ABSTRACT

The isthmus of Panama was part of Colombia in 1902. In 1903 the United States proposed the building of a canal across Panama, which would vastly shorten the sea route between Atlantic and Pacific. When Colombia was slow to agree, the Americans fomented a secession in Panama and prevented Colombia from suppressing it. Under a treaty with the new Panamanian republic, they built and operated the Panama Canal (6, 66) and controlled a ten-mile-wide zone along its banks. New treaties that took effect in 1979 abolished the Canal Zone, gave Panama more say in the operation of the canal, and provided for Panama to take full control in the year 2000.