Panama Canal Research Paper

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

The Erie canal helped shape America. The Northwest was expanding and needed to get their products to the east coast. However, they seemed to be lacking a water source. Since the Erie canal was connected from the Hudson river to the Great lakes this made it possible for farmers to transport goods to the east coast without a problem. The Erie canal paved the pathway to a more stable America and an economic growth by allowing transportation, trade, exporting and importing goods to be more accessible through the United States. “This great work will immortalize the present authorities of N.Y. will bless their descendants with wealth and prosperity, and prove to mankind the superiority wisdom of employing the resources of industry in works of improvement rather than destruction.” The canal combined trade and transportation allowing for commerce to help speed up the Industrialization in the United States after the Erie canal was

First off, The Erie Canal changed America in many different ways such as trade, travel safety, and woman's rights (Background Essay) It took 8 years to complete the Erie Canal, it was 363 miles long, when they finished it, it had become a much safer way for transportation (Doc 4). People got killed while traveling " A young English woman met with her death a short time since, she having fallen asleep with her head upon a box, had her head crushed to pieces." The Erie Canal has made transportation more safer for other to travel places, it not only was safer but much faster, It made traffic go faster by making this Canal. Finally, the Canal brought less dangerous traffic, they had really low bridges so they knew they were coming to a town.

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.

First, the United States had bought a lease in Panama from France for 40 million dollars. The United States also had bought a 99-year lease on a part of land in Panama for 10 million dollars, plus 250,000 dollars as an annual rent. The total cost to build the canal was 375 million dollars (pancanal.com).The workers who built the canal got sick and died from diseases which were malaria and yellow fever. From these diseases, 5,609 American workers died (thesilverpeopleheritage.wordpress.com). Another downside to building the Panama Canal and to the American Empire was that it was not only costly towards the United States finances, it was also extremely costly towards the environment. It cost ten dollars to kill one mosquito (economist.com). Plus, oil-polluted watercourses and insecticides killed other animals besides mosquitos. The United States spent a lot of time, money, and effort trying to build the canal.

We come up with many ways to make our country better, to make it the best country out there and the thing that really came close to completely changing America for the better was the Erie Canal. Many people ask how did the Erie canal change America, well not only did it build one of the biggest most successful city in the world but it help us with trade and money. Many problems came along with the Erie Canal like the dangerous of making it as we had to use explosives. Other problems were the growth in population, population wasn’t a problem but because of such high population that came with the Erie Canal transportation was horrible but like many other thing the Erie canal solved its own problem. The Erie canal changed America for the better, growing is population, making it money, and building one of the most successful city in the world.

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.

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

The Erie Canal was an important building project that led to economic growth in the United States. When it was built, it was a feat of engineering that was twice as long as any European canal (OI). First, it connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes (Doc. 1A), which created a boom in the economy. It also made New York City the nation’s largest and busiest port. In the words of New York State Canal Corporation, “Prior to the construction of the canal, New York City was the nation’s fifth largest seaport…” It caused other countries to want to ship items across the sea over to America. It didn’t just affect New York City. Believe it or not, it was relatively cheap to ship items from New York City to Buffalo. If you used the road to ship

counteract the disease so as to finish the canal. Luckily, we had ten years to

During the Age of Imperialism in the world (1870-1914), the United States’ goals were to establish colonies in other countries mainly for economic opportunity and recognition in the international community as a superpower. Before the construction of the Panama Canal, it took 67 days for a warship to get from San Francisco to the Caribbean, however with the canal this was greatly reduced, due to the fact that you didn’t have to go around South America (Schlager). This means that the United States’ naval power would be greatly increased, because they could have more origin ports for warships, since traveling from East to West and visa-versa wouldn’t be an issue (Schlager). As well as having better access for naval warships, the Panama Canal itself served as a territory, building the U.S. empire. As Henry White put

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

How was it built? France began work on the canal in 1881 but stopped due to building problems and a high worker Death rate. The USA took over the project of the canal in 1904, and opened the canal on August 15, 1914.In 1906John Frank Stevens, a self-educated engineer who had built the Great Northern RailRoad, had seen the Chagres in full flood, was called to Washington and declared a sea-level approach to be an entirely untenable aproach. He argued in favor of a canal using a lock system to raise and lower ships from a large reservoir 85ft (26m) above sea level.

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