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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos
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U.S. History 1877-Present 5: The Panama Canal 250 Views
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Description:
It's a tale as old as time, the U.S. says it won't interfere with something...until it sorta kinda becomes useful to interfere. This video's about the interfere-a-palooza that went on with the Panama Canal.
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you Few things epitomized teddy roosevelt's foreign policy maneuverings
- 00:07
like the panama canal When it finished this manmade waterway
- 00:12
finally connected the atlantic and pacific oceans in the middle
- 00:15
of central america Why was this a big deal Because
- 00:18
it saved the u s and other interests a lot
Full Transcript
- 00:21
of trouble by not having to sail all the way
- 00:23
around south america Not only do long sea voyages increase
- 00:28
the chances of puke ing in your shoes they also
- 00:30
cost a ton of money Plus it would be mighty
- 00:33
helpful when it came to international negotiations Like once it
- 00:36
was complete us could say stuff like you can't use
- 00:40
my canal unless you come to my birthday party Of
- 00:44
course getting the job done was about as easy as
- 00:46
advanced levels of tetris america's first problem was that it
- 00:49
didn't own panama In fact panama didn't even own panama
- 00:53
back in nineteen o three this skinny sliver of central
- 00:55
america was still part of colombia Well columbia i got
- 00:58
a little freaked out and worried that it was losing
- 01:00
control of the partly dug canal and a region in
- 01:03
general to the us So the colombian said no gracias
- 01:07
Pero no gracias to the cat on treaty which would
- 01:11
have let us control the panama canal Well this was
- 01:14
annoying you roosevelt He probably had to go out and
- 01:16
shoot a moose or something and just get over it
- 01:18
But luckily enough there was a revolution brewing in panama
- 01:22
There was an ongoing beef between the colombian central government
- 01:25
and the panamanian nationalists who wanted their own country Well
- 01:28
previously the us had told colombia would not interfere which
- 01:31
it didn't until it became a useful thing to interfere
- 01:35
Of course we're roosevelt encouraged the panamanian nationalist to go
- 01:38
through with the rebellion they've been planning he said We've
- 01:41
got you covered now you guys go out there and
- 01:44
be total panna maniacs because we're panamanian Of course he
- 01:50
went further than just given the rebels of pep talk
- 01:52
He sent the u s navy down there to be
- 01:54
on standby Well the site of the us military might
- 01:56
have convinced the colombian navy that maybe it should just
- 01:59
go home This was known as gunboat diplomacy and was
- 02:03
an excellent example of roosevelt's big stick outlook on life
- 02:06
just the threat of military intervention was enough to make
- 02:09
colombia back down without even starting a traditional war hey
- 02:13
no violence probably nice for a change Well three days
- 02:16
later on november six nineteen o three america recognized panama
- 02:19
as an independent country as a thank you for the
- 02:22
major assist the panamanians granted the us control over the
- 02:25
canal forever which turned out to be until nineteen Ninety
- 02:28
nine huh Well forever must mean ninety six years in
- 02:31
panamanian won a strange conversion system but a lot of 00:02:34.975 --> [endTime] work Oh boy
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