Global
Perspective:
Birth of a Nation -- Panama in 67 Hours
The Stage is Set:
| June 1902 | U.S. Offers to buy Panama Canal Zone from Colombia for $10 million. |
| Aug. 1903 | The Colombian Senate refuses the offer. Theodore Roosevelt, angered by the refusal, is alleged to have referred to the Colombian Senate as "those contemptible little creatures in Bogota." Roosevelt agrees to plot, led by a secessionist, Dr. Manuel Amador, to assist a group planning to secede from Colombia. |
| Oct. 17, 1903 | Panamanian dissidents travel to Washington and agree to stage a U.S.-backed revolution. The date of revolution is set for November 3, 2003 at 6 P.M. |
| Oct. 18, 1903 | Flag, constitution, and declaration of independence are created over the weekend. Panama's first flag was designed and sewn in Highland Falls, New York, using fabric bought at Macy's. Bunau-Varilla, a French engineer associated with the bankrupt French-Panama canal construction company and not a permanent resident in Panama, is named Panama's ambassador to the United States. |
A Country is Born:
| Tues., Nov. 3, 1903 | Precisely at 6 P.M. bribes are paid to the Colombian garrison to lay down their arms. The revolution begins, the U.S.S. Nashville steams into Colon harbor, and the junta proclaims Panama's independence. |
| Friday, Nov. 6 | By 1:00 P.M. the United States recognizes the sovereign state of Panama. |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | The new government sends an official delegation from Panama to the United States to instruct the Panamanian ambassador to the United States on provisions of the Panama Canal Treaty. |
| Wed., Nov. 18 | 6:40 P.M. The Panamanian ambassador signs the Panama Canal Treaty. At 11:30 P.M., the official Panamanian delegation arrives at a Washington , D.C., railroad station and is met by their ambassador, who informs them that the treaty was signed just hours earlier. |
The Present:
| 1977 | United States agrees to relinquish control of Panama Canal Zone on December 31, 1999. |
| 1997 | Autoridad del Canal de Panama, the canal authority that will assume control from the U.S. Panama Canal Commission, is created. |
| 1998 | Panama gives a Chinese company the right to build new port facilities on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides, to control anchorages, to hire new pilots to guide ships through the canal, and to block all passage that interferes with the company's business. |
| Jan. 1, 2000 | "The canal is ours" is jubilant cry in Panama. |
| Jan. 17, 2000 | Pentagon sees potential Chinese threat to Panama Canal. |
This story is a good illustration of how geography and history can affect public and political attitudes in the present and far into the future. To the Panamanian and much of Latin America, the Panama Canal is but one example of the many U.S. intrusions during the early 20th century that have tainted U.S.-Latin American relations. For the United States, the geographical importance of the Panama Canal for trade (shipping between the two coasts via the Canal is cut by 8,000 miles) makes control of the canal a sensitive issue, especially if that control could be potentially hostile. That a Chinese-owned company has operational control of both the Pacific and Atlantic ports and could pose an indirect threat to the Panama Canal Zone does not sit well.
Recent history of U.S. conflict with China and the past history of Western domination of parts of China creates in the minds of many an adversarial relationship between the two countries. Further, some wonder if Panama would be reluctant to ask the United States to intervene at some future date, perhaps fearing that the Americans might stay another 98 years. Although the probability of China sabotaging the canal is slim at best, historical baggage makes one wonder what would happen should U.S. relations with China deteriorate to the point that the canal was felt to be in jeopardy.
Sources:
Bernard A. Weisberger, "Panama: Made in U.S.A.," American Heritage, November
1989, pp. 24-25; Juanita Darling, "'The Canal Is Ours' Is Jubilant Cry in
Panama," Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2000, p. A-1; J. Michael Waller, "China's
Beachhead at Panama Canal," Insight, August 16, 1999, p. 20; and "Pentagon Sees
Potential China Threat to Panama Canal," Asian Political News, January 17, 2000,
p. 20.