CAMBRIDGE AS HISTORY: USA AND PANAMA CANAL 1903-1914. Presentation 17 containing: overview Panama Canal, negotiations USA-Great Britain, Ferdinand de Lesseps, American interests in the canal, tensions USA-Colombia, Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty 1903.

1. HISTORY CAMBRIDGE AS - PAPER 2
MODULE 1871-1918
PRESENTATION 17

2. PRESENTATION BASED ON
"Panama Canal Traffic—Years 1914–2010". Panama Canal Authority
"Seven Wonders". American Society of Civil Engineers
"A History of the Panama Canal: French and American Construction Efforts". Panama Canal Authority.
Chapter 3, Some Early Canal Plans
James Rodger Fleming (1990). Meteorology in America, 1800–1870
Livingstone, Grace (2009). America's backyard : the United States and Latin America from the Monroe
Doctrine to the war on terror
"About ACP - PanCanal.com". Panama Canal Authority. Retrieved 27/09/2016
Cullen, Bob (March 2004). "Panama Rises". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/panama-canal

3. “"One had only to look at the map to see that Panama was the proper
place for the canal. The route was already well established, there was a
railroad, there were thriving cities at each end. Only at Panama could a
sea-level canal be built. It was really no great issue at all. Naturally there
were problems. There were always problems. There had been large,
formidable problems at Suez, and to many respected authorities they too
had seemed insurmountable. But as time passed, as the work moved
ahead at Suez, indeed as difficulties increased, men of genius had come
forth to meet and conquer those difficulties. The same would happen
again. For every challenge there would be a man of genius capable of
meeting and conquering it. One must trust to inspiration. As for the
money, there was money aplenty in France just waiting for the opening of
the subscription books."
David McCullough

4. SS Ancon passing through the canal on 15 August 1914, the first ship to do so

5. OVERVIEW
• President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the realization of a long-term
United States goal—a trans-isthmian canal.
• Throughout the 1800s, American and British leaders and businessmen
wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts.

6. Roosevelt on a digging machine during construction of the Panama Canal, circa
1908. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

7. NEGOTIATIONS USA-GREAT BRITAIN
• To that end, in 1850 the United States and Great Britain negotiated the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty to reign in rivalry over a proposed canal through
the Central American Republic of Nicaragua.
• The Anglo-American canal, however, never went beyond the planning
stages.

8. The U.S.'s intentions to influence the area (especially the Panama Canal construction and control) led to
the separation of Panama from Colombia in 1903

9. FERDINAND DE LESSEPS
• French attempts to build a canal through Panama (province of
Colombia) advanced further.
• Led by Ferdinand de Lesseps—the builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt—
the French began excavating in 1880.
• Malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical diseases conspired against the
de Lesseps campaign and after 9 years and a loss of approximately
20,000 lives, the French attempt went bankrupt.

10. Ferdinand de Lesseps
Excavator at work, in Bas Obispo, 1886

11. AMERICAN INTEREST IN THE CANAL
• In spite of such setbacks, American interest in a canal continued
unabated. The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 abrogated the earlier
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and licensed the United States to build and
manage its own canal.
• Following heated debate over the location of the proposed canal, on
June 19, 1902, the U.S. Senate voted in favor of building the canal
through Panama.
• Within 6 months, Secretary of State John Hay signed a treaty with
Colombian Foreign Minister Tomás Herrán to build the new canal.
• The financial terms were unacceptable to Colombia’s congress, and it
rejected the offer.

12. Construction of locks on the Panama Canal, 1913

13. TENSIONS USA-COLOMBIA
• President Roosevelt responded by dispatching U.S. warships to Panama
City (on the Pacific) and Colón (on the Atlantic) in support of
Panamanian independence.
• Colombian troops were unable to negotiate the jungles of the Darien
Strait and Panama declared independence on November 3, 1903.

14. President Theodore Roosevelt sitting on a steam shovel at
Culebra Cut, 1906
Spanish labourers working on the Panama Canal in
early 1900s

15. HAY-BUNAU-VARILLA TREATY 1903
• In his new role, Bunau-Varilla negotiated the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of
1903, which provided the United States with a 10-mile wide strip of land
for the canal, a one-time $10 million payment to Panama, and an annual
annuity of $250,000.
• The United States also agreed to guarantee the independence of Panama.

16. A Marion steam shovel excavating the Panama
Canal in 1908
The Panama Canal locks under construction in 1910

17. 1914 PANAMA CANAL COMPLETED
• Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal symbolized U.S. technological
prowess and economic power.
• Although U.S. control of the canal eventually became an irritant to U.S.-
Panamanian relations, at the time it was heralded as a major foreign
policy achievement.