What is The History of Panama Canal?

Mon Feb 03 2025
icon-facebook icon-twitter icon-whatsapp

Key points

  • Roosevelt dispatched US warships to Panama City in support of Panamanian independence
  • Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 provided US with a 10-mile wide strip of land for the canal
  • Completed in 1914, the Canal symbolised US technological prowess and economic power

ISLAMABAD: Born from “gunboat diplomacy,” the Panama Canal is under threat from United States (US) saber rattling once again.

According to CNN, more than 100 years after the construction of the engineering marvel that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans – and 25 years after the canal was returned to Panama by the US – the waterway faces renewed intimidation from an American president.

Lives lost

The Panama Canal — which Trump has dubbed a modern “wonder of the world” — was built by the United States and opened in 1914 at the cost of thousands of lives of laborers, mostly people of African descent from Barbados, Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, according to AFP.

ASDLFJAK
The Panama Canal opened on Aug. 15, 1914. The first ship through was the U.S. steamer the SS Ancon. It’s shown here leaving the west chamber of the upper Gatun locks and entering Gatun Lake.
—Photo from Social Media/ X

President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the realisation of a long-term US 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, according to the US government “Office of Historian” website.

To that end, in 1850 the US and Great Britain negotiated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty to rein in rivalry over a proposed canal through the Central American Republic of Nicaragua. The Anglo-American canal, however, never went beyond the planning stages. French attempts to build a canal through Panama (province of Colombia) advanced further.

ASDFASFD
Suez Canal in Egypt 1869—Photo from Social Media/ X

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 nine years and a loss of approximately 20,000 lives, the French attempt went bankrupt.

In spite of such setbacks, American interest in a canal continued unabated.

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901

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 US Senate voted in favor of building the canal through Panama.

Screenshot 2025 02 03 121310
Steam shovels load rocks blasted away onto twin tracks that remove the earth from the Panama Canal bed circa 1908. It took the United States 10 years to build the canal at a cost of $375 million (which equals about $8.6 billion today). —Photo from Social Media/ X

Panamian independence

According to the US government “Office of Historian” website, within six 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. President Roosevelt responded by dispatching US 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 Darién Gap and Panama declared independence on November 3, 1903.

JKDAFHKLJF.JPGG scaled
circa 1942: One of the 14-inch guns that guard the Panama Canal in the event of war. Mounted on a turntable, the gun can fire a missile 30 miles out to sea. The US ground crew are holding the charge that drives the projectile, while the shell is loaded using the derrick on the gun carriage. —Photo from Social Media/ X

The newly declared Republic of Panama immediately named Philippe Bunau-Varilla (a French engineer who had been involved in the earlier de Lesseps canal attempt) as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903

According to the US government “Office of Historian” website, 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.

SDAF
View from Contractor’s Hill, Panama, of ships sailing in the Panama Canal in May 2014. A set of locks at either end eases ships through the artificial Gatun Lake, built to reduce the amount of excavation needed for the canal. A third set of locks, under construction and set to open in 2015, will allow wider ships to pass. —Photo from Social Media/ X
Panama، Canal, Donald Trump, History, Panama, Columbia,
Panama Canal, PANAMA: TO GO WITH AFP STORY A tanker crosses through Panama Canal’s Miraflores locks April 21st, 2006, 25 km north of Panama City. President Martin Torrijos is to announce 24th April 2006 the details of an extension plan of the Canal which involves the construction of a third lock that will allow post-Panamax vessels – of enormous size – to transit through it. According to the Canal’s Authority, the 8,000 million dollar enterprise – subject to a referendum – is vital for the survival of the canal, where nowadays these huge vessels cannot cross. Each year some 13.000 to 14.000 ships representing 5 percent of the world’s maritime trade go through the Canal, strategically located between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. AFP PHOTO/Teresita CHAVARRIA

The United States also agreed to guarantee the independence of Panama. Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal symbolized US technological prowess and economic power. Although US control of the canal eventually became an irritant to US-Panamanian relations, at the time it was heralded as a major foreign policy achievement.

icon-facebook icon-twitter icon-whatsapp