The Panama Canal: Most Prodigious Structure In The World

The Panama Canal, completed in 1914, is one of the most prodigious structures in the world. This Canal is a large channel cutting through the middle of Panama, which lies at the bottom of Central America and divides North and South America. Currently, thousands of ships travel through the wide waterway every year. It is made up of a system of locks, which serve the purpose of changing the water level, allowing even large ships to pass through. The first thought to build a canal through Panama was instilled by the Spaniards as early as the fifteenth century. The idea was then undertaken by the Dutch and British, but finally, a Frenchman named Count Ferdinand de Lesseps began construction in 1880. Though it seemed the French had a promising start, it was to no avail. Once Lesseps and his team weighed all the odds
The outcome of this war left the US with much more land in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Theodore Roosevelt, the American president at the time, realized the importance of acquiring Panama, so he made the executive decision to buy the Canal Zone from France. The US then gained access to the land by assisting Panama in their fight for independence from Columbia, as stated in the 1903 US-Panama treaty. This treaty stated the US would be bestowed control of the canal zone while still recognizing Panama as an independent nation. The canal was such a monumental build, it posed both problems and solutions to the US. Some nations viewed the canal as a way to strengthen relations with America, but many others viewed the US as being overbearing. How did the construction of the Panama Canal in 1914 impact the United States? Since its construction in 1914, the Panama Canal has sustainably impacted the United States in a myriad of definable ways; these include asserting the US as a world power, straining its relations with Panama, and providing a more efficient trade