Panama

1. Panama

2. Climate and Vegetation • Humid tropical plains • Dense rain forests • Moderate temperatures • Hurricanes are a danger, tropical storms with violent winds and heavy rain. (June and November)

3. Resources • Agriculture-coffee, bananas, sugarcane, and cotton. • Timber • Tourism • Copper

4. Culture • Largest ethnic group is mestizo (Indian and European Mix) • African-significant minority • Language-Spanish • Religion-Roman Catholic

5. *Panama is a land bridge between North America and South America. It is connected to Colombia, South America. • *First attempt to build the canal was made by the French, But failed when they ran out of money.

6. *United States bought the rights to finish canal and through much work and hardship, completed the canal in 1914.

7. Early History • *1514-Spanish explorer Balboa found and explored Panama. When Balboa saw the body of water he named it Pacific, because where he was it appeared to be “peaceful" • *He built a 40 mile crude road.

8. *1523- Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain made the plan for a canal in 1529. The European political situation and level of technology at the time made this impossible.

9. *A new road was built in 1533 ( Las Cruces Trail) that carried treasures and goods the king’s warehouse in Porto Bello until the treasure fleet left for Spain. This road lasted many years, and was even used in the 1840s by gold prospectors heading for the California Gold Rush.

10. Scottish Attempt • *1698- Mark Buke tried to establish a colony in Darien, Panama to use as a base for sea and land trading with China and Japan. They met hostile conditions, and were ravaged by disease. The colony was abandoned leaving 400 graves behind.

11. Panama Railway • *The Gold Rush in California in 1848 created a demand for a fast route between the oceans. • *The Panama Railway was built across the isthmus from 1850-1855, running 47 miles. • *About 6,000-12,000 people were died, many from cholera and malaria.

12. * This railway carried the heaviest volume of freight per unit length of any railroad in the world. The existence of the railway was key in the selection of Panama as the site of the canal.

13. Suez Canal • The Suez Canal between Africa and Middle East was completed in 1869. • This land was sandy and warm. Different than Panama. • The French were inspire to tackle the Panama Canal.

14. French Attempt Panama Canal • *Problems--- • Required the river, to be diverted. • Tropical diseases-malaria and yellow fever.

15. +Tried various strange remedies like, the legs of the hospital beds were placed in tins of water to keep insects from crawling up: but these pans of stagnant water made ideal breeding places for mosquitoes, the carriers of these two diseases, and so worsened the problem.

16. Construction Begins • Began on 1882 • 20,000 men-90% afro-Caribbean workers from the West Indies. • Death toll between 1881-1889-over 22,000 • 1887 decided to build an elevated canal with locks. • Frequent floods and mudslides

17. 1889 –the company went bankrupt. 8 years of work- 2/5 ths of the work done at a cost of • $234,795,000. • French man in charge was—Ferdinand de Lesseps who was successful at building the Suez Canal but failed horribly with finishing the Panama Canal.

18. United States-Panama Canal • 1902-Bought the plans and equipment to finish the canal from the French for $40,000,000-They wanted $109,000,000. No one would pay it so the French lost a great deal of money. • U.S inherited, the surveys, studies, machinery , railroad equipment and vehicles that the French had abandoned in Panama.

19. United States inherited an estimated $25,389,240 of work and $17,410,586 of equipment from the French.

20. Theodore Roosevelt was U.S. President who believed that control of the canal was critical. • This would allow the U.S. to control war ships going through between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. • Roosevelt bought control of the Panama Canal Zone from the Panamanians on February 23, 1904, for $10million.

21. November 1906, Roosevelt visited Panama to inspect the canal’s progress. This was the first trip outside the United states by a sitting President. “Bully”

22. Living Conditions • At first just saloons-men drank heavily –became a huge problem-many returned home. • So-new—clubhouses were built-like a YMCA-they had pool tables, bowling alleys, libraries, a gym, ice cream parlors . Dues to join the club -$10 a year. • Baseball fields were built-Saturday night dances were held. • This kept more workers from drinking and going home.

23. Opening • President Woodrow Wilson, January 4, 1914. The same year WWI started. • The Alexandre La Valley was the first ship to make a complete transit of the Panama Canal.

24. The canal revolutionized world shipping patterns. • Saves a total of about 7,800 miles on a trip from New York to San Francisco by sea. • World War II U.S sent war ships through to the Pacific to fight Japan.

25. Canal cost the United States around $375,000,000 including $10,000,000 paid to Panama and the $40,000,000 to France. It was the single most expensive construction project in the U.S history to that time • 75,000 men and women worked on the project • 5,609 workers died from disease and accidents during the American era.

26. Canal Handover • After construction, the canal and the Zone surrounding it were administered by the United States. • September 7, 1977, U.S President Jimmy Carter signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaty, that promised Panama control over the canal in 20 years. • December 31, 1999, control over the canal was given to the country of Panama.

27. The treaty was highly controversial in the U.S, because contracts to manage two ports at either end of the canal were given to Hong Kong, and people felt the company had close ties to the Chinese government and the Chinese military. • Today—Panama is doing extremely well controlling the canal.

28. Panama’s control of the Canal • Income has soared from $769 million in 2000, to $1.4 billion in 2006 • Traffic through the canal went up from 230 million tons in 2000 to nearly 300 million tons in 2006.