Panama+Canal

=THE PANAMA CANAL and its cultural and economic aspects = BY ANDIE HORNING

THE IDEA
☆ The Spanish: The idea of creating a passageway across Panama can be traced back the 16th century, long before the Americans had the idea. The Spanish had explored much of the New World, including Mexico, Peru, and Puerto Rico. After Vasco Nuñez de Balboa explored the region, the Spanish government initiated the push to create an Isthmus passageway. Surveyors declared that it was impossible for a passageway to ever be constructed; claiming that it was not scientifically or technologically possible [1].

☆ The French: The French tried to create a canal in the late 19th century, but ultimately failed while trying to construct it [1].

☆ The Americans: President Theodore Roosevelt pushed for the creation of the canal, and viewed it as a political, commercial, and military necessity. He was a firm supporter of the Panama Canal plans, because he wanted to close a deal before his reelection campaign in 1904 [1].  Roosevelt's US naval officer, Alfred Thayer Mahan, wrote the book __**Influence of Sea Power upon History**__, which supported the idea that the canal was an opportunity for the US to become a global power, and that the canal was crucial for military and commercial supremacy. American expansionists wanted to incorporate the Latin American countries into the American economy. The canal was an opportunity to gain both profits and power from the Latin American world. 



THE CREATION
Native villages and towns located in the Canal Zone were required to relocate. As a result, Pa namanians resented the Americans for entering their country and forcing them to relocate. It created tensions between the United States and Panama. After the construction of the canal, some towns were no longer needed and were abandoned. Contrarily, some start-up towns like the American headquarters in Culebra, thrived long after the construction was complete [1].

** Labor force: **
Panama had a sparse population and limited labor forces. The builders realized they would have to bring in workers from outside the country, and that the skilled labor positions would  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">need to be filled from Americans from the U.S.Over 5,000 Americans relocated to Panama to help with the Panama Canal construction. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">For the low-paid and minimal skilled jobs, West Indian laborers were used. When the French can al efforts had failed, the nearly 20,000 West Indian laborers they had brought in for the construction were left stranded in Panama. Also, many laborers were brought in from Barbados, about 19,000 altogether. About 10% of the population and 30-40% of mal <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 21px;">es were form Barbados. [1] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Other laborers, 7,500 men, were recruited from the French islands of martinique and Guadeloupe. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">As word spread of the good living conditions and high wages earned by the construction workers, workers poured into the area and there was no need to recruit workers.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">5609 workers have lost their lives since 1904 during construction of the Panama Canal. 80% of these workers were Black, and 350 were white Americans. [4]

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Malaria was a major issue during the construction of the canal. Nearly all of the American workforce contracted malaria during the first year (1905) of the construction, and about 1/3 of the white laborers died on the isthmus. As a result, progression of the construction was very slow.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Entrance of Panama Canal Work Force [1]
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Date** || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">**Work Force**  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">May, 1904 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">1,000 (Approx.) ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Nov., 1904 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">3,500 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Nov., 1905 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">17,000 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Dec., 1906 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">23,901 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Oct., 1907 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">31,967 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Oct., 1909 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">35,495 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Mar., 1910 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">38,676 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Aug., 1913 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">39,962 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">June, 1914 || <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">33,270[[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/editor/insert_table.gif width="1" align="right"]] ||

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;"> THE RESULT [2]
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">First Complete Panama Canal passage: January 1914 <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Width of the Canal Zone: **10 miles** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Time to transit Canal: **8-10 hours** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Number of ships crossing daily: **40** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Number of ships crossing each year: **12-15 thousand** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Estimated cost of the Panama Canal built by U.S.: **$375,000,000** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Number of lives lost during United States control: **5,609**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">The Panama Canal integrated US business and government forces into the South American market and spread the “American way of life” to new republics. US people wanted to close the gap between the two societies and cultures. Latin American countries accepted the US contributions: investment funds, new production and transportation technologies, sanitation, and education and economic advice.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The canal exceeded expectations regarding the amount of traffic it got. But it failed to integrate the economies of the American hemisphere. The canal benefited the United States more than it did the rest of the Americas. In 1934–1935, 60 percent of the cargo transported across the canal corresponded to U.S. accounts, and over 33 percent of total traffic consisted of commerce internal to the United States [1]. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">The Atlantic countries of South America did not make much use of the canal. Only the Pacific nations of South America, holding modest shares of the region's import-export trade, benefited from the new passage. Through the canal passed coffee and rubber from Brazil, sisal from Yucatan, nitrates from Chile, tin from Bolivia, sugar from Cuba, and oil from Peru. The canal was a gigantic transplantation of "industrial America" into the Central American jungle. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> The Panama Canal is an important part of Panama's income and jobs, and is considered to be vitally important to the United States economy, as well as the economies of other countries. A lot of Costa Rican coffee is transported through the Panama Canal, as well as fruit from tropical areas, and oil from countries like Venezuela. Many U.S. exports and imports travel through the Canal daily (over 10% of all U.S. shipping goes through the Canal). Exports represent jobs for U.S. citizens because the products were made by U.S. workers. Imports enable U.S. consumers to receive needed products.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">** The United Fruit Company: **
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;"> With the completion of the majority of the canal work in 1913 and 1914, some 5,000 workers were transferred to the Panamanian banana plantations owned by the United Fruit Company. By 1929, some 24,000 West Indian workers were working on the banana plantations in Panama [3]. Central America owes a lot of its ocean-transportation service to the presence of the banana industry. The United Fruit Company has set up steamship lines in Central America. The United Fruit Company used the Panama Canal more than any other US ships or companies. Large ships carrying both passengers and freight sail regularly between the United States and Central America, <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> as well as Colombia and Cuba, giving direct connections between these countries and five United States ports [3].

**<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">The changing importance of the canal: **
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Increased tolls lowered the demand for canal usage. Also, the canal faced competition from Mexican and United States land bridges (roads or railroads linking Atlantic and Pacific ports) [5]. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Over the past 20 years, the Panama Canal has become less importantly economically and shipping-wise. But it has become a famous tourist attraction and a travel destination, which has been an important factor in Panama's economy. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Panamanians approved a plan to expand the Panama Canal that will double the canal's capacity and will be completed by 2015 [5]. The improvements will maintain Panama's position in the global marketplace. Panama's economy is export based, as a result of the canal, and depends on globalization and improvements in order to maintain their power economically. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Panama City is the economic and financial center of Panama. The economy of the city and the country are dependent upon the Panama Canal and the shipping and trading that is associated with the canal.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Panama's Culture: **
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">During the construction of the canal, international workers brought their customs and traditions with them into the country. Like Costa Rican culture (music and dance), Panama's Culture is shaped by the African, European, and American origins. The coexisting cultures of the Spanish, Americans, and indigenous Indians are all present [1]. Panama has a "melting pot" of culture. There is a strong American presence in Panama; the construction of the Panama Canal forever changed the culture and customs of Panama. Panama culture encompasses North American culture, especially near the Panama Canal region [1]. People inhabiting the urban areas, where the US army was based and where the the construction work was under progress, people live sophisticared lives: architecture, music, sports: the cities represent contemporary society where US influence is apparent.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">1. "A History of the Panama Canal." //PanCanal//. Panama Canal Authority, n.d. Web. 26 Nov 2011. <http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/history/index.html>. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">2. "HIstory: interesting Facts." //Panama Canal Museum//. The Panama Canal Museum, 2008. Web. 26 Nov 2011. <http://panamacanalmuseum.org/index.php/history/interesting_facts/>. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">3. Chapman, Peter. //Bananas: How the United Fruit Compnay Shaped the World//. 1st. Canongate Books Ltd.: New York, 2009. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">4. "Fun Facts." //Bryant Community Web//. Bryant University, 2004. Web. 26 Nov 2011. <http://web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h497/lioeanjie/fnfacts.html>. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">5. Corbin, Gary. "Panama Canal Expansion and the Global Economy." //Global Envision//. Mercy Corps, 20 Nov 2006. Web. 26 Nov 2011. <http://www.globalenvision.org/library/3/1339>.