History Of The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is possibly one of the most well known man made geographic features ever. Only five days after the U.S. secured Panama's independence from Columbia, the first canal treaty was signed with the United States. Signing the treaty

In Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, they made several references to the Panama Canal that I had trouble understanding. “They say a mad Frenchmen dreamed up this Panama project, and convinced the devil to give him an army of workers” (Nottage 15). The Panama Canal plays a huge part in this play, and while I know the basics of its creation, I wanted to further investigate the details of how it was made. According to PBS source, “at least 25,000 workers died during the combined French and U.S construction periods of the Panama Canal” (PBS). This fact was very surprising since no one ever talks about how deadly the construction of the canal was. It helped me understand the struggles of George a lot more. According to another source, “The

-Because there were no railroads in Panama, railroads had to be built first in order to move workers and equipment to

Roosevelt felt strongly about trade throughout the world. In 1904 the Isthmus of Panama was first broken by American shovel. After months of negotiation, the Latin American government allowed the creation of the Panama Canal. The U.S. military and other volunteers did most of the work. But because of Yellow Fever and Malaria , few workers returned. In 1914 the Canal Zone was finished and for the first time the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were flowing together.

The Erie Canal played a very important part of the political history of the United States of America. The canal helped to decrease the North’s dependance on the South, which in turn helped to weaken the influence of slavery and the power of south. The North was now able to get their resources from the Midwest instead of the South. If the Erie canal wasn’t

Canals were a significant development in human history because they allowed societies to more freely transport goods by ship if natural rivers were not present and to provide irrigation for crops growing in drier soil. The most well-known example of a canal dramatically improving human productivity is the Panama Canal, opened officially in 1914 in the country of Panama in Central America. The canal joined the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and allowed ships to transport goods across the world much more quickly and efficiently.

Stretching 363 miles, The Erie Canal was the first ever canal built in the United States to connect the Atlantic Ocean to western waterways. Canals have expanded territories and have allowed access to broader trading throughout the United States. Carol Sheriff not only looks into how the Eric Canal came to be, but analyzed the culture and the way the society surrounding the Erie Canal transformed and adapted. The Erie Canal opened new trading opportunities because of this new mode of transportation.

During the 1800’s there was no clear passage to take from New York to the American west. This created an issue as the expense to transport goods such as wheat and flour would be a costly amount of approximately $100 per ton. Due to the Appalachian Mountains New York was secluded from much of western America. The Canal took approximately nine years to be completed, despite funding issues that were presented the canal proved to be an expense well made. The Erie Canal (Clinton’s Ditch) was a project known to be doubted upon by political figures, yet despite political opposes to the idea, the result of the canal was noted to be America’s greatest engineering achievement of its time, as the increase of economic prosperity arose in New York because of the canal, alongside popularity for the regions that surrounded the canal; the canal proved to be a success.

Secondly, the C&O canal had many different developments in the period following it’s completion. However these developments were not nearly as good. The contractors, and engineers proved that they could not correctly build the canal, as they did not finish in the predicted time(Bourne).The C&O canal was not a financial success, and there were no economically enriched areas as there were with the Erie Canal. By the late 1870s, the canal had passed it’s peak of prosperity, and by 1881, it could not be stopped(Drago 71). However, the social effects were in some cases larger than the economic effects.

The United States planned for the canal to stretch from the city of Colón to Panama City. Soon after construction started problems occured. The lead engineer, John Wallace, had problems with equipment and workers becoming ill. This caused Wallace to quit and construction to momentarily halt.

In 1876 a French company wanted to build the canal cutting right through panama, but disease and hazardous conditions paused the work. America got impatient and bought the canal sight from the French company in 1901 for $40 million. Although America bought the sight they still had to pay $10 million plus the rental fee of $250,000. However this was rejected by the Colombian Senate and America had to go back to stage one. by this point in time the Panamanians believed America would help them gain independence from Columbia. The Panamanians began to revolt and America sent a war ship to protect them, and stopped columbia from sending forces to Panama. Panama now had independance and America got the canal back. Building the Canal was rough many workers suffered from yellow fever and Malaria. the Panama canal was finished in 1914. Since then the Panama Canal has been a big

The Panama canal is a unique structure, and the amount it took to build is mind blowing. Many people helped to build the canal, but it was too dangerous for the workers that helped. They eventually faced hard rain, earthquakes and fires around them and their work would be destroyed every storm they encountered. Mosquitoes had parasites that got workers at the canal sick and some even died because the parasites carried malaria and yellow fever. These catastrophes were too much for the workers and someone had to change something in order for the Panama canal to be complete.

This is a good thing about Latin America because it would probably impact the economy if it wasn’t there. It is the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is a waterway that brings together the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. It really helped trade in Latin America. The canal was built by the Americans in 1904 and a lot of leaders took over the project, including John Wallace, John Stevens and George Washington Goethals. The project was finished in 1914 after taking 10 years to build. The Panama Canal is an important feature to Latin America because it is a quicker way to import and export goods or cargo. It made it easier because instead of going all the way around South America you can go through Panama which saves you a lot of time. That means a lot of more ships pass through. If there was no Panama Canal like I said it would take a lot longer to travel to bring stuff somewhere by water. I also think there would be less ships traveling because not a lot of people would like to travel a long time at sea. I also think a lot of people would die because the trip would take so long. That is how the Panama Canal impacted Latin America in a good way.

(2013) ‘Labor Issues During the Construction of the Panama Canal’ Available at: http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=younghistorians (Accessed 22 June,

The canal was the best thing that ever happened to Panama. The Panama Canal was started under President Roosevelt and completed by his successor, William Howard Taft. The canal was built across an isthmus, a narrow body of land that connects two larger land areas, which connects North and South America. In some places in Panama the isthmus is only 50 miles across. The French started the canal in the late 1800’s. They had just built the then famous Suez Canal with relative ease. The Suez Canal, unlike the Panama Canal, was a straight canal on level ground, in a relatively dry climate. The French had failed in building the Panama Canal because of the tropical climate, in which deadly tropical diseases consumed their