The Importance Of Building The Panama Canal

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For many years people had to use other waterways that would take longer to get around to get to places. In the 16th century, people had came up with the idea of building a waterway that would allow easier access. They came up with the idea of the Panama Canal, that would allow us to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. At the time, President Ulysses S. Grant, sent an army of people to look for a possible building spot for the canal. The canal was very important. Before the idea of the canal was out, people would have to take a long and dangerous trip to where they needed to go. It was during the time of the Spanish American war, that many people said that the canal would be a good idea. In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt believed that that the United States was in need of a group of individuals that could watch over the oceans as people traveled through them. The canal in Roosevelt 's eyes would make people come together better. He finally devoted himself to building the Panama Canal. The first, and most important step of building the canal was to get an “Ok” from Colombia. The United States had a treaty named the Hay-Pauncefote, which …show more content…

The area the carried the most disease was the Isthmus. When Americans had took over the job of building the canal, many of them had lost their lives due to the disease. Roosevelt realized that with people getting sick, and some dying he needed to find help quickly. With the help of William Gorgas, the disease of malaria was finally wiped out. However, this did not happen right away because in 1905 an outbreak of yellow fever had just hit. With yellow fever outbreaking, many Americans as well as others, left the country, which of course put the construction of the Panama Canal on hold. Many Americans thought that this was the last problem that occured, but unfortunately it wasn 't. The French had tried to build the canal but they failed at doing