The Panama Canal

 

The Panama Canal

Karissa Troyer

   The Panama Canal was made by people and not Mother Nature. The president at the time, Theodore Roosevelt, thought that it would be a good idea to make a canal through Central America. Roosevelt thought that having a strong military base was important, and building the canal was vital to America’s power in the world. The canal purpose was for military and commercial shipping. In 1901 Great Britain and America signed the Harry-Pauncefote Treaty. The treaty allowed the United States to build the canal through Central America.

   The U.S. had two places in mind of where they wanted to build the canal. One was through Nicaragua and the other was through Panama. When America started to build the canal many Panamanians revolted. The French were afraid that the U.S. would start to build the canal through Nicaragua so they made their own deal with them. To make sure that the Colombians wouldn’t interfere he had 10 U.S. warships off the coast. The canal was finished in 1913 and opened in 1914.