chief Engineer John Findley Wallace. However, Wallace left the project after a year and the title passed to George Goethals. While the project was led by American engineers, many of the workers came from the West Indies.

Fig 3. Construction of the Panama Canal in 1910.

The work was just as deadly as when the French attempted to build it in the 1880s. Thousands continued to die from malaria and Yellow Fever. The Chief Sanitary Officer of the project, doctor William Crawford Gorgas, reduced deaths by installing mosquito nets in hospitals, fumigation of areas with large amounts of mosquitos, and preventing mosquitoes from breeding in standing water.

It was an enormous effort and cost about $400,000,000 to build the canal. A decade later, the 51-mile-long Panama Canal was open for business in 1914.

The Panama Canal Treaty

The Panama Canal had been a source of resentment among Central and Latin Americans, who had watched the US interfere with their internal affairs for its own personal gain. In 1914, Thaddeus Thomson attempted to patch the relationship with Colombia by negotiating the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty. The treaty paid the Colombian government $25 million dollars and an official apology for their loss of Panama in 1903.

This treaty was not issued by the US Senate until 1921 when Colombia discovered vast oil reserves in their country. The 1921 version of the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty included the $25 million payment, but the Senate had removed the apology. The Panama Canal remained under US control.

President Jimmy Carter signed the Panama Canal Treaty with Chief of Government Omar Torrijos in 1977. This treaty stated that the Panama Canal and the entire Canal Zone would be transferred to Panama in 1999. An additional Neutrality Treaty was signed that made sure that the Canal Zone would be a neutral space. While the Panama Canal Treaty ended in 1999, the Neutrality Treaty is still in place to ensure that the Canal acts fairly toward all countries.

The U.S.-Panamanian Panama Canal Commission was created to assist the transfer of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama between 1977 and 1999. The Panama Canal became fully under the control of the Republic of Panama in 1999.

Panama Canal Importance

The Panama Canal was, and remains today, an extraordinary engineering feat. Since its construction, the Panama Canal has allowed over a million ships to use the shortcut. In addition to the importance of its functions, the Panama Canal is also an example of American imperialism during the turn of the century.

Panama Canal and American Imperialism

The construction of the Panama Canal was a symbol of American New Imperialism in Latin American countries. New Imperialism was rooted in the idea that more powerful countries had the right to intervene and control smaller countries to further their economic growth.

President Roosevelt, the leader who successfully started the construction of the Panama Canal, seized on the opportunity to control a portion of Central America in order to further Western economic and general interests. To secure the opportunity for the US to build and control the Panama Canal and the surrounding area, the US overtly interfered with Colombian affairs.

Panama Canal as an Engineering Feat

The Panama Canal was a valuable asset to trade, not to mention the military, as it takes just nine hours for a ship to cross through the Panama Canal rather than weeks traveling around the South American continent. The Panama Canal furthered trade and economic growth by substantively shorting the amount of time a ship had to spend sailing. It continues to be expanded and improved.

Alongside the Empire State Building and the Channel Tunnel, the Panama Canal was listed as part of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World and a Monument of the Millennium by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Fig. 5 The Panama Canal operating in 2016.²