Panama Canal Essay

Sworn to protect Colombia, the United States held them in battle, and forced them to recognize a new country whose land and people were once theirs. This battle, known as Panama’s Revolution, which started on November 3rd of 1903, was due to America’s greed and hunger for land. This land would be used to build not only a canal for the world, but to build an American empire. The United States desperately needed a canal by 1898, during the Spanish-American war, and would stop at nothing to get it. President Theodore Roosevelt, who came into office in 1901 after the death of President McKinley, led the country in the biggest investment of its time, investing hundreds of millions of dollars and years of hard labor into a canal. In order to become an imperialistic power, the United States needed to gain control of overseas territory by creating and upholding a canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to make traveling not only faster in war situations for America, but less costly.

The advice of Captain Mahan was made evident by the inability to transport troops from the west to the Caribbean. A ship, Oregon, stationed in Puget Sound, Seattle, received an emergency call in 1898 that they needed to come for reinforcement in a battle in the Caribbean. The ship made the lengthy trip around the tip of South America in 60 days. When they finally arrived, it became clear that a canal was a necessity in war situations so that in the future the United States would not need to wait over two months for reinforcement. Not only this, but the United States wanted to become an imperialist power. They followed advice from Captain Mahan, who wrote a book called The Influence of Sea Power on History, where he said “In any coming war the...

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...hortly after, Panama was a free nation and was prepared for a canal. By 1914 the canal was completed.

The Panama Canal was one of the largest projects in history. It spanned over a decade with over 5,000 employees working daily on it. President Theodore Roosevelt, in his autobiography, spoke about the impact of the canal on his career, “By far the most important action I took in foreign affairs during the time I was President was related to the Panama Canal.” Roosevelt believes that the Panama Canal was the biggest thing he had done during his presidency for America. Although many historians are not certain if the canal was financially beneficial, the canal undoubtedly led America to become the imperialist power it is today. Although in 1999 the United States lost control of the canal, it still remains a key reason for America’s success as a nation.