the panama canal “making the dirt fly”. the spanish american war pointed out the need for a...
TRANSCRIPT
Ferdinand De-lesseps, a Frenchman, had built the Suez Canal in ten years, and he next took on Panama.
There would be a sea-level canal dug along the path of the Panama Railroad, 50 miles long, Suez was more than 100.
De Lesseps estimated that the job would cost about $132 million, and take twelve years to complete. (1882-1894)
More than 6,000 men had died building the railroad, but that fact was ignored as it had made $7,000,000 in its first six years.
In 1902 the United States bought the right to build from France and began to negotiate a treaty with Colombia.
Panama was a province of Colombia, and the treaty was worked out, but the Colombian government didn’t like the terms.
When they asked for more money the Panamanians, led by a French-Panamanian businessman, revolted and declared independence.
The battle for Panama lasted only a few hours. Colombian soldiers in Colón were bribed $50 each to lay down their arms;
Hay Bunau-Varilla Treaty
The US got a 10 mile wide strip of land
The US had complete sovereignty over the zone
The US paid $10 million to Panama
Teddy Roosevelt wanted the canal underway before the 1904 elections, so he pushed for immediate construction.
Roosevelt would later boast that "...I took the isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me."
The canal was built, but not before more than 30,000 people died of malaria and yellow fever and thousands more of work related accidents.
German troops were driving across Belgium toward Paris; the newspapers relegated Panama to their back pages.