Republic of Panama Independence History

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In 1902 the Panamanians negotiated with the North Americans to build the Panama Canal. The people of Panama wanted to be free of domination by Colombia. Based on an 1846 treaty between the U.S. and Colombia, the U.S. armed forces were sent to maintain order along the Panama Railroad line. Because of the presence of the U.S. troops; the Colombians withdrew and the Republic of Panama celebrated its independence on November 3, 1903.

In December, 1903 the U.S. Congress ratified a treaty with the new Republic of Panama to build the Panama Canal which created a ten-mile-wide, forty eight mile (77 km) long Canal Zone controlled by the United States for a unlimited period of time. Yet there was still arguing going on in America behind the scenes.

President Roosevelt appointed an Isthmian Canal Commission in May 1904, to build the Canal, mostly following the route of the original railroad tracks. There was much media discussion of the tropics and the French attempts to built the canal.

On the swampy land between Gatun and Gamboa it was necessary to build 167 embankments from 58 to 74 feet high. The canal was created with 3 sets of locks, several artificial channels and 17 artificial lakes. The artificial Lake Gatun was created by damming the Chagres River with an unimaginable 16 million cubic yards of dirt. To start the canal required the relocation of the railway line which cost $9 million. That’s $1 million more than building the entire railroad had cost 65 years earlier. The changing of the railroad route was completed in 1912.

There was still contention in Washington, DC, from a variety of American Congressmen about the choice of Panama for the Canal construction, instead of Nicaragua. There were surely recommendations for President Roosevelt from most of the special interest groups. It is amazing to realize that amid all the excitement “the Panama Canal was built ahead of schedule and below budget.” “If any one person can be credited for this achievement it is George W. Goethals, the project’s chief engineer, 1907−15.”

The first two chief engineers who worked on the Panama Canal were both civilians. They resigned from the huge and daunting project after short tenures.” “President Theodore Roosevelt announced that the next chief would be an Army officer, who, if he walked off the job, would find himself facing a court martial.” “The man selected was Major George W. Goethals of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” This was a man up to the job.

By the time the canal was completed, an estimated twenty seven thousand workers are said to have died in the combined French and American efforts. The building of the canal was plagued by problems, including disease and landslides, particularly in the area around the Continental Divide at Culebra Cut…but the really astonishing thing is…it was built. The completion of the Canal was celebrated by the successful transit of the SS Ancon as first ship across the Panama Canal.

In his memoirs, An Autobiography (1913), President Theodore Roosevelt admitted that his actions in detaching Panama from Colombia to build the Panama Canal were seen by many critics as improper when he said: “By far the most important action I took in foreign affairs during the time I was President related to the Panama Canal. Here again there was much accusation about my having acted in an ‘unconstitutional’ manner … and at different stages of the affair believers in a do-nothing policy denounced me as having ‘usurped authority’.”

There are still active arguments on both sides of the controversy the about the US role separating Panama from Colombia. Roosevelt sought to rationalize it when he argued that “Colombia had forfeited every claim to consideration” by its actions in Panama. In 1886, Roosevelt claimed the Colombian government “had taken away from Panama the power of self-government”. In the US Congressional debates that ended with the backing of President Jimmy Carter’s desire to return the Canal to the Republic of Panama, the pivotal moment may have been when one Senator exhorted:“Why, it’s ours, we stole it fair and square.”

As there are on the later settlement which resulted in the Torrijos-Carter Treaties in 1977 that set in motion the process of handing the Panama Canal over to the Panamanians for free. Thirty years later it is still a controversial topic within the U.S. However, the treaty led to full Panamanian control effective at noon on December 31, 1999, when control of the canal was handed over to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).