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Chapter Reference: Neocolonialism; Nationalism
Canals rank among the greatest construction projects in world history, and the Panama Canal may be the most spectacular of all. Most notable is its extensive series of locks that allows it to traverse the isthmus of Panama, traveling vertically 85 feet in the steep but narrow 40 miles that separate the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The narrowness of the isthmus raised speculations about a Panama canal for a century before it was actually built. Despite the technical difficulties of building an inter-oceanic canal, the shortcuts achieved were enormous, some 3,000 miles to be exact, from New York to Japan, and around 7,400 miles from Ecuador to New York. In 1850, Great Britain and the United States agreed to share control over a hypothetical canal, but it was French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the world's other great inter-oceanic canal, the Suez Canal, who made the first attempt in the early 1880s. The French attempt failed when yellow fever decimated the workforce, and control over that disease constituted a key to the successful U.S. construction of the canal in the years 1904—1914. A paper on the Panama Canal will naturally want to explore this engineering feat, but it should not neglect to include the troubled political context in which the canal was created and for which the United States later formally apologized.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- Prior to the construction of the canal, if the long trip around Cape Horn was to be avoided, travel between Europe and the western coast of South America required a combination of sea routes and arduous overland treks in Panama. This is how most of the silver mined in Bolivia made its way back into royal coffers in Spain. Imagine you are one of the people making this trip during the colonial period. Describe the voyage, paying careful attention to things like your port of departure or arrival in South America, the hike over Central America, navigation through the Caribbean, and so on.
- In addition to being one of the greatest construction projects in world history, the building of the Panama Canal was among the most labor-intensive. Who were the workers? How many people worked on the project from start to finish? How many lost their lives to disease or the work?
- How did the canal fit into a wider picture of U.S. policy in the Caribbean region? What was the United States' role in separating Panama from Colombia?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
Comisón del Canal de Panamá. El Canal de Panama: Edición especial conmemorativa del
traspaso del Canal de Panamá / The Panama Canal: Transfer of the Panama Canal
Special Commemorative Edition. Translated by Lesley Aschcroft. Panamá: Ediciones
Balboa, 1999.
This commemorative volume has an introduction to the canal, how it operates, and the ecology of the canal's watershed. It also has excellent photographs of canal construction and operation.
Findling, John E. Close Neighbors, Distant Friends: United States—Central American Relations.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987.
Findling provides a concise overview to the political context in which the canal was built, looking at U.S. Central American relations from 1800-1980.
** LaFeber, Walter. Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America, 2nd ed.
New York: Norton, 1993.
The introduction and the first two chapters of Inevitable Revolutions offer an appropriate introduction to the U.S. in Central America and the moment in which the canal was built.
________. The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective, rev. ed. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1989.
In this book LaFeber surveys the political history of the canal, beginning with the first ideas of an inter-oceanic canal during the colonial period, and then concentrating on major political figures and how they helped shape the canal's history.
** LaRosa, Michael, and Germán R. Mejía, eds. The United States Discovers Panama: The
Writings of Soldiers, Scholars, Scientists, and Scoundrels, 1850-1905.
Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004.
This recently published, valuable collection of primary sources will allow students to explore U.S. attitudes toward Panama and the idea of an isthmian canala in the late 1800s.
** Lindsay-Poland, John. Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
Emperors in the Jungle is an engaging look at U.S. intervention in Panama in the late 1800s and throughout the twentieth century. Students interested in this aspect of the canal would do well to begin with this recent book.
Major, John. The Prize Possession: The United States and the Panama Canal, 1903-1979. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Major provides a scholarly treatment of U.S. Panamanian relations in the twentieth century, revolving around the canal.
** McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal,
1870-1914. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977.
Though older and somewhat lengthy, McCullough's well-written history of the canal is the most complete.
Other Resources:
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