Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal

PRESIDENTIAL POWER

THE CANAL

• Roosevelt used his formal power of making treaties
• The president's signature is not binding, but the president has the power of diplomatic recognition
• He expanded this power by using it to its limit and avoiding consensus whenever possible, mostly relying on himself to make decisions. By doing things such as advocating a rebellion that took land from Colombia and avoiding other opinions for benefit of his own, he manipulated the situation to yield favorable outcome for him

• Though nearly everyone favored a Nicaraguan canal, Roosevelt was dead-set against it. He summoned commissioners to the White House and convinced them to change their findings from a study, which had hurt the prospect of a Panama canal

• On August 12, 1903, the Colombian congress rejected the canal treaty unanimously, halting the Roosevelt's plans

• Roosevelt then learned that construction of the canal was technically within his rights due to the Mallarino-Bidlack Treaty of 1846

• After a revolution by Panama against Colombia, (which Roosevelt had encouraged and helped Panama win by ordering the US fleet to block Colombian forces from getting to Panama), it became an independent country, and the new country agreed to a treaty that would allow the canal to be built

PRESIDENTIAL TYPOLOGY AND EFFICIENCY

• Roosevelt was active-positive

• Very effective in using the power of persuasion
• Hay's re-renegotiated treaty with Great Britain
• Commissioners changing findings

• Likely effective because of his natural energy and the motivation he had to get the canal built

HISTORY

Horrible song... but it does the job

HISTORY CONTINUED

Do you think Roosevelt took the right action, or did the negatives outweigh the positives?

• Ever since Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first European to traverse the Isthmus of Panama in 1513, people had dreamed of a canal to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific

• Nicaragua was determined to be the most favorable place for a large canal, and the British seized several of its port cities. The US saw this action as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, so the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was signed.

• US and New Granada (then made up of Colombia and Panama) signed the Mallarino-Bidlack Treaty

• Panama was determined to be a good canal location

• French diplomat and engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps unsuccessfully tried to build Panama's canal, but a fatal calculation caused it to fail

Which of these do you think should have been the most important deciding factor?

• Roosevelt and others created "The Large Policy" in the mid-1890s, which came to define US foreign policy

• McKinley's secretary of state, John Hay, was tasked with renegotiating the old Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain, and the new deal allowed for US construction/operation, but no fortification, of a canal.

• He finalized a re-renegotiated treaty with no encumbrances for the US 2 months after Roosevelt was elected president

IMPACTS ON PRESIDENTIAL POWER

Short-term

• Criticism and controversy from many, including big-name publications

Long-Term

• Birth of the modern presidency
• Emergence of US as a global power (and later, superpower)
• "The Large Policy" came to define US foreign policy

Do you think the long term impacts justified the actions taken by Roosevelt? If not, what actions could he have taken that would yield similar benefit?

Teddy ROOSEVELT BUILDS

THE PANAMA CANAL