What steps did the United States take to build the Panama Canal?

Question

What steps did the United States take to build the Panama Canal?

Answer 1

For centuries visionaries dreamed of having a canal that would link the Atlantic with the Pacific.  A French company had built the famous sea level Suez Canal and with that success decided to build a seal level canal across Panama.

But, they failed.

A failure on such a large scale was watched by everybody in the world. A group of New York based investors, including J.P. Morgan, decided they could do it, but with locks.

Since Panama was a province of Colombia, they were going to get the backing of the U.S. Congress and make an offer to Colombia.

But Congress was thinking of building a canal across Nicaragua, not Panama.  So the investors had to convince congress that Panama was the place.  

They did this by showing a postage stamp from Nicaragua that depicted a volcano erupting. This kind of seismic activity also brought earth quakes. Panama didn't get earthquakes. So congress was convinced that Panama was the better idea.

But Colombia was still in the way.

So after Colombia refused to accept the offer by the Americans, President Theodore Roosevelt gave approval to leading the Panamanians in a revolution against Colombia. He sent warships to Panama and landed Marines.

The Colombian army couldn't get through the jungle in the Darien Province of Panama. Their navy couldn't match the firepower of the U.S. Navy.

The Panamanian revolution was successful with only one death. Panama was now independent. It was 1903. And they

began construction.

Then, when construction under civilian managers didn't go so well, the American government put the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge.  They finished the canal in 1914.

Those are the steps the US took to build the Panama Canal.