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Trans-Panama Canal Benefits

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The advantages of building a canal through Central America were known long ago. Even at the time Christopher Columbus first arrived in the New World, it was evident that a short cut through Central America would be extremely beneficial, but there was never an incentive to build one until many years later. The increase in population and trade in California because of the California gold rush demonstrated the need for a faster and less costly trade route from western America to eastern America. This gave the United States motivation to make a shortcut, and in 1848 the United States built the trans-Panama railroad to satisfy this need (“Panama, city, Panama”). The railroad required a ship to dock and unload the cargo, and then another ship to …show more content…

Great Britain wanted to create a canal in Nicaragua, so Great Britain and the United States signed the Clayton-Bulwer treaty to ensure that neither would have exclusive rights to an inter-oceanic route (“Panama Canal”). Meanwhile, Ferdinand de Lesseps, a Frenchman who led the construction of the Suez canal in Egypt, started the construction of a sea-level canal in Panama for France. However, the French underestimated the magnitude of the project and had to stop construction in 1889 when de Lesseps’ company went bankrupt (“Construction Begins on the Panama Canal”).
The necessity of a canal was fully demonstrated in 1899 during the Spanish American war. During the war, the battleship U.S.S. Oregon, which was stationed in California, was ordered to assist in the blockade of Cuba. To get there, the battleship had to go around the entire southern tip of South America. The trip took ten weeks and almost caused the ship to miss the war. Because of this, public support for a canal arose, and members of congress began to push for the acquisition of a canal in order to obtain a faster sea route from one coast to the other (“The United States Acquires the Canal …show more content…

However, there were many disagreements in congress as to which country to build the canal in. The U.S. Senate had already agreed upon a route through Nicaragua, but William Cromwell of the New Canal Company acquired the rights of de Lesseps Company and offered them to the United States for forty million dollars (“The United States Acquires the Canal Zone”). The route through Panama was thought to be easier to build, less expensive, and overall more advantageous than the route through Nicaragua. It provided a head start on construction, a shorter route, and included a railroad which allowed for easy transportation of construction equipment for the canal (Pearson). With this information, Cromwell convinced the United States government that the Panama route was the better option, which led congress to enact the Spooner Act. This stated that if the president could obtain the rights from Colombia, who controlled Panama, it would be constructed there. Otherwise, the canal would be built in

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