In Nov 1906, Theodore Roosevelt became the get-go sitting U.S. president to brand a diplomatic watch exterior the continental United States. On Nov. 9, he sailed for Panama to thought the structure of the Panama Canal, a symbol of the expansion of U.S. geopolitical power, for himself.
At its narrowest point, the isthmus of Panama separates the Atlantic in addition to Pacific oceans past times a mere xxx miles (50 kilometers). Since the 1500s, explorers in addition to entrepreneurs had dreamed of a path that would drastically cutting the fourth dimension in addition to resources required to cross from 1 sea to the other: Sea transit betwixt the U.S. due east in addition to due west coasts was a weekslong, 13,000-mile journey.
Control over such a path gave Washington a valuable origin of revenue in addition to immense geopolitical influence. Alfred Thayer Mahan, the cracking naval in addition to geopolitical writer, knew that U.S. command of the Central American isthmus, in addition to the possibility of a trans-isthmus canal, would endure pivotal for the projection of U.S. state of war machine in addition to commercial power. Roosevelt, too, was keenly aware of this; he had served equally secretarial assistant of the Navy nether President William McKinley, who had bolstered U.S. influence inwards international affairs past times extending the U.S. Navy’s geographic reach.
Panamanian author Ovidio Diaz Espino seat it simply: “The canal was a geopolitical strategy to brand the the States the nearly powerful field on earth.” The U.S. would become on to run the canal for the residuum of the century, bringing inwards billions of dollars inwards revenue from the tens of thousands of vessels that used the canal each year. In 1977, alongside the signing of 2 U.S.-Panama treaties, the the States agreed to manus over command of the canal to the Panamanian government. The transfer was completed inwards 1999.
Buat lebih berguna, kongsi:
