Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal
* What: Roosevelt's sending US Navy ships to break Panama away from Colombia, followed by the many deaths in building the Panama Canal, and far later, deaths in rioting against US control of the canal.
* The Body Count: Over 5,600 deaths from the US effort to build the Panama Canal. 32 deaths on Martyrs' Day riots protesting US control of the canal in 1964, 28 Panamanians killed by US forces and four Americans dead.
* Who Else Gets the Blame:
* Phillipe Bunau Varilla, a corrupt French businessman, played a central role in the scheming for Panamanian independence to get the canal for the US. Bunau Varilla signed for the Panamanians, though he had no legal authority, and took much of the millions the US paid. Bunau Varilla wrote the Canal Treaty and bribed his way into becoming Panama's president.
* Some authors blame Colombian neglect of the province of Panama. Panama was isolated from the rest of Colombia by geography, high mountains cutting off contact except by the sea.
* Others blame a new wave of US imperialism or renewed belief in Manifest Destiny. But while this sentiment did support Roosevelt, it does not change his central role.
* Many conservatives and supporters of American empire blamed Panamanian Commander Omar Torrijos for deaths in the riots because of his opposition to US control of the canal.
* There had been US efforts to build a canal in Central America for 60 years before the scheming that led to the Panamanian uprising for independence. Several mercenary expeditions tried to take over Nicaragua to build a canal there, notably William Walker in the 1840s and 50s. But no one person created the canal more than Teddy Roosevelt. It is fair to say that without Roosevelt there would not be a nation of Panama, nor its canal that was for so long been a hated symbol of US imperialism.
* From a humanitarian point of view, Teddy Roosevelt was a disaster. One can argue Roosevelt was an important president. It is much harder to argue he was a good one, and certainly not a noble one. Roosevelt began the most famed part of his career as a bored rich man playing at being soldier, a dilettante and warmonger with little understanding of war who greatly exaggerated his own role in a minor skirmish against an outgunned enemy of draftees in a failing empire. Born extremely sheltered and privileged, Roosevelt's family connections helped get him elected to the New York legislature and several other posts that led to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, where he schemed to get the US involved in the Spanish-American War while the actual Secretary of the Navy was on vacation.
* Where President McKinley fretted about the rightness of going to war, Roosevelt had no such moral qualms. His fear was that war would not happen. When public hysteria pushed the US into war, Roosevelt resigned, leading his famed Rough Riders, many of them bored socialites like him. At the famous Battle of San Juan Hill, Roosevelt charged the hill in his custom made Brooks Brother uniform.
The entire war was over in less than two months. Roosevelt's part in it was a minor skirmish lasting a few hours and some weeks in the tropics. Such an easy victory over a slight enemy gave him an enormously distorted view of war, one he carried until the end of his life.
* As president, he was the first of the progressive presidents, later followed by Taft and Wilson. One should not confuse progressives of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with those of today. Early progressives were reformers, often from elite or upper middle class backgrounds. The name is about all they had in common with those of today. Early progressives were strong believers in both pseudo scientific racism and class warfare. For the latter, they practiced warfare by the wealthy and upper middle class against the working class. They did not believe minorities, immigrants, and other working class people were capable of running their own lives. Early progressives wanted to reform politics and end corruption, but they assumed such corruption came from easily manipulated poor or nonwhite people unable to govern themselves. Roosevelt believed in pseudo scientific racism, and was trained at Harvard by some of the worst pseudo scientific racists in America. He believe that other races were inferior, but thought they could “progress” given time.
* Becoming president because of McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt was an unapologetic empire builder. He supported the US-Philippines War and defended the conquest because of his racist belief Filipinos could not rule their own nation. Only after being pushed by public outcry against atrocities did he agree to a ceasefire, declaring amnesty for Filipino patriots.
* Roosevelt was a capable negotiator, but for empire. His Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine had the US collecting debts for other imperial powers. At that time, believe it or not, empires routinely went to war to collect money owed to businesses in their countries. To keep Britain and France from invading Latin America, Roosevelt agreed to have US troops invade Latin America if British and French debts were not paid. This was saber rattling to protect one's self proclaimed turf. Roosevelt invaded repeatedly; Panama in 1903, Honduras three times, in 1903, 1905, and 1907; the Dominican Republic in 1903, staying over a year; Mexico in 1905; Cuba in 1906, staying three years; and Nicaragua in 1907.
* Some historians point to his negotiating treaties, but again this was from his desire to flex the new US imperial muscle, not nobility. His results were debatable. The Treaty of Portsmouth ended the Russo-Japanese War. Japan easily won the war, but the Japanese public was shocked by the treaty since Japan received so little of the territories they fought for. Their anger pushed the nation more towards eventual fascism. In the Morocco Crisis of 1905-06, some historians give him credit for preventing an earlier World War I. Others argue the crisis only set the stage for World War I. There is no consensus.
* It was the Panama Canal that showed Roosevelt as his most nakedly imperial. Panama was a province of Colombia, had been a part of the nation since the breakup of Gran Colombia over 70 years before. Many in Panama sometimes complained of neglect. There had been riots and even uprisings for several decades. At the same time, several nations competed to build a canal in Central America for over half a century, including both Mexico and Nicaragua. The French had financed an earlier effort in Panama that failed due to malaria, though they did build part of it.
* Roosevelt and a corrupt French businessman, Phillippe Bunau Varilla, stepped in. Roosevelt negotiated to build and then rent the canal, signing the Hays-Herran Treaty. Colombia’s Congress refused the treaty, since Herran had negotiated without consulting them and the treaty price was very low. Roosevelt then told rebels in Panama he would help them if they revolted. The uprising began, and the USS Tennessee blocked Colombian troops from crushing the revolt since the only route to Panama was by sea.
* Roosevelt immediately recognized Panama as independent. He now negotiated and signed the new Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty. No Panamanian signed it. Bunau Varilla was signing for them as Panama's president, an office he had bought. He also designed Panama’s constitution, flag, and military. He even offered to finance the government entirely from his own money. What made him so eager to do all this was that, if the treaty was not signed and no canal built, Bunau Varilla stood to lose $40 million he had tied up in the canal, and that was in 1900s dollars.
* Colombia’s government was understandably angry. Their Congress offered to reconsider the Hays-Herran Treaty. One official even offered to move Colombia’s capital to Panama. Roosevelt refused. In 1921, President Harding apologized to Colombia and paid $21 million to the nation. Roosevelt’s theft of the canal area came to nothing, except for Panamanian independence, since the cost was eventually more than if he had paid Colombia fairly at the start. For in addition to paying Colombia, the US also bought out Bunau Varilla’s company for $40 million.
* Building the Panama Canal caused over 5,600 deaths from disease. This was actually far fewer deaths than the French attempt. White workers from the US, who made up the skilled workers and supervisors, lived in spacious clean homes with good sanitation. They had clubhouses, gyms, tennis courts, pool halls, baseball fields, and even ice cream parlors, all managed by the YMCA. The white worker areas also were a model of how to stop malaria and yellow fever. Before white workers even showed up, the military spent two years draining swamps and spraying with insecticide. White workers' hospitals also were excellent, taking good care of any remaining malaria victims.
* But because of racist segregation, Black West Indians who made up almost all the laborers could not live in the white worker areas. They lived in tent cities outside. Black workers died from disease at rates ten times that of white workers. Roosevelt, by his single minded dedication to build the canal, shares some of the blame for these deaths. The US Army could easily have kept down the number of Black worker deaths also. Panamanian society, with mostly mixed ancestry people, did not practice segregation. Segregated camps were a US import, causing thousands of deaths.
* The Panama Canal became a hated symbol of US imperialism all across Latin America. Riots broke out in 1964. Kennedy had agreed to allow the Panamanian flag to be flown in the canal zone next to US flags. The canal zone governor later reinterpreted the order to say neither flag be flown. American students in the canal zone raised a US flag at one school, and then did not allow Panamanian students to add their flag, and beat them. Other Panamanians demonstrated and dozens were killed by US police, who were later reinforced by US troops. That day is remembered in Panama as Martyrs Day. Anger from that day eventually led to the Panama Canal Treaty, when Jimmy Carter gave the canal back, somewhat restoring good relations. (See Section Eight.) Much of that goodwill was undone by a US invasion in 1989. (See Section Four.)
* Teddy Roosevelt was above all an imperial president, but never a noble one. He remains admired by some for early environmental or progressive ideas, and by others for being the most prominent president to confuse bullying small nations with being a great nation.