The Panama Canal is again becoming a serious issue for the US—“again” because this has all happened before. A quick refresher on the background to this conflict.
Yes, America built the Panama Canal from 1903 to 1904—but before undertaking this mega-project, the US first did a bit of regime change ops.
After gaining independence from Spain in 1821, Panama became part of Gran Colombia, a confederation that included Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and other territories. Panama remained a department of Colombia until its separation on November 3, 1903.
This separation was the result of tensions between Colombia and the United States over the Panama Canal project. When Colombia rejected the United States’ proposed treaty for canal construction (in favor of France’s plans), the U.S. supported Panamanian separatists in declaring independence.
The US government, under President Theodore Roosevelt, sent warships to Panama’s coasts in October 1903. Then, on November 2, US Navy captains were ordered to land marines, seize the Panama railroad, and block Colombian reinforcements. Finally, when the revolt by Panama began on November 3, US warships prevented Colombian troops from quelling the outbreak.
In fact, Colombia did not officially recognize Panama’s independence until 1909, and only after receiving a $500,000 concession from Panama to cover its share of outstanding debts. The independence ensured the construction of the Panama Canal, with the U.S. securing rights to build and administer the canal zone through the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty signed on November 18, 1903. This treaty was significantly more advantageous to the U.S. than the previously rejected Colombian agreement.
It was Panama which gave America’s its reputation of using gun-boat “diplomacy” (the use of threats to achieve diplomatic goals), a method bearing much fruit.
Teddy Roosevelt, another Trumpian president boasted, “I took the Isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me.”
In this way, the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, and became a symbol of American technological, industrial and economic power.
The other contribution made by Roosevelt was the creation of the “Roosevelt Corollary,” which asserted that the United States had the right intervene in Latin American affairs, in that the US. could exercise “international police power” in cases of “chronic wrongdoing” or “impotence” in Western Hemisphere countries. This was a wide-ranging expansion of the Monroe Doctrine, which sought to limit the influence of Europe on America by all means possible.
The Corollary sought to prevent European intervention in Latin America, by declaring the US as the stabilizing force in the entire region.
Roosevelt linked this policy to the Monroe Doctrine, framing it as a necessary measure to maintain order and protect US interests in the region.
Over the next ten to fifteen years, the U.S. intervened militarily in Latin America multiple times, with U.S. Marines becoming known as “State Department Troops.”
Thus, this Corollary transformed all of South America into the United States’ backyard, and it served as justification for US intervention in countries such as Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
This approach to foreign policy in Latin America persisted until 1930, when President Herbert Hoover endorsed the Clark Memorandum, which repudiated the Roosevelt Corollary in favor of the Good Neighbor policy by Herbert Hoover, which sought to reduce US military and political interference in Latin America, improve economic relationships with Latin American countries, and establish a foundation for better diplomatic ties.
Nevertheless, the methodology of the Corollary did not simply go away, rather it became one of the many means in the American “toolbox” to “manage” the affairs of South America.
Trump is now channeling Teddy Roosevelt, a figure very much like him in his bombast and braggadocio, and reviving the method of the Corollary, since the assumption of the United States remains unchanged—South America is their “backyard.”
Featured: Go Away, Little Man, and Don’t Bother Me, cartoon by Green Bush, the New York World, ca. 1903. (President Theodore Roosevelt intimidating Colombia to acquire the Panama Canal Zone).
