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Raul Rangel III

Cam Dayton

Mr. A. Barraco

History 2520

30 January 2018

The Panama Epidemic

Throughout American history many presidents achieved many monumental

accomplishments but none can compete with the the Panama Canal, a mechanical marvel, which

was completed in 1914 under Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. This canal took about 10 years,

approximately 150,000 deaths, international relations, one doctrine, many resources, and many

workers to finish. The completion of this was due to the high risks of the leadership in the United

States and as a result the high risk came with an even higher reward.

In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt amended the Monroe Doctrine and expanded on

the banning of European countries from colonizing in either North America, Central America, or

South America. This expansion also included the idea that the United States was to be a

authoritative figure or a good neighbor to all of the Americas by instead instating their own

ideals and laws upon them this also included the area of Panama. In order to start the official

procedure of the United States’ presence in the area of Panama, “...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, and all its maps, plans, drawings, records on the Isthmus of Panama and in Paris,
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including all the capital stock, not less, however, than sixty-eight thousand eight hundred and

sixty-three shares of the Panama Railroad Company, owned by or held for the use of said canal

company, provided a satisfactory title to all of said property can be obtained.” (Schulman).

The United States, the emerging superpower, can now colonize the other countries to

their will. Panama, who was under Columbia’s rule at the time, did not approve of the financial

offers that the United States put in the offer. As a result the United States took the risk of backing

the Panama people who were revolting against the Columbians. The United States seized the

opportunity to gain the land that they so desperately wanted. They took matters into their own

hands and sent warships to Panama City. The United States then went on to further their canal

building with a new treaty in place with the people of Panama.

Despite all the political and moral dilemmas surrounding the canal, The canal’s design

and construction is nothing short of a mechanical marvel. Up until the canals conception,

crossing the Americas from the Pacific to the Atlantic or vice versa was a herculean task. If a

ship wanted to pass through the Americas, it was impossible, the only options past the continents

was by a lengthy trip south past the tip of Chile or a dangerous trip through the arctic waters of

northern Canada. The French originally conceived the idea of the canal and first broke ground in

January of 1880, with the plan to connect the two oceans across the narrowest section of the

Isthmus of Panama through the lower parts of the Culebra mountains. The canal would connect

to the Chagres River, which made up a large part of the canal and provided water for the lower

levels. The French managed to start the 50 mile canal and take a sizable chunk out of the Culebra

mountains before the US bought the rights to the land and the project in 1904 (Haskin 5).

Since the French started the job of excavations, all the US had to do was finish the

digging and begin the installation of the lock system. The lock system is the backbone of the
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Panama Canal, providing a way for ships to be elevated onto the canal and cross without ever

leaving the water. Each lock consists of 3 chambers that, once closed, begin to fill with water and

gradually raise the ship inside to the level of the next chamber, and eventually onto the canal

itself. Currently there are 3 locks on the canal, one on the Pacific, one on the Atlantic side, and

one that dumps into Gutan Lake.

As one could imagine, building an engineering feat like the Panama Canal was no easy

task. Mix in the tropical climate and shady business practices and working on the Panama Canal

quickly becomes a dangerous job. Exploitation of workers was rampant and par for the course

during the early 1900’s, but the long days and poor treatment of the workers often led to

outbursts calling for equal pay and treatment, but they were quickly quelled. Workers were

separated into different payrolls, with more skilled workers (usually white) being on the “gold”

payroll and less skilled labourers (African americans, Chinese, West Indian) were place on the

“silver.” These payrolls made separation and segregation both easy and reasonable, since gold

workers were of high skill professions, they should have access to higher quality facilities. While

this does make sense on paper, the actual disparity between the silver and gold facilities was

often shocking large. Death was common for silver workers, the most common causes being

diseases like malaria and yellow fever that ran rampant thanks to the poor hygiene and moist

conditions the proved to be an excellent breeding ground for mosquitoes.

After the Panama Canal officially opened for commerce on August 15, 1914 the effects

of this was tremendously good for growing the economy. It cut down travel time thus creating a

much more accessible route for many international voyages including Britain, France, Japan,

Peru, Chile, and Norwegian countries. The total payment for the canal was $500,000,000.00 for

both the rights of the canal area from the French and the Panamanian people. The amount that
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was accumulated within a five year period was $6,354,016.08 and is a well earned risk that the

United States took and proved later on that it was a proper investment to make. However we

must not be blind to the atrocities that the workers had to face upon construction of the canal.

Works Cited

Brown, Robert M. “Five Years of the Panama Canal: An Evaluation.” Geographical Review, vol.
9, no. 3, Mar. 1920, pp. 191–198., doi:10.2307/207257.
“Building the Panama Canal, 1903–1914.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State,
history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/panama-canal.
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Haskin, Fredric J. The Panama Canal. Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913.
Schulman, Marc. Panama Canal Act [1902],
www.historycentral.com/documents/PanamaCanalact.html.