News 8 Friday, Nov. 1, 2013
Orange County Register
1
PANAMA INDEPENDENCE
The U.S. shipping industry wanted
a canal in Central America.
Through hook or by crook, shippers
were determined to have one. And
Uncle Sam didn’t care who he had
to walk over to make that happen.
taking
canal
THE
OF
A
ARNULFO FRANCO, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Panama celebrates three independence days:
Nov. 28, 1821 Nov. 3, 1903
Several South American
countries are separated
from Spain.
Panama declares its
independence from
Colombia.
United States
Sept. 7, 1977
Panama is granted its independence
from the ally that helped it separate
from Colombia: the U.S.
Panama
Colombia
The canal and independence that was won 110 years ago Sunday might not have benefited
Panama as much as it did the United States and business interests around the world.
1881
1888
1901
1902
Feb. 1: A French company hires Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the
Suez Canal in Egypt, to build a canal through the Colombian Isthmus
of Panama. The 50-mile-long canal is expected to take 12 years to
build and cost $132 million. Digging begins the next year.
December: With $287 million spent, 20,000 workers dead — mostly from yellow
fever — and only 11 miles of canal in place, the French company fails. Thousands of
small investors who thought the canal was a sure bet lose their money.
At the urging of U.S. shipping interests, President Theodore Roosevelt gets serious
about building a canal in Central America. Roosevelt forges an agreement with Britain
to build a U.S.-controlled canal through either Nicaragua or the Panamanian isthmus.
The U.S. pays $40 million for the rights to the project and to the equipment
that had been abandoned there. The Roosevelt administration begins
negotiating with the Colombian government for a treaty to build a canal.
1903
July: Put off by
the poor terms,
the Colombian
government
cuts off negotiations on the
proposal.
1904
Feb. 23: The U.S. Senate ratifies the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty. The U.S. pays
$10 million upfront and $250,000 per year for the rights to build the canal and
d to
own and control forever the canal and a 10-mile-wide strip across the country.
1905
Roosevelt, however, has
Plan B in place. He makes
a deal with business
interests on the isthmus
to break away from
Colombia and form the
new country of Panama.
The U.S. doesn’t just fund a revolution there
— it actively stacks the deck against Colombia. Colombian soldiers in Colón are paid $50
apiece to lay down their arms and not attack
separatist interests. The Navy gunboat USS
Nashville stands guard to prevent a naval
assault by Colombia on Panama City.
City
Nov. 3: The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty
results in the birth of the country of
Panama. A Panamanian who has lived in
exile in the U.S. for 17 years writes the
Panamanian Declaration of Independence, the country’s Constitution, and
designs
the new country’s flag.
de
e
Culebra Cut
in 1911
Realizing that success in building the canal will first require eradicating yellow
fever in the region, chief engineer John Stevens brings in the world’s foremostt
expert on the disease, Dr. William Gorgas. Swamps are drained, roads are
paved, plumbing is installed. The regional death toll plummets.
1906
November: The original plan by de Lesseps for a sea-level canal has been abandoned for a complex series of locks to raise ships to an artificial lake 85.3 feet
above sea level and then back down again. With construction making tremendous
progress, Roosevelt makes a celebrated visit to the work site.
1913
May: Steam shovels finally break through Culebra Cut, the highest point of the
canal route, from which 100 million cubic yards of earth are moved. By September, the first set of locks on the Atlantic side of the canal is ready for testing.
1914
Aug. 15: The canal finally opens for business. But Central American countries,
horrified at the U.S. grab and build, no longer trust the U.S. government.
President Woodrow Wilson sends diplomat Thaddeus Thomson to Bogata to
negotiate an apology of “sincere regret” and a $25 million cash payment to
Colombia for the loss of Panama. Senate Republicans consider the apology an
insult to Roosevelt and the treaty is not approved.
1921
June 29: The Spooner Bill
proposes a 100-year lease on
a strip of land 6.2 miles wide.
Oil is discovered in Colombia.
U.S. attitudes toward that
country change practically
overnight.
April 20: With the words “sincere regret”
removed, the 7-year-old ThomsonUrrutia Treaty — and the $25 million
payment — is ratified by the Senate.
Sources: PBS’ American Experience, The History Channel, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, Library
of Congress, Bill of Rights Institute, The Associated Press, BBC, U-S-History.com, CountryStudies.us
PANAMA CANAL COMMISSION
1977
Sept. 7: President Jimmy
Carter signs the Panama Canal
treaties that will give control
of the canal to Panama.
Senate opponents criticize him
for “giving away our canal.”
1999
Dec. 31: The U.S.
officially completes its
withdrawal from what
was once the Canal Zone.
COMPILED BY CHARLES APPLE,
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER