Can one man, even the POTUS, give away something that belongs to the people, just on his say-so? Where was the outrage?
Building the Panama Canal, 1903-1914:
>" President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the realization of a long-term United States goal—a trans-isthmian canal. Throughout the 1800s, American and British leaders and businessmen wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
To that end, in 1850 the United States and Great Britain negotiated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty to reign in rivalry over a proposed canal through the Central American Republic of Nicaragua. The Anglo-American canal, however, never went beyond the planning stages. French attempts to build a canal through Panama (province of Colombia) advanced further. Led by Ferdinand de Lesseps—the builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt—the French began excavating in 1880. Malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical diseases conspired against the de Lesseps campaign and after 9 years and a loss of approximately 20,000 lives, the French attempt went bankrupt. In spite of such setbacks, American interest in a canal continued unabated. The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 abrogated the earlier Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and licensed the United States to build and manage its own canal. Following heated debate over the location of the proposed canal, on June 19, 1902, the U.S. Senate voted in favor of building the canal through Panama. Within 6 months, Secretary of State John Hay signed a treaty with Colombian Foreign Minister Tomás Herrán to build the new canal. The financial terms were unacceptable to Colombia’s congress, and it rejected the offer.
President Roosevelt responded by dispatching U.S. warships to Panama City (on the Pacific) and Colón (on the Atlantic) in support of Panamanian independence. Colombian troops were unable to negotiate the jungles of the Darien Strait and Panama declared independence on November 3, 1903. The newly declared Republic of Panama immediately named Philippe Bunau-Varilla (a French engineer who had been involved in the earlier de Lesseps canal attempt) as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. In his new role, Bunau-Varilla negotiated the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903, which provided the United States with a 10-mile wide strip of land for the canal, a one-time $10 million payment to Panama, and an annual annuity of $250,000. The United States also agreed to guarantee the independence of Panama. Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal symbolized U.S. technological prowess and economic power. Although U.S. control of the canal eventually became an irritant to U.S.-Panamanian relations, at the time it was heralded as a major foreign policy achievement. "<
Office of the Historian - Milestones - 1899-1913 - Building the Panama Canal
>" From its inception, there were intermittent disputes over interpretation of the treaty and charges of U.S. discrimination against Panamanians in the zone. In 1978 two new treaties were concluded detailing the steps by which the United States would transfer to Panama full control over the zone and the canal in the year 2000.
International status
The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty was an irritant to Panamanian sensibilities from the moment it was signed. It had been written and negotiated for the infant republic by Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla, a French citizen who had not been in Panama for 18 years and who later openly admitted that he was willing for Panama to pay any price to ensure acceptance of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. The most onerous part of the treaty, in the Panamanian view, was the right granted to the United States to act in the entire 16-km- (10-mile-) wide, ocean-to-ocean Canal Zone as “if it were the sovereign.” Thus, the Canal Zone became in effect a foreign colony that bisected Panama, despite Theodore Roosevelt’s declaration in 1906 that no such result was intended. As eventually constituted by the middle of the century, the Canal Zone was administered by an American governor appointed by the U.S. president. Judicial matters were settled before magistrates appointed by the governor or by a circuit court judge appointed by the president. The governor was ex-officio a director and president of the Panama Canal Company, an American corporate body whose directors were charged with operating and maintaining the canal in a businesslike manner. In order to guarantee operation of the canal in the event of war, U.S. military units were stationed in the Canal Zone.
Some of the harsher effects of the 1903 treaty were ameliorated by subsequent treaties, principally those of 1936 and 1955. The United States relinquished its claimed right to acquire additional lands and waters adjacent to the canal, granted Panamanian control over the ports at Colón and Panama City, and brought the wages of Panamanians employed in the Canal Zone closer to the level of Americans. But the Panamanians continued to press for more drastic changes, including eventual full sovereignty over the canal. After years of negotiation, agreement was reached between the two governments in 1977. The Panama Canal Treaty was signed on September 7 of that year by General Omar Torrijos Herrera of Panama and President Jimmy Carter of the United States. It terminated all prior treaties between the United States and Panama concerning the canal and also abolished the Canal Zone. The treaty recognized Panama as territorial sovereign in the former Canal Zone, but it gave the United States the right to continue managing, operating, and maintaining the canal and to use lands and waters necessary for those purposes during a transition period of 20 years covered by the agreement. The treaty also provided for joint study of the feasibility of a sea-level canal and gave the United States the right to add a third lane of locks to the existing canal. The treaty went into effect on October 1, 1979, and expired on December 31, 1999.
The 1977 treaty was supplemented by a separate, but interrelated, Neutrality Treaty that also went into effect in 1979 but has no termination date. Under the Neutrality Treaty the United States and Panama guarantee the permanent neutrality of the canal, with nondiscriminatory tolls and access for all nations; U.S. and Panamanian warships, however, are entitled to expeditious passage. No nation other than Panama may operate the canal or maintain military installations within Panamanian territory. The United States, however, reserved the right to use military force, if necessary, to keep the canal open; this was, in part, the rationale behind the U.S. military intervention in Panama in 1989–90, which, nonetheless, did not prevent the canal from being closed down for about a day in December 1989.
The U.S. Senate ratified the two treaties in 1978, after one of the lengthiest treaty debates in American history. The treaties were then implemented into U.S. domestic law by the Panama Canal Act of 1979. This act, among other things, established the Panama Canal Commission, which replaced both the Panama Canal Company and the Canal Zone government. The commission was controlled by a board consisting of five American and four Panamanian members. Until 1990 the administrator was an American and the assistant administrator a Panamanian national; after 1990 the roles were reversed, and Panamanians assumed the leadership position. The function of the commission was somewhat different from its predecessor, as activities not directly related to the canal, such as maintenance and operation of terminals and the Panama Canal Railway, were transferred to Panama in preparation for the final turnover. With the turnover of the canal in December 1999, the Panama Canal Authority assumed complete responsibility for the canal.
The international status of the canal also is affected by two older treaties. In the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, the United Kingdom gave up its interest in an isthmian canal. And, while the United States was free to take any measures in order to protect a canal, it agreed that there would be “entire equality” in the treatment of ships of all nations with respect to “conditions and charges of traffic.” In the Thompson-Urrutia Treaty of 1914, the government-owned vessels of Colombia were exempted from paying tolls. '< continue ->
Panama Canal (canal, Central America) : International status -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia