When did construction on the Panama Canal begin?
22518752#10
In 1904 when the construction of the Panama Canal was taken over by the United States for the failure of the French company, will again resort to the West Indian worker. Although between 1904 and 1914 the vast majority of Afro-West Indians who arrived in Panama did a one-year contract with the idea of returning to their home islands once the offshore project, after construction of the canal many Afro-Antillean stayed in Panama. Afro-West Indians who remained in Panama many got jobs in the Canal Zone and became the largest immigrant group in Panama. On the subject of Afro-Antillean Panama, Leslie B. Rout said that when the canal was opened in 1914, some 20,000 African-West Indians remained in Panama.
Afro-Panamanian
392036#34
The Panama Railway also operated a significant shipping line, connecting its service with New York and San Francisco. It ran a Central American line of steamships linking Nicaragua, Costa Rica, San Salvador, and Guatemala to Panama City. The shipping service was greatly expanded when canal construction began. Ships included the SS "Salvador", SS "Guatemala", SS "Cristobel", and , which became the first of the ships to cross the completed canal in 1914.
In 1904 the United States took over the license to build and operate the canal. The choice to use locks and an artificial lake (Gatun) meant that the old railway route from 1855 had to be changed because it followed the Chagres River valley, which would be flooded by the lake. Also, the railway would be extended and altered continuously for the building process. The stock of the Panama Railway Company, vital in canal construction, was entirely controlled by the United States Secretary of War.
Panama Canal Railway
24849#1
France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.
Panama Canal
3520221#51
Secretary of State Hay and French diplomat Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla, who represented the Panamanian government, quickly negotiated the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty. Signed on November 18, 1903, it established the Panama Canal Zone—over which the United States would exercise sovereignty—and insured the construction of an Atlantic to Pacific ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Panama sold the Canal Zone (consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending on each side of the centerline) to the United States for $10 million and a steadily increasing yearly sum. In February 1904, Roosevelt won Senate ratification of the treaty in a 66-to-14 vote. The Isthmian Canal Commission, supervised by Secretary of War Taft, was established to govern the zone and oversee the construction of the canal. Roosevelt appointed George Whitefield Davis as the first governor of the Panama Canal Zone and John Findley Wallace as the Chief Engineer of the canal project. When Wallace resigned in 1905, Roosevelt appointed John Frank Stevens, who built a railroad in the canal zone and initiated the construction of a lock canal. Stevens was replaced in 1907 by George Washington Goethals, who saw construction through to its completion. Roosevelt traveled to Panama in November 1906 to inspect progress on the canal, becoming the first sitting president to travel outside of the United States.
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
1425464#2
After the Panama Canal Company went bankrupt in 1888 amidst charges of fraud, Bunau-Varilla was left stranded in Panama. He struggled to find a new way to construct the canal. When the New Panama Canal Company sprang up back in his native France, Bunau-Varilla sailed home, having purchased a large amount of stock. However, as de Lesseps' company had before, the New Panama Canal Company soon abandoned efforts to build the canal. It sold the land in Panama to the United States, in hopes that the company would not fail entirely. U.S. President Grover Cleveland, an anti-imperialist, avoided the canal issue. When the more supportive Theodore Roosevelt became president (succeeding William McKinley), canal planning resumed in the United States.
Philippe Bunau-Varilla
2869783#1
By the late nineteenth century, technological advances and commercial pressure allowed construction to begin in earnest. Noted canal engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps led an initial attempt by France to build a sea-level canal. Beset by cost overruns due to the severe underestimation of the difficulties in excavating the rugged Panama land, heavy personnel losses in Panama due to tropical diseases, and political corruption in France surrounding the financing of the massive project, the project succeeded in only partially completing the canal.
History of the Panama Canal
37258993#11
In 1903, the U.S. aided the secession of Panama from the Republic of Colombia. The secession was engineered by a Panamanian faction backed by the Panama Canal Company, a French–US corporation whose aim was the construction of a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama thus connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1903, the U.S. signed the Hay-Herrán Treaty with Colombia, granting the United States use of the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for financial compensation. amidst the Thousand Days' War. The Panama Canal was already under construction, and the Panama Canal Zone was carved out and placed under United States sovereignty. The US did not transfer the zone back to Panama until 2000.
United States involvement in regime change
31606866#0
The Panama Canal Museum () is a non-profit and public museum located in Panama City, Panama. Established in 1997, the museum is devoted to the history of the construction of the Panama Canal in its various stages, including the first French construction attempt, the later construction by the United States, and the eventual transfer to Panamanian control. The current building dates from 1874 and served originally as the headquarters of both the French and U.S. companies engaged in the construction of the canal. It is located in the city's old quarter.
Panama Canal Museum
315787#9
The treaty was approved by the provisional Panamanian government on December 2, 1903, and by the US Senate on February 23, 1904. Under the treaty, Panama received , much of which the United States required to be invested in that country, plus annual payments of ; with those payments made, as well as for the purchase of the French company assets, the Canal Zone was formally turned over by Panama on May 4, 1904, when American officials reopened the Panama City offices of the canal company and raised the American flag. This marked the beginning point for U.S. excavation and construction which concluded in August 1914 with the opening of the canal to commercial traffic.
Panama Canal Zone
24849#14
The first attempt to construct a canal through what was then Colombia's province of Panama began on January 1, 1881. The project was inspired by the diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was able to raise considerable funds in France as a result of the huge profits generated by his successful construction of the Suez Canal. Although the Panama Canal needed to be only 40 percent as long as the Suez Canal, it was much more of an engineering challenge due to the combination of tropical rain forests, debilitating climate, the need for canal locks, and the lack of any ancient route to follow.
Panama Canal
57226140#4
After de independence, the Italian presence continued to emphasize immigrants such as Agostino Codazzi and Napoleone Garella, who in the nineteenth century and at different times, performed studies that recommended Panama as the ideal for the construction of an interoceanic canal.
Meanwhile, in 1844, Garella was the first engineer assigned by the French government to find a route for the construction of the Canal and in his studies recommended the route of the isthmus of Panama over the routes suggested by the isthmus of Tehuantepec and Nicaragua. During the isthmus canal project and construction continued to arrive eminent Italians from scientists, artists, priests and merchants, to craftsmen and laborers. They founded families whose descendants were quickly integrated the dynamic process of formation of the Panamanian nationality. One was elected President of Panama in 1949 and 1960: Roberto Francisco Chiari Remón (March 2, 1905 in Panama City – March 1, 1981) was the President of Panama in 1949 and later from 1960 to 1964. He belonged to the Liberal Party. In the 1920s even his father (Rodolfo Chiari) was president.
The wave of Italian immigration occurred around 1880. With the construction of the Canal by the Universal Panama Canal Company came the arrival of up to 2,000 Italians. Two years later in 1882, at the initiative of Mr. Oreste Badio, a prominent member of the Italian colony, was promoved the creation of the "Italian Benevolent Society" in order to help the countrymen affected by disease or who need some kind of help. With the presence of 37 members.
Italians in Panama