NASA view of the Canal, looking West  --> 

Focus Question:

How did the United States use the building of the Panama Canal to establish and expand its empire?

Topics on the Page

Event Summary

Multimedia Resources

Primary Sources and Learning Plans

The Panama Canal and Malaria

Other Canals in History

Event Summary

Building the Panama Canal, 1903-1914 from the Office of the Historian, U. S. State Department

A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama from Digital History

Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal from PBS American Experience

• During the Spanish-American War, the battleship Oregon took 68 days to get from the Puget Sound to Cuba, but with a canal it could have been shortened to 20 days.

• As a result of the war, the US decided to build a canal through Panama.

• After an unsuccessful attempt by the French in 1860, the US in 1902 gave President Roosevelt authority to move ahead.

• In 1903 Secretary of State John Hay tried to sign a canal treaty but Colombia changed its mind and refused to sign. With help from the French and the US, the Panama revolt occurred on November 3, 1903. On November 6, the US recognized Panama.

• The greatest obstacle in building the canal was malaria and yellow fever

• The canal took 10 years to build; the first 2 years of building involve clearing brush and draining swamps where mosquitoes bred

• Cost nearly $400 million dollars

• Completed in 1914 just as WWI was beginning

• The canal is considered one of the greatest engineering feats of all time

 Multimedia Resources

Make the Dirt Fly, an online exhibit on the building of the canal from the Smithsonian Institution.

A short video about the construction of the Panama Canal

Interactive map exploring locations significant to, and during, the construction of the Panama Canal.

A website that allows you to view real-time footage of the Canal's various sea-locks!

The Great Nicaragua Postage Stamp War is a story about how a stamp resulted in the building of the Panama Canal.

Map demonstrating how significantly the Panama           

Canal reduced sea travel for those trading in America.        

Primary Sources

Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain (December 10, 1898)

The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1903)

Panama Canal Proposal, 1881, a letter by Ulysses S. Grant

Roosevelt's Message to Congress, December 17, 1906 from PBS American Experience

The Story of the Panama Canal, 1927, a film from the Roosevelt Film Library made available by the Library of Congress

100 Years of the Panama Canal in 10 Photos

Thesis paper exploring the contributions of women in the construction of the Panama Canal.

 Learning Plans

• The Question of an American Empire from EDSITEment, National Endowment for the Humanities.

• This learning plan teaches students about U.S. intervention in Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• Visit here for teaching materials to accompany PBS's American Experience special on the building of the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal and Malaria

Spraying kerosene oil to kill mosquitoes, 1912

See Special Topic Page on Malaria, History of a Disease

The Panama Canal and Malaria from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Other Canals in History

Ship Crossing the Suez Canal, Pre-World War I

The Great Wall and the Grand Canal

Suez Canal connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas

Kiel Canal connecting the Baltic and North Seas

Europa Canal connecting the North and Black Seas

Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal connecting 5 major rivers in the China (Oldest and longest man-made waterway in the world).

The Erie Canal