Identification And Controlling The Panama Canal Zone

The canal is bordered on both sides by the Panama Canal Zone, a strip of land given to the United States in 1903 but returned to Panama in 1979. The United States turned over the control of the canal to Panama in 1999. While the Panama Canal is a bridge of water connecting two oceans, building it ripped Panama apart. For Panama the opening of the canal meant a great boom in it's economy.

Theodore Roosevelt wanted to begin construction of the Panama canal before the campaigning of 1904. The treaty and $100 million offered to Colombia for the land for the canal was rejected by the Colombian government. Roosevelt was a man with short temper and the mentality that he was always right so he decided to take action and began with the killing of Chinese man and a donkey. Panama signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty fifteen days later and the Panama was purchased by the U.S. for $15 million. To many people it seemed as though Roosevelt was actively trying to take away canal from colombia but that was not true. Construction began in 1904 and was finished ten years later in 1914 with the total cost of $400 million to build. Latin American nations were having hard time paying debts so countries such as Britain and Germany decided to send a force to South America to force them to pay. Theodore Roosevelt did not like this so he created the Roosevelt Corollary to keep the Monroe Doctrine together. This said that no other country could “bully” Latin America except the U.S. and Latin America felt Uncle Sam was being

However, members of the government knew that it was perfect timing to declare their independence like they did to the Mexicans. With the help from the military, they managed to overthrow the government and laid siege to the Panama Canal. After months of fighting, the army took the Canal and sent an ultimatum to the United States. Allow the United Provinces of Central America to be independent. In return, they will have their canal back.

The construction of the Suez and Panama Canals greatly affected overseas trade and commerce. The Suez Canal, which connected the Mediterranean and Red Seas though the Isthmus of Suez, had a large impact on the world economy by greatly reducing the amount of travel time required to send goods to different regions, The Panama Canal, which was built through the Isthmus of Panama, also had a similar effect on commerce by connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There were different motivations for the building of the Panama and Suez Canals, and their construction was hindered by challenging obstacles. The French used the idea that Egypt would flourish with the building of the Suez Canal to motivate the Egyptians to give permission for its construction.

Foreign Affairs The Gilded age was a time when the United States was thriving, and it seemed like everything was going good on the outside, but it was truly corrupt and full of unacceptable people on the inside. This age lasted from 1876-1900, it was a time when many people saw the U.S. also thrive with innovation, mass imagination, and territorial expansion. There were several presidents during the Gilded Age, which were Ulysses S. Grant, Ruther B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. All these presidents were an asset that contributed to the growth of the United States during this age.

The United States had many of goods transporting to Europe. The US increasing economic grew immensely and that made them more powerful. Most of its intervention occurred in the western hemisphere. He separated the Panama from Columbia to build the Panama Canal. In order to achieve this he gave the Panamanians independence and treaty giving him the right to build the canal. He facilitated one the greatest construction in that time by building the canal for better trade and cut shipping times. Roosevelt’s intervention foreign policy became known as Roosevelt’s Corollary and the Panama Canal was one of the intervention that took place in Central America. Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine and the policy gave the right of US to exercise and international police powers to intervene whenever necessary. He wanted protect American and European investments by invading Dominican Republic and Cuba.

WHAT: After U.S intervention into Panama, the U.S. had the want, the will, and the power to finish the canal which the French had started in 1881 and abandoned in 1894. The U.S. Began construction of the canal in 1904 under

During his presidency from the years 1901 to 1909, Theodore Roosevelt managed to shift the role of the federal government. He made a large impact on world affairs, including the construction of the Panama Canal. Along with world affairs, Roosevelt impacted the way trusts were labeled in their states. The role that the federal government played changed drastically as Roosevelt made his way through his presidency due to the construction of the Panama Canal and the pros and cons of trusts. Prior to Roosevelt’s presidency, the Spanish-American War caused him to see the need for easy access to the Atlantic and Pacific by the navy, supporting the canal across Panama.

Before the development of the Panama Canal, it took months to move cargo inexpensively from the East Coast to the Pacific. However, with the Canal, ships could expect a very expedited and not to mention cheaper trip. Not only convenient, the Panama Canal supported business and expansion, both key national interests of the time by providing a quick, safe and efficient route from the Eastern United States to the West Coast and beyond. The Panama canal was an excellent promoter of U.S. national interests during the 1890’s-1920’s, because it established U.S. foreign territory, helped businesses utilize cheaper shipping routes and gave quick access into the pacific for the New Navy, however the Panama Canal did not promote democratic values because of America’s policy towards Panama. By providing the U.S. with new land overseas and quicker routes for the new navy, the Panama Canal promoted the national

The economy was expanding and the US became more interested in the well being of surrounding economies. The Dominican Republic was in debt to various European nations at this time. They were having problems paying their debts and chose to stop paying them. In response to this issue, President Theodore Roosevelt formulated an extension to the Monroe Doctrine. The Roosevelt Corollary, as it became to be known, gave the US the power to intervene with European powers coming west in an attempt to collect debts.2 The fear was that Europe, in an attempt to collect debts, would occupy and control the country in debt. With the Panama Canal on the scope, this would hinder economic stimulus in the US. President Roosevelt’s beliefs are best captured in the Corollary when he stated:

In 1903, the United states under President Theodore Roosevelt signed a treaty with Panama which gave over the rights to build and control the passage through what we now know as the famous Panama Canal, with the purpose of creating a politically, economically and geographically significant waterway that would allow for the travel of ships from the

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the United States was the most dominant power in the Western Hemisphere. European nations conceded to the United States their right of any intervention in the Western Hemisphere and allowed the United States to do whatever they wanted. The United States took this newly bestowed power and abused it. The United States intervened in many Latin American countries and imposed their policies on to these countries against their will. A perfect example of this aggression is what occurred in the Dominican Republic in 1904. The United States intervened in this sovereign nation and took control of their economy and custom houses. A memorandum from Francis B. Loomis, the United States Assistant

On December 20 of 1989, 26,000 U.S. troops invaded Panama in ‘‘Operation Just Cause’’ to expel and capture the country's strong man, the former general Manuel Antonio Noriega and destroy his military. No honest Panamanian, no human being can be indifferent to the horror of war, one can justify the thousands of dead innocent civilians. ‘‘Forget Prohibited’’ as many Panamanians says for this day, the world's most powerful country United States of North America, economic and military power was the right throw unwarranted. No declaration of war, to attack and invade a small country of 2 million inhabitants in that time.

Donoghue explains that the canal “provided jobs and economic opportunities for the Panamanians,” which gives United Statesians power (9). The fact that the Zone provided jobs and helped stimulate the economy can be construed in a way that says to Panamanians “we as the United States brought you these jobs, therefore you must subject yourselves to us.” The United States held a lot of economic power, which was demonstrated through the fact that the “Latin and West Indian Panamanians [working in the Zone] were never fairly compensated for their labor compared to white U.S. workers” (10). Anyone who wasn’t white was paid “lower wages in silver” compared to the white workers from the United States who were paid “in gold” (26). This practice caused a deliberate wage gap between white and non white workers, which transitioned into segregation based on whether a worker was paid in gold or silver-- similar to the segregation seen in the U.S. south at the time. Simply the idea of paying workers in the same currency was a “threat to U.S. supremacy” and caused this practice to continue until the 1970s (62). The United States asserted its power over minority workers through the unfair wages, keeping them in a perpetual lower class. The effects of this blatant discrimination based on race are seen today, as Panama still suffers “from the second worst maldistribution of income in the hemisphere”

Galeano portrays this moment in Latin American history as the instant U.S investors took control over the industries. He details the dangers they went through when producing one item to export for the benefit of foreigners, and how they later imported the processed goods from those same foreign countries, injecting money only overseas. The fact that Latin America needed imports to survive initiated the imperial link the U.S has upon it. As stated by Galeano, “The growing dependence on foreign supplies produces the growing identification of the interest of U.S. capitalists operating in Latin America with U.S. national security”11, bluntly showing the relationship between the United States and Latin America. “With petroleum, as with coffee or meat, rich countries profit more from the work of consuming it than do poor countries from the work of producing it”12. Because profit was not being retained in the Latin American countries, nationalization of the industries became of importance. The United States offered intervention in order to protect everyone’s interests with the proposal of free trade, but this was no more than another manipulation to continue having power over Latin America and its resources: “Latin America’s big ports, through which the wealth of its soil and subsoil passed en route to distant centers of power, were being built as instruments of the conquest and domination of the countries to which they belonged, and as conduits