Essay about 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

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

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.

He started the construction of the Panama Canal, aware of the strategic need of a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific

Grant was a foreign affair that made the Presidents during the Gilded Age succeed. Even though Grant proposed the plan he did not think it would be an affair that the U.S. could gain something from, but after all he was wrong. The Panama Canal proposal was made in 1881 and the U.S. government saw this as an asset for the nation to establish foreign connections. The canals purpose was to prove to other nations that the U.S. was now evolving and not following the usual domination that the European countries used. Their territorial expansions were more of helping other countries and innovating them just like the U.S. was boosting itself up.

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.

This was Theodore Roosevelt's first act as president. The Panama Canal was a project that would have a canal built to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean and be used in international trading. The British and the French have both thought about and attempted this before and now the United States would try. The canal was supposed to travel through the Nicaragua, but Roosevelt wanted the canal to travel across the Isthmus Mountains because he thought the larger ships would not fit through the Nicaragua. So, he attempted to sign a treaty with Columbia but was rejected by the Colombian senate. Roosevelt decided to plan with Philippe Bunau-Varilla who represented the French Panama Canal Company. His plan was to have panama revolt against columbia. On November 3, 1903 the revolution was announced and now considered panama independent. Roosevelt was able to get the treaty signed by Panama on November 18 that would allow the United States to build the canal. “When it was completed in 1913 at a cost of $387 million, the canal represented one of the most expensive construction projects ever undertaken” (Linn, Charles). Although the canal was not finished until 1913, Theodore Roosevelt still considered it the greatest achievement of his

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

Roosevelt saw the completion of a canal in Panama as a military and economic necessity for the United States, and he was determined to make it happen. In 1903, Roosevelt attempted to get

Assuredly the Panama Canal, If you didn’t know already, was one of the most economic and socialized marvels of its time. It was, at first, attempted by the French in the late 1800s, but they were unable to carry out the canal because of financial problems. Not only that, but yellow fever and malaria flooded the campgrounds with the aid of mosquitoes, which made the workforce unbalanced (Avery). Then in 1904, the Americans were to take over under the leadership and guidance of President Theodore Roosevelt. Even then Americans had a difficult time with construction. Moreover, with the canal built, it’s more sufficient then sailing around the tip of South America. Even today, the canal is used several times a day to bring

The workers started off by creating a railroad to cross over and deliver items/tools for the workers to use, while building the canal. They have to dig through the jungle and flatten out land. Once they were done with that they would dig and make river and stream holes. The workers would blow up the land connection to the river/stream hole to the ocean. That is so the water could get through the continent. Most of the workers came from African Areas or South America Areas. TNT (the bomb) was the object the workers would use to blow up the river/stream hold to the ocean.

The United States built the Panama Canal. The canal was a fifty-mile-long passage that created a shortcut for ships. It cut through the Central American nation of Panama and linked the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. “It was an incredible project, the largest public construction project in US history. The engineering, technical, medical, and scientific challenges were incredible, first having to get disease under control and then figure out whether it should be a sea-level or a lock canal. It was forty miles long and literally cut through the continental divide, so it was extremely difficult” (Greene). The construction of the Panama Canal strengthened the economic dominance, and the rise of the United States naval power in the Western Hemisphere, accomplishing a long-awaited dream to create a route that allowed ships to move easily between the two great oceans.

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

Back then the land in which the canal was to be built was owned by Columbia. Theodore Roosevelt asked the Columbians for permission to build the canal, but they refused.