Panama Canal

Did President Roosevelt 'Steal' the Canal or Obtain It Fairly?

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The issue:In 1903, after Colombia's senate rejected a treaty that would have allowed the U.S. to build a canal across the Colombian province of Panama, Panama staged a revolt and won its independence. One of Panama's first acts was to negotiate a canal treaty with the U.S. Did President Theodore Roosevelt steal the canal from Colombia by encouraging—or even helping to engineer—the revolution in order to win the rights to build a canal in Panama? Or were his actions in obtaining the Panama Canal just?

Background

In 1903, the U.S. began negotiating with theSouth Americannation ofColombiato build acanalacrossPanama, then a Colombian province. As canal negotiations appeared to be on the brink of failure, Panamanians, who wanted to ensure the canal was not built elsewhere, declared their independence from Colombia. One of the new nation's first acts was to approve atreatygranting the U.S. the right to build a canal across Panama. However, while most Americans were in favor of the canal, a number of people criticized PresidentTheodore Roosevelt(R, 1901-09) for the way the U.S. had obtained permission to build; critics accused him of encouraging, or even engineering, the Panamanianrevolutionto secure the canal.

Panama is an isthmus located in Central America, which connects North and South America and is sandwiched between theCaribbean Seaand thePacific Ocean. European nations had long sought a canal across Central America to facilitate trade withLatin AmericaandAsia. Without a canal, merchants had to either sail around the southern tip of South America or disembark on one coast, cross Central America by land with their cargo and load it onto another ship on the other side. A canal linking the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea, and thereby with theAtlantic Ocean, would make travel and transport quicker and easier.

The U.S. Congress had also begun considering a canal, but deemed it too expensive to build. However, toward the end of the 19th century, Americans had become convinced of the necessity of a canal to shorten travel time between the U.S.'s east and west coasts as well as to the Pacific. There were several possible routes for a canal, but the two main contenders were Panama, the narrowest part of Central America, andNicaragua, hundreds of miles closer to the U.S.

Congress decided to pursue the Panama route for the canal, and the U.S. and Colombia signed a canal treaty in early 1903. However, Colombia demanded more money at the last minute, thereby defeating the treaty and reviving the idea of Nicaragua as a viable location. Faced with the prospect of losing the canal to Nicaragua, as well as the jobs and revenue that it would bring, a group of Panamanians began considering declaring independence from Colombia. Rumors of revolution swirled in the summer of 1903.

Amid fears of a Panamanian revolt, Roosevelt sent several warships to the coast of Panama in late October. The president maintained that such action was necessary to protect U.S. transit across the isthmus, particularly along the railway across Panama, in case of conflict. The ships were ordered to keep both Colombians and Panamanians from causing trouble.

As rumored, in early November the Panamanians staged a revolution. The U.S. warships prevented Colombian troops from landing in Panama, and high mountains and dense jungles prevented the troops from reaching Panama by land. With no Colombian troops to put down the revolt, it was quick and bloodless, lasting only a day before Panama declared itself an independent state.

Two days later, the U.S. officially recognized Panama, and canal negotiations started within days. Two weeks after Panama declared its independence, the U.S. and Panama concluded a canal treaty, which Panama's congress approved in December. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in February 1904.

The Panama Canal connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.
U.S. Army

While many Americans had favored a canal in Panama, critics accused Roosevelt of stealing the canal from Colombia by supporting the Panamanian revolution. They claimed it was an example of Roosevelt's "Big Stick" policy, termed after a WestAfricanproverb Roosevelt liked to quote: "Speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far." They claimed that the U.S. used the threat of military action in Panama to help the rebels and prevent Colombia from putting down the rebellion. Supporters, however, claimed that the U.S. had played no role in the revolt and was simply protecting its interests in sending warships to Panama. Did Roosevelt take the right course of action in Panama?

While many Americans supported the building of the Panama Canal, some saw Roosevelt's actions in support of the canal as pushing the boundaries of presidential power, as parodied in this 1904 cartoon.
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Roosevelt's supporters justified the president's actions on several grounds. Some claimed that a revolution in Panama could disrupt transit across the isthmus, on which many Americans traveling cross-country depended. Roosevelt was therefore right to send ships to prevent an uprising, they said. Other supporters went further, and argued that the moral course of action was to aid the Panamanians in their fight against Colombia, which had long oppressed Panama. Yet others claimed that building a canal across Panama was vital to U.S. interests, and that any course of action was justified to achieve that goal.

Critics, on the other hand, accused the U.S. of supporting the rebels, or perhaps even helping to plan the revolt, with the goal of negotiating a canal treaty with the new Panamanian government. That was proved by the fact that the U.S. sent warships to Panama even before the revolt officially began, critics maintained. The U.S.'s actions violated an 1846 treaty the U.S. had signed with Colombia, in which the U.S. pledged to help Colombia uphold itssovereignty, they said. In fact, critics asserted, the U.S. actions amounted to a declaration of war against Colombia, which further compounded Roosevelt's wrongdoings by violatingCongress's exclusive right to declare war.

Early Visions of a Central American Canal

Nations had looked for a way to cross Central America since 1513, whenSpanishexplorerVasco Nunez de Balboacrossed the isthmus and became the first European explorer to reach the New World shores of the Pacific Ocean. Spain colonized Latin America in the early 16th century, and as Spanish trade in both Latin America and the Pacific began to increase so too did Spain's desire to build a canal across the isthmus.

In 1534,King Charlesof Spain ordered a survey to determine whether a canal could be built across Central America. The surveyors reported that it would be impossible to dig a canal through the isthmus's tall mountains and dense forests. At the end of the century, Spain again sent a survey team to Central America, and once again the team declared that it would be impossible to build a canal.

Two centuries later, Spanish interest in building a canal was revived. However, Spain's dreams of building a canal ended as severalrevolutionarymovements aimed at expelling Spain from Latin America emerged in the early 19th century. Colombia declared its independence from Spain in 1819, and Panama did so in 1821. After shaking off Spain, Panama chose to remain a Colombian province (known as a department); together the two formed what was known as New Granada.

The U.S. became interested in building a canal in Central America during the mid-1800s, as Americans began to move westward in increasing numbers, fulfilling their "manifest destiny" to extend the nation to the Pacific Ocean. Settlers traveling from the U.S.'s East Coast to its West Coast had three options: cross the U.S. by wagon train; travel by ship around the tip of South America; or sail to Panama's east coast, cross Panama on arailroadthat U.S. businessmen had built and board a ship on the western side.

Congress began to consider bills to finance a Central American canal, which would greatly reduce travel time, but such a venture was initially seen as too costly to be practical. However, recognizing the importance of travel across Panama, in 1846 the U.S. negotiated the Bidlack Treaty with Colombia guaranteeing the U.S. the right of transit across the isthmus. In return, the U.S. guaranteed Colombia's sovereignty over Panama, and agreed to help defend it against foreign intruders.

The U.S. Senate ratified the Bidlack Treaty in 1848, the year gold was discovered inCalifornia; in the ensuing "gold rush," unprecedented numbers of Americans crossed Panama en route to the West Coast. Sensing an ever-growing need for a means of crossing the isthmus of Panama by ship, and seeing that there would be enough passengers to make such an undertaking profitable, Congress began to consider a canal more seriously.

At the same time,Great Britainalso began to consider building a canal across Nicaragua, a prospect that upset some Americans. In 1823, PresidentJames Monroe(Democratic Republican, 1817-25) had issued the Monroe Doctrine, declaring that the Western Hemisphere was closed to European colonization. American opponents of a British canal in Central America argued that it would violate that doctrine; the U.S. must build the canal, they insisted.

To ensure that the U.S. would be involved in any canal venture, the U.S. negotiated theClayton-Bulwer Treatywith Britain in 1850. The treaty provided for a joint U.S.-British canal in Central America, and agreed that any canal would not be fortified militarily. The canal would also beneutral, open to all nations, and neither the U.S. nor Britain would take exclusive control of the canal.

In 1869, PresidentUlysses S. Grant(R, 1869-77) ordered surveys of possible canal sites across Central America andMexico. The following decade, a commission recommended Nicaragua. Nicaragua was hundreds of miles closer to the U.S. than Panama, had lower mountain passes to dig through and had several lakes that would reduce the digging needed to build the canal. Nicaragua also had less swampy ground than Panama, which meant that it had fewer disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Bibliography

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"The Canal Debate Begins."Time, October 10, 1977. (accessed August 31, 2008).

Dolan, Edward.Panama and the United States: Their Canal, Their Stormy Years. New York: Franklin Watts, 1990.

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Hogan, J. Michael.The Panama Canal in American Politics: Domestic Advocacy and the Evolution of Policy. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986.

LaFeber, Walter.The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

"Making Dirt Fly on Panama Canal."New York Times, August 24, 1908, 2.

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