Presidential Decision Project Theodore Roosevelt

1. Presidential Decision Project Theodore Roosevelt by Joshua Crockett

2. The Historical Event • President Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was about to make one of the most historical decisions of his Presidential career. Not only the United States, but the world was in need of a way that goods and people could be transported from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean easily. The world was in need of a canal, and Roosevelt was just the man to do it!

3. Background to the Crisis • In 1878 a French engineer that built the Suez Canal in Egypt, Ferdinand de Lesseps, began to dig a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, (an isthmus is a long and narrow strip of land)which was then part of Colombia. Disease and engineering problems stopped the construction on the canal, but a new French company still held the rights to the project. President Roosevelt said he would pay $40 million for the rights to continue the canal, and he began to negotiate with Colombia for control of the land. He offered $10 million for a fifty-mile strip across the isthmus, but Colombia refused.

4. What are the Options? • The options were: • Not to complete the Panama Canal and leave it undone for years • He could have submitted papers to Congress and wait for their approval which could take years, but he didn’t • He could have thought about how controversial his decision would be without approval, but he didn’t care

5. The Decision • The decision that President Roosevelt and The United States and Panama came up with was the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty. It required Panama to sign over the rights to the canal. • Many senators were disturbed by the deal and felt that the United States had stolen the canal zone from Colombia, but they passed the treaty anyway. • In 1904, the United States paid $40 million for the assets of the French company who was going to originally build the canal, and offered Panama $10 million.

6. The Result Although it took 10 years to be completely built from the time President Roosevelt too over the project, The Panama Canal was a welcome solution to an old problem of how to trade around the large American continents. For many years, explorers had sought a quicker way of passage over North America. • Time and mileage would be dramatically reduced when travelling from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean or vice versa. • The Panama Canal used tolls to help finance the maintenance and improvements. • U.S. spent $400 million on the canal between 1904 and 1914, it didn't make up that cost until the 1950s.

7. Hindsight • When Teddy Roosevelt first made the decision to continue the digging of the Panama Canal, many people called him arrogant. • It is no doubt that he made the right decision at the time because the Panama Canal is still a thoroughfare many international ships. For about 60 years the United States controlled the waterway. In 1979 the Presidents of Panama, and the United States president Jimmy Carter agreed to the Panama Canal Treaty. • The treaty gave full control of the canal to Panama after a transition period of 20 years. On Dec. 31, 1999, the Panama Canal Authority to full control of the waterway.

8. Works Cited • http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/joining.html • http://www.upa.pdx.edu/IMS/currentprojects/TAHv3/Content/PDFs/Roosevelt_Panama_Canal.pdf • http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/theodoreroosevelt