Panama Canal Course Day 1 final

The Panama Canal
100 Years of Service to World Commerce

Panama Canal - Class #1
The Panama Canal
 4th Generation Panama Canal Zonian.
 My great grandfather and grandfather came to the Isthmus in
1906 with their families.
 My dad was born in Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone in May of
1914.
 I was born in Panama City, Republic of Panama in 1943.
 Raised in the town of Balboa on the Pacific (South) side of the
Canal Zone.
 Left the Canal Zone for college in September of 1961.
 Returned to Panama for visits in the late 60’s, Spring of 1972,
and in January of 2011.
Presented by – Walter Guy Brown Jr.

Introduction…

Introduction…Morrison / Brown Clan, 1930’s

The Panama Canal
 Day 1
 The Isthmus of Panama
 The Spanish Era
 California Gold Rush
 Panama Railroad
 The French Enterprise to build a Panama Canal
 Birth of the Republic of Panama
Class Outline

The Panama Canal
 Day 2
 The Engineering Concept of the Canal
 The Leaders
 Battling Disease
 Building the Canal – “Making the Dirt Fly”
 Opening of the Panama Canal
 Day 3
 The Workforce
 Life in the Panama Canal Zone
 The United States Exit from Panama
 Recent Panamanian Events
 The Panama Canal Today
 The Third Locks Project

Isthmus of
Panama
The Panama Canal

Panama……
 The isthmus emerged from the sea (about 3 million years ago) as a result of
tectonic plate movements and accompanying volcanic activity.
 The new isthmus separated the
waters of the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, united the continental
masses of North and the South
America, and created the
Caribbean Sea and the Gulf
Stream Current.
 There was massive interchange of
animals resulting in extinctions as
well as expansion of flora and fauna.
 The Isthmus provided a bridge that
included the southerly migration of
humans who populated South
America .

 The Gulf Stream is one of the most prominent surface currents in the world's oceans.
 It carries warm water from the Gulf of Mexico northward along the eastern coast of
the United States and across the Atlantic.
 It the joins another current, the North Atlantic Drift, and travels as far as Ireland and
Great Britain affecting the climate of coastal northern Europe and the fishing
stocks of the Atlantic.
Panama……

Panama……
Geography of the Isthmus

Panama
“Place of Abundant Fish”

 The rainy season is from late May to early December.
 Usually mornings are sunny with intermittent heavy rain in the afternoon.
 Rainfall is critical to Panama because it is essential to the operation of the
Panama Canal.
Panama……
Abundant Recycled Water,
the Engine that enables
the engineering concept of
the Panama Canal

The Spanish Era
The Panama Canal

 On his 4th voyage Christopher Columbus arrived on the
coast of “Panama” on October 16 1502.
 Upon arriving, he learned from the natives that there was
another ocean just a few days march to the south.
The Spanish…
The Gulf of Uraba

 1500: Vasco Nunez de Balboa sailed from
Spain to explore “Nueva Granada” and ends up
settled on the island of Hispaniola hoping to
make a living as a farmer.
 1510: Balboa stowed away on a boat sailing
from Santo Domingo to New Granada after his
attempts at farming failed.
 September 1,1513: Balboa sailed with a large
party across the Gulf of Uraba further
westward along the Darien Peninsula.
The Spanish…
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
Francisco Pizarro
 The famous explorer Francisco Pizarro, who
later conquered the Incas was in his party.

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
The Spanish…
 While exploring the Caribbean coast of
“Panama”, Balboa also hears from natives
about a sea to the south.
 On September 25 of 1513, Balboa stands
alone on a high point becoming the first
European to view what he names the South
Sea, what we now know as the Pacific Ocean.

The Spanish…
 Unfortunately for Balboa, political intrigue brought his career and life to
an end in January of 1519. After four strokes of the axe, Balboa was
decapitated in Acla, the settlement from which he had launched his
historic trek leading to the discovery of the South Sea.
 On his way to be executed, it is purported that Balboa exclaimed "Lies,
lies! Never have such crimes held a place in my heart, I have always
loyally served the King, with no thought in my mind but to increase
his dominions."

The Spanish…
 However, Balboa ended up with an
impressive monument in Panama City

Spanish Domain
The Spanish…
 In the years following
Balboa’s discovery and
claim to the vast coastal
territory of the Pacific
Ocean, Spain began its
colonization efforts.

 Incan Gold & Silver
 In 1532, 169 Spanish soldiers under Francisco Pizarro began the defeat
& eventually colonization of the Incan Empire along the west coast of
South America.
 Vast riches then had to be transported back to Spain.
The Spanish…

The Spanish…
 As early as 1515 the Spanish had learned from natives of
the existence of a better trail across the Isthmus from Porto
Bello on the Caribbean Coast to the Pacific Coast.
El Camino Real
(The Royal Road)

 1517: The Camino Real, a cobbled stone road
approximately 3 feet wide was built by 4,000
captured natives.
 The route connected Nombre de Dios
founded in 1510 & later Porto Bello with Old
Panama on the southern coast.
The Spanish…

The Spanish…
 1533: A much better route across the Isthmus was decided upon connecting the city
of Panamá to the town of Cruces, on the banks of the Chagres River. This was
about 20 miles from Old Panamá.
 Once on the river, boats could be used
to navigate to the mouth of the Chagres
on the Caribbean Sea.

 As Nombre de Dios was situated near an unhealthy swamp and was nearly
impossible to fortify, it declined in importance.
 In June, 1572 the English privateer Sir Francis Drake sacked the colony and in
April, 1573 he ambushed the Spanish Silver Train, a mule convoy carrying a
fortune in precious metals.
 Drake captured the town again in 1595.
The Spanish…

 1597: Porto Bello replaced Nombre de Dios as an important Caribbean port.
 Every year or two, gold, silver and other treasures would be taken down from Peru to
its coast, where it was sent to Panama City to be carried by mules overland to Porto
Bello, and loaded onto a heavily armed fleet bound for Spain
The Spanish…

 At the mouth of the Chagres, the small
town of Chagres was established and
fortified.
 Fort San Lorenzo was later built on a
bluff, overlooking the area. From here,
treasures and goods were transported to
the Kings Warehouse in Porto Bello, to
be stored until the Treasure Fleet left for
Spain.
 In addition gold and silver, was stored in
Old Panamá, until word was received
that the Treasure Fleet, was leaving
Cartagena, Nueva Granada, for Porto
Bello. The gold and silver was then
transported on the back of mules to
Porto Bello to meet the fleet.
The Spanish…
Chagres
Fort San Lorenzo

 1668: English Privateer, Captain Henry Morgan attacks and is able to overcome the
strong fortifications of Porto Bello.
 After ransacking the fort he then negotiated a 100,000 peso ransom with the Spanish
to withdraw.
 The Spanish paid up and he promptly left and returned to Jamaica.
The Spanish…
Captain Henry Morgan

 By 1671, Morgan was ready for another assault on the Spanish in Panama. With a
large contingent, Morgan captured Fort San Lorenzo and began the march overland
to Old Panama City engaging in battle on January 28, 1671.
 Morgan and his men sacked the city and were gone before any help could arrive.
Although it was a military success, Panama's loot had been hidden away before the
pirates arrived and stored in ships off shore in the Gulf of Panama. Morgan’s earlier
capture of Porto Bello was much more lucrative.
 Near the Lajas Reef,
Morgan lost five ships
including his flagship
“Satisfaction” in rough
seas on the shallow reef
surrounding Fort San
Lorenzo.
 Wreckage of these
ships have just
recently been
discovered.
The Spanish…

Panama Viejo ( Old Panama)
The Spanish…
 After Morgan's attack, Panama City had to be rebuilt in a new site a few miles to the
west. The former site is called Panama Viejo and still contains these remaining
structures.

 “4” ways to get to there:
 Overland
 Around tip of South America,
Cape Horn, 14,000 miles from
New York
 Across the Isthmus of Panama
with steamer service to Panama
& on to California
 Nicaragua also with steamer
service.
California Gold Rush ….
 Discovery of gold at Sutter’s
Saw Mill , Coloma, California on
January 24,1848

 On October 6, 1848 the S.S. California departed
New York on its maiden voyage to bring mail to the
Chagres River to be ferried by canoe to Las
Cruces, then hauled by mule along ancient
Spanish Trail to Panama City.
 In 1848 with the War with Mexico over & California an American territory, the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company had acquired a contract to deliver mail from
Panama to San Francisco.
 The venture was that of a group of New York City merchants and financiers including
William H. Aspinwall.
S.S. California

 “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt pioneered an alternate route to California.
 Due to the popularity of Vanderbilt’s Accessory Transit, after selling this venture his
personal wealth rose another $5 million by 1850 (roughly $150 million in current
dollars.
San Juan
San Carlos
Lake Nicaragua

 As news of the California Gold Strike spread scores of men leave for
Panama and cross to Panama City along the same route as the mail.

Panama Railroad ….
 In 1847 William Henry Aspinwall & other New
York financiers had already organized the
Panama Railroad Company.
 In 1850 the company secured an exclusive
concession from Nueva Granada (Colombia)
allowing construction of a crossing by road, rail,
river, or a combination.
 This contract granted them six years to build the
railroad, and then gave them forty-nine years to
run it after completion.
 There was an inclusion in the contract that if after
20 years, Nueva Granada wanted, they could buy
the railroad for $5 million ($150 million in current
dollars), an amount approximating the projected
cost of the railroad, and the same as the initial
stock offering.

 Forty-seven and a half miles of railroad required 170 bridges and culverts of 15 feet
or more, 134 bridges and culverts of less than 15 feet, a statistic that gives some
idea of the difficulties there had been in making headway in such a “half-drowned”
country.

 1854
 By January, 1854 excavation began at the summit of the Continental Divide,
where the earth had to be cut down over 40 feet. The road over the crest of the
Continental Divide at Culebra was finally completed from the Atlantic side in
January of 1855, thirty-seven miles of track having been laid from Colón then
called Aspinwall.

 There was a popular
belief among the workers,
that for every cross tie on
the tracks, one person
died.100,000 cross ties
were actually used.
 However, there were
never more than 6,000
workers used during the
construction.
 But, unquestionably the
death rate was very high
due to numerous causes
including accidents,
disease (Yellow Fever,
Malaria, Dysentery,
Cholera, Dengue Fever),
snake bites, and more.
 The damp tropical heat quickly rotted the original
crossties and were replaced with lignum vitae
from present day Columbia, a wood so dense
that holes had to drilled first to accept the spikes.
 Laborers had come from China, East Indies,
Ireland, England, Germany, and Jamaica.

 Shortly after, he was stricken with yellow fever. His
Spanish doctor told him and his family that there was no
hope for him. Hearing this, Col. Totten roused himself &
said, "You are mistaken, sir; not yet. What is to
become of the road! Yellow fever can't kill a Totten. I
am going to get well!" And he did!
 The Panama Railroad Company never honored him in
any significant way. There was a small plaque with his
profile etched on it in the Panama Railroad station in
Panama City, but that is all.
 Totten died May 17, 1884, in New York City. The brief
obituary in the New York Times failed to say that he was
the man directly responsible for building the first
transcontinental railroad the world had ever seen.
 “Colonel” George M. Totten was the dominating force back of this ambitious
project evident by the reports of his energy and almost super-human endurance in
prosecuting the enterprise.
 After ten years spent in Panama, the first five in construction and the second five
years in operation, he was appointed Manager of the Panama Railroad.

 1855
 January 27,1855, at midnight, in
the pitch dark and in pelting rain, lit
by sputtering whale oil lamps, the
last rail was set in place on pine
crossties. Colonel Totten drove
the last spike with a nine-pound
maul.
 The following day the world's first
transcontinental train ran from
ocean to ocean.
 1855
 Notwithstanding all of the difficulties and discouragements, the road was
successfully completed by 1855, just five years from the date of the beginning of
its construction, at a cost of $7.4 million (about $220 million in current dollars).

Panama Railroad …. 1861 – 1865
 Panama Railroad was used to move troops, materials, and gold from one U.S.
coast to the other during the Civil War.
 1875 – Original Contract renegotiated
 Panama Railroad will pay $1 million in gold plus $250,000 a year during the life
of the contract (99 years).
 Rails extended to the Bay of Panama to deep water ships could reach wharves.
 Mail, officials and troops of Colombia carried free of charge.
 1881
 French Canal Company buys
controlling shares in the Panama
Railroad Company and employs
the railroad during their attempt
to build the Panama Canal.
 1904
 U.S. purchases the railroad from
the French and rebuilds it on
higher ground with a heavier gage
line. The use of the railroad was
essential in the building of the
Panama Canal.

 1979
Under the terms of the 1977 Carter-Torrijos Treaty, the Panama Railroad
was turned over to the Government of Panama in October of 1979
 1998
Panama privatized the
railroad and awarded a
50-year concession to
the Panama Canal
Railway Company, a
joint venture of the
Kansas City Southern
and Mi-Jack Products,
to rebuild and operate
the line.

Panama Canal - Class #1COUNT FERDINAND DE LESSEPS
 1805, Ferdinand de Lesseps was born at
Versailles.
 1828, served as vice-consul to Tunis, where
his father was consul-general.
 1832 , appointed vice-consul at Alexandria.
 1833, sent as consul to Cairo, and later given
management of the consulate general at
Alexandria until 1837.
 During this time he went from one city to the
other and constantly displayed “admirable
zeal and great energy”.
 He later retired from the diplomatic service.
French Enterprise ….

Panama Canal - Class #1Said Halim Pasha
 In1854, after his accession he gave de
Lesseps to opportunity to lead the great
enterprise of digging the Suez Canal over the
strong opposition of Great Britain.
 Wali of Egypt and Sudan,1854 -1863, officially owing fealty to the Ottoman Sultan
but in practice exercising virtual independence.
 Said was a Francophile, educated in Paris.

 The Geographical Society of Paris
organized a committee in 1876 to seek
international cooperation for studies to fill in
gaps in the geographical knowledge of the
Central American area for the purpose of
building an interoceanic canal.
 The committee, La Société Civile
Internationale du Canal Interocéanique de
Darien, was headed by Ferdinand de
Lesseps (74).
 In May 1879 a congress of 136 delegates
including de Lesseps assembled in the
rooms of the Geographical Society in Paris
and voted in favor of the creation of a
Panama Canal, which was to be without
locks, like the Suez Canal.
Geographical Society of Paris, France

Geographical Society of Paris

 A rejected plan for a lock canal was submitted by French engineer Baron Godin de
Lépinay. Lépinay was known for his intelligence and was the only one among the
French delegation with any construction experience in the tropics having worked on
railroad construction in Mexico in 1862.
 The de Lépinay plan included building dams, one across the Chagres River near
its mouth on the Atlantic and another on the Rio Grande near the Pacific. The
approximately 80 foot height of the artificial lake thus created would be accessed by
locks.
 The principal advantages of the plan would be the reduction in the amount of
digging that would have to be done and the elimination of flood danger from the
Chagres. Estimated construction time was six years.
 The de Lépinay design contained most of the basic elements ultimately
designed into the current Panama Canal. The French company would use these
concepts as a basis for the lock canal concept they would eventually adopt in 1887
following the failure of their sea level attempt.
 Had it been adopted at the beginning of 1879, the Panama Canal might well
have been completed by the French instead of by the United States!
An Ironic Footnote of History

 On December 30, 1879, Ferdinand de
Lesseps visited Panama for the first
time arriving at Colon (then known as
Aspinwall) aboard the Lafayette.
 The welcoming ceremonies were held
aboard the ship on the Pacific Mail wharf
with a little band playing mightily on the
dock.
 The next morning, the Pacific Mail
steamer Colon docks beside the
Lafayette, bringing a party of New
Yorkers, including stockholders of the
railroad, who were to join the tour.
 With the little band playing furiously
again, the party boarded a train and took
off for Panama City on the Pacific Coast.

 On January 1, 1880, Ferdinand de Lesseps, his wife Louise-Helene, two of his
sons, Mathieu, ten, and Ismael , nine, and one of his 7
daughters, Ferdinande, left Panama City on a tug, along with some one hundred
dignitaries, for the mouth of the Rio Grande at La Boca for a ceremony
inaugurating the construction of the Panama Canal.
 Delays in sailing caused them to arrive at low tide, which prevented them from
disembarking. Not one to be discouraged, de Lesseps had a box full of sand
brought forth and had his little daughter deliver the first blow with a shiny pickax
brought from France for the occasion.
 Since the deepest excavation would
be the cut through the Continental
Divide at Culebra, de Lesseps
decided to have another inaugural
ceremony there on January 10, 1880.
 Officials and guests gathered at
Cerro Culebra (later known as Gold
Hill), Ferdinande pushed the button
of a electric detonator that set off a
charge blowing up a small amount of
rock and dirt.

 De Lesseps left Colon for the United States
on February 22, 1880, for the purpose of
interesting Americans in the undertaking.
 He was received with a great deal of
enthusiasm but was unable to dispose of the
stock which he had thoughtfully reserved.
 Americans were interested in a canal, but not
a canal under French control.
 He then proceeded on a similar tour of
Europe, where he was more successful.
 The first issue of stock, 600,000 shares of
$100 each, was subscribed twice over,
mostly taken in France indicating the great
Frenchman's popularity.
 In 1888, when the company failed, the total
subscriptions, stocks and bond issues, had
reached $393,505,100 ($12 billion today).

 Phase I
 1881- 1882, the entire project was under Couvreux and Hersent.
 Armand Réclus, the chief superintendent of the Compagnie Universelle, led the
first French construction group of engineers and officials.
 Réclus quickly saw that Panama's sparse population did not lend itself to labor
recruitment, nor did its thick jungles lend themselves to quick movement through
the countryside to accomplish the work.
 Gaston Blanchet, Couvreux and Hersent's director, accompanied Réclus to the
Isthmus. As Blanchet was known to be the company's driving force, it was a
terrible blow when, just 10 months into the project, he died of malaria
 Phase II
 1883 -1885, following the withdrawal of Couvreux and Hersent, the work was
accomplished by a number of small contractors under supervision of Compagnie
Universelle.
 Phase III
 1886 and 1887 saw the work done by a few large contractors.

 Select employees, mainly from France, were treated with extreme generosity.
 After two years' service, five months vacation, with free traveling expenses to and
from France, were granted. The clerical force worked from 8 to 11 A.M., and 2 to 5
P.M.
 Enormous salaries were paid to the directors, engineers, and other officers on the
Isthmus and lived in quarters that cost $100,000 with salaries as much as $50,000 a
year.
 In addition no system of accounting existed to monitor and control expenses.
French Headquarters, Panama City

French Hospitals

 By1888, the French labor numbered
about 20,000 men.
 90 % of these were from islands in
the West Indies, such as Jamaica.
European Workers
West Indian Workers

 Many who didn't immediately succumb to disease didn't stay long. Among the recruits
was French painter Paul Gauguin who arrived with fellow-artist, Charles Laval. For
Gauguin, working on the canal was part of a much larger dream, a quick way to
finance his transition from the staid stockbroker profession to the uninhibited life of an
artist.
 The two landed in Panama in April of 1887 at the start of the rainy season and
Gauguin began his stint as a laborer. He lasted only two weeks, just long enough to
earn enough cash to start an art studio on nearby Isla Taboga and make plans for
further adventures. Gauguin’s next stop was the island of St. Martinique.
The Workforce.…

 In 1886, De Lesseps takes a
party of invited guests,
representatives of the
chambers of commerce of
several French cities,
economists, journalists, and
others of influence on public
opinion in France to Panama
in order to report the progress
of the undertaking.
 The visit is De Lesseps's
second and last trip to the
Isthmus of Panama.
 De Lesseps again predicts
that the Panama Canal will
be finished by July of 1889.

 February, 1886
 French engineers conclude that a sea level canal is not possible and
that a lock concept should be considered.
 De Lesseps resists this notion.
 Summer, 1886
 After 4 years of excavation, only a
small portion of the required
removal for a sea level canal has
been accomplished.
 January, 1888
 De Lesseps hires Gustav Eiffel to
construct locks as a temporary
solution while work on the sea
level concept proceeds.
 December 15, 1888
 The Panama Canal Company collapses wiping out the investments of
hundreds of thousands of investors.

 In Paris on 4 February 1889, the Tribunal Civil de la Seine lawfully declared
bankrupt the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique (Panama Canal
Company) some 20 years after the opening of the Suez Canal and 10 years after
the fateful Congress of delegates assembled at the Geographical Society in
Paris.
 The lawfully ordered
liquidator tried to maintain
the completed work, the
buildings, the tools and the
machinery.
 Within a few years, high
losses were incurred due
to poor means of
protection in the damp,
humid climatic conditions
of Panama.

 January 10, 1893
 De Lesseps & his son Charles found guilty of fraud and maladministration of the
Panama Canal undertaking.
 They were both sentenced to five years' imprisonment (neither served any
time) and fined $600.
 Count Ferdinand de Lesseps died in 1895 at the age of 89
 Charles de Lesseps passed away in Paris on October 1, 1923.
 Financial loss was
estimated at
$287,000,000 (almost
$9 billion dollars in
today’s money).
 Cost in lives, according
to estimates by the
U.S. Isthmian Canal
Commission,
exceeded 22,000.

Port Fouad Shipyard, Egypt
Casco Viejo, Panama City, Panama

Panama Canal - Class #1Culebra Cut in 1890, as it was left by the French
 The Panama Canal was enveloped in its own "miasmal mist" of failure.
 Meanwhile in the United States the second Walker Commission (U.S. Isthmian
Canal Commission of 1899-1902 ) ordered by President McKinley, favored a
Nicaraguan route.
 Panama seemed clothed in defeat, while Nicaragua was regarded as a clean
slate for an all-American canal project.
Panama Independence ….

Panama, a Province of Columbia
United States of Columbia
 Cristoforo Colombo
 Cristóbal Colón
 Christopher Columbus
(Renamed from New Granada,1863)

 In 1882, only two years after
graduating from Harvard,
Theodore Roosevelt made
his mark as a military
scholar with his book The
Naval War of 1812, a
detailed analysis of naval
combat between the U.S.
and Great Britain from
1812-1815.
 Roosevelt had long seen
the U.S. need to change its
naval policy and become a
global sea power.

 Alfred Thayer Mahan, a Naval officer won
fame as a Naval historian and as the leading
Naval strategist of his day was called "the
most important American strategist of the
nineteenth century”.
 When Mahan published his famous naval
doctrine, "The Influence of Sea Power upon
History, 1660-1783" in 1889, Theodore
Roosevelt read the newly published book over
a single weekend and never forgot what he
learned convinced that the U. S. must protect
its sea lanes of interest around the world to
become a great nation.
 From 1897 to 1898, Roosevelt served as
Assistant Secretary of the Navy having been
appointed by President William McKinley.
Alfred Thayer Mahan

 On February 15, 1898 the USS Maine explodes in Havana Harbor.
 A total of 274 men were killed.
 The cause of the explosion is never conclusively established.
 An initial naval court of inquiry determines that it is the result of a naval mine, and
Spain is blamed.
Spanish American War

 USS Oregon served for a short time with the Pacific Squadron before being
ordered on a voyage around South America to the East Coast in March 1898
in preparation for war with Spain.
 Departing San Francisco on March 19th, she reached Jupiter Inlet, Florida 66
days later, a journey of 14,000 nautical miles.
 The journey popularized the ship with the American public and demonstrated
the security imperative for a shorter route.
 After completing her
journey the USS Oregon
was ordered to join the
blockade of Cuba.

September, 1898
 The Battle of San Juan Hill, July 1, 1898, also known as the battle for the San Juan
Heights, was a decisive battle of the Spanish American War. The San Juan heights
was a north-south running elevation just to the east of Santiago de Cuba.

Admiral John Grimes Walker
 Upon retiring from the Navy in 1897
after a distinguished career, Admiral
John G. Walker was chosen by
President McKinley to serve as
President of the Nicaragua Canal
Commission.
 In 1899, he was also appointed by
President McKinley to head the
Isthmian Canal Commission, or the
second Walker Commission, to
look into possible routes across the
Central America.

 The Commission favored a Canal in
Nicaragua, and actions along those lines
were overwhelmingly passed by the U.S.
House - Hepburn Act, May 2 of 1900 .
 At about this same time, the Compagnie Nouvelle held a stockholders meeting in
Paris, and, fearing being left out in the cold determined a new value to their Panama
assets of $40,000,000. This just happened to be the value determined by the
Americans. Admiral Walker was quoted saying, "It put things on a very different
footing." The House, however, passed the Hepburn Bill favoring Nicaragua –
two votes short of unanimous.

 In September of 1901 President McKinley is
assassinated
 Supremacy at sea was to become the integral
part of future U.S. commercial and military
prowess.
 Construction of U.S. controlled canal now was an
absolute necessity.
 Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th
President of the United States.

 Roosevelt summoned the members of the Walker
Commission for a closed-door meeting. There he let it
be known that he wanted the French offer
accepted and that the Commission was to provide
a supplementary report unanimously favoring the
Panama route.
 The Commission prepared the supplementary report
reversing its original decision coming out
unanimously for a canal thru the Isthmus of
Panama!
 President Roosevelt submitted the supplementary
report to Congress in January 1902. Wisconsin
Senator Spooner introduced an amendment to the
Hepburn Bill authorizing the president to acquire the
French company's assets and concessions for a
maximum price of $40,000,000. The bill stated that if
arrangements could not be agreed upon between the
United States and Colombia within "a reasonable
time," the President would be authorized to seek an
agreement for the alternate route through Nicaragua.

"An Act to provide for the construction of a canal connecting the waters
of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Be it enacted, ... that the President of
the United States is hereby authorized to acquire, for and on behalf of the
United States, at a cost not exceeding forty millions of dollars, the
rights, privileges, franchises, concessions, grants of land, right of
way, unfinished work, plants, and other property, real, personal, and
mixed, of every name and nature, owned by the New Panama Canal
Company, of France, on the Isthmus of Panama.... That the President is
hereby authorized to acquire from the Republic of Colombia, for and on
behalf of the United States, upon such terms as he may deem
reasonable, perpetual control of a strip of land, the territory of the
Republic of Colombia, not less than six miles in width, extending from the
Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and the right to use and dispose of
the waters thereon, and to excavate, construct, and to perpetually
maintain, operate, and protect thereon a canal..."
Spooner Act, June 28 of 1902

 The supporters of the Nicaraguan route in the U.S. Senate cited the massive Lake
Nicaragua which drained naturally into the Caribbean Sea. Significant excavation on
the Pacific side would required from a height of 184 feet, but this was much less
than the 336 feet required for Panama’s Culebra Cut at the Continental Divide.
 Those who supported the route through Panama cited many technical reasons
already provided in engineering reports. The Panama waterway would be shorter,
straighter, take less time to transit, would require fewer locks, had better harbors,
already had a railroad, and would cost less to run. As impressive as these factors
were they did not sway enough votes in favor of the Panama option.
Mount Momotombo,
Nicaragua
 But suddenly, geography played a fateful role in where the canal would be
built……

 On May 8 of 1902, Mount Pelee on the Island of
St. Martinique erupted and killed over 30,000
people.
 The question of volcanoes in the Nicaraguan canal
zone surfaced in Washington but the Nicaraguans
sternly denied the presence of any active
volcanos.

Mount Momotombo, Nicaragua

 Born on July 26, 1859 in Paris, France.
 Graduated at age 20 from the Ecole Polytechnique, he
remained in France for three years. In 1882 he abandoned
his career in public works and traveled to Panama and was
employed with de Lessep’s Panama Canal Company.
 In World War I, Bunau-Varilla served as an officer in the
French army and lost a leg at the Battle of Verdun.
 He died in Paris on May 18, 1940, 8 days after the
beginning of the German western offensive of WWII.
 His wealth was not acquired as an engineer during his first
stay working on the first Panama Canal project , nor did he
inherit significant wealth from relatives or parents, having
been born illegitimate.
 He made his fortune during his second stay in Panama
from 1886 to 1889, where he ran his own company,
Artigue & Sonderegger, together with his brother Maurice.
Philippe Bunau-Varilla

 In the spring of 1902, Nicaragua’s Mount Momotombo erupted. The country’s
government tried desperately to suppress details of this, but Philippe Bunau-Varilla
was on the case. His break came when he spotted in his correspondence a
Nicaraguan stamp from two years earlier. Prophetically, it depicted the mighty
Momotombo crater, smoking angrily behind Lake Nicaragua.
 From a stamp dealer in Washington, Bunau-Varilla purchased 90 copies of the
design, which had been used on a set of 14 values from 1-centavo to 5-pesos. He
mounted the stamps which were sent individually to every US Senator on June
16th.
Philippe Banau-Varilla
 When voting took place three days later, it was 42 to
34 in favor of Panama over Nicaragua.
 Most agree that if Mount Pelee and Momotombo had
not erupted in the Spring of 1902, the Senate would
have voted in favor of the route through
Nicaragua.

 The Senate approved the Hay-Herran
Treaty in January of 1903, offering the
Colombian government $10 million in
cash and an annual payment of
$250,000 for a six-mile-wide strip across
the Colombian province of Panama.
 In August of 1903 the Colombian senate
refused to ratify the treaty, holding out for
$25 million.
A whopper of a mistake !!!!
 Roosevelt considered this nothing
less than a shake-down and he
refused to up the ante.

 November 2, 1903: USS
Nashville arrives off the coast of
the Columbian Province of
Panama with a contingent of
Marines aboard.
 U.S. warships blocked sea lanes
for possible Colombian troop
movements en route to Panama.
 Dense jungles blocked
Colombia's land routes.
 Bribes were paid to get the few
Colombian troops in Panama to
lay down their arms.
 November 3, 1903: Panama
declares its independence with
a bloodless coup without the
firing of one shot.
USS Nashville
 August, 1903: Word reaches Washington that a
revolution was once again brewing in
Panama, and that the terms of the treaty
recently rejected by Colombia would be
agreeable to the revolutionaries. Roosevelt lets
it be known that the U.S. would view this as a
positive development and could be counted
on to “act accordingly”.

 December 2, 1903
 Panama approves the Treaty
 February 23, 1904
 U.S. Senate approves the Treaty.
Philippe Bunau-Varilla
Secretary of State
John Milton Hay
 November 6, 1903
 The United States recognizes Panama
 November 11, 1903
 Bunau-Varilla, as the diplomatic representative of Panama
(a role he had purchased through financial assistance to
the rebels) concluded the Isthmian Canal Convention
with Secretary of State John Hay. Bunau-Varilla had not
lived in Panama for seventeen years before this, and he
never returned. His French citizenship later brought his
legitimacy into question by future Panamanian
governments.

 The rights granted to the U.S. in the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty were extensive. They
included a grant "in perpetuity of the use, occupation, and control" of a 10 mile
wide strip of territory with extensions of 3 nautical miles into the sea from each
terminal "for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection" of
an Isthmian canal.
 Furthermore, the U.S. was entitled to acquire additional areas of land or water
necessary for canal operations and held the option of exercising eminent domain in
Panama City. Within this territory the U.S. gained "all the rights, powers, and
authority which the United States would possess and exercise if it were the
sovereign to the entire exclusion" of Panama.
 The Republic of Panama became a de facto protectorate of the larger country
through two provisions whereby the United States guaranteed the independence of
Panama and received in return the right to intervene in Panama's domestic affairs.
For the rights it obtained, the United States was to pay the sum of $10 million
(about $300 million ) and an annuity, beginning 9 years after ratification, of $250,000
(about $7 million) in gold coin.
 The United States also purchased the rights and properties of the French canal
company for $40 million ($120 million).

The De Lepinay proposal had been adopted by de
Lesseps.
There had not been a rising, dynamic, politician
passionately convinced of the need for strong U.S.
naval power aided by a passage between the
Atlantic & Pacific Oceans.
An assassin’s bullet had not made that politician
the President of the United States.
A volcano in Nicaragua had not erupted.
The Columbians had not rejected Roosevelt’s
terms to build a canal through the “province” of
Panama.
What if………..

 U.S. "gunboat diplomacy" in Latin America, was the best
illustration of what Theodore Roosevelt meant by the old
African adage,
"speak softly and
carry a big stick and
you will go far”.

 “Fortunately the opportunity
came at a period when I
could act unhampered.
Accordingly I took the
Isthmus, started the canal
and then left Congress not to
debate the canal, but to
debate me."
 "By far the most important
action I took in foreign affairs
during the time I was
President was related to the
Panama Canal,"
 Ironically, Theodore Roosevelt
never saw the completed
Panama Canal before he died
on January 6, 1919.

Panama Canal Course Day 1 final

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