A. long interest in the construction of an interoceanic canal
B. US-New Granada Treaty (1846) giving the US intervention rights
C. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 with British
D. First Hay-Paunceforte Treaty (1901)
E. Second Hay-Paunceforte Treaty (February 22, 1902)
F. Spooner Amendment to Isthmian Canal Act (June 28, 1902)
G. Hay-Herrán Treaty (March 17,1903)
H. Panamanian Revolution (November 3, 1903)
I. US-Colombian, US-Panamanian Relations since 1903
I. Bryan-Chamorro Treaty with Nicaragua (1914) negotiated to give the US canal rights
2. US-Colombia:
A. Thomson-Urrutía Treaty of 1914. April 1914 convention US expressed "sincere
regret" and agreed to pay indemnity of $25 million but it not ratified because of the
popularity of President Theodore Roosevelt.
B. In 1921, the US paid an indemnity without an apology. Oil had been discovered in
Colombia.
C. Taft Agreements (1904) adjusted minor grievances, until 1924
D. 1936 treaty increased the annuity to $430,000 and changed guarantee of Panamanian
independence into consultation for mutual defense
E. In 1955, the annuity was raised to $1,930,000 and Panamanians given employment and
commercial equality in Zone, boundary adjustments, and the US relinquished monopoly over
railroad.
3. US-Panamanian Problems until 1978
4. Points to note:
A. The Canal acquisition provided the final impetus at least, to turning the Caribbean
into an American lake. Thus, the US intervened in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua,
and Haiti to insure that European governments would not intervene and that these
governments would be under US control. They became protectorates, just as Cuba was a US
protectorate. The US also intervened in Mexico and purchased the Danish West Indies.
B. The British acquiesced in this new role of the US by withdrawing their fleet from
the West Indies.
C. Taft, at least, fostered the use of US private investment and private loans to Latin
American, Caribbean nations to encourage US control because these were strategic areas for
US. In the case of Nicaragua, the US government blatantly backed US bankers as opposed to
British bankers.
D. Although Wilson, in a Mobile speech, promised that the US would change policy, there
was not much difference except that Wilsonian intervention was more thorough and lengthy
E. Wilson engaged in "moral diplomacy," seeking to project his moral values
on Latin America.
F. The strategic interest seems to be the overriding factor in US intervention.
Although US foreign investment and US loans to these areas increased, these do not seem to
be the causes of intervention but the results. How could the US allow any other group to
do the financing if the US goal was US security?
G. Teddy Roosevelt changed his policy towards European intervention. In the case of the
Venezuela debt controversy of 1902-03, he said that European nations had the right to
spank defaulters. But in 1903, the US acquired Canal rights, which changed the picture.
Further, the Hague court decision of 1904 meant that foreign intervention was encouraged.
Once a power intervened, it might not leave and the Canal, in US eyes, would be
threatened. Thus Roosevelt made his famous December, 1904 speech to Congress about chronic
wrong-doing would cause the US to intervene to prevent European powers from intervening;
this was the Roosevelt Corollary. The US assumes role of international policeman in the
Circum-Caribbean region.