Main Ideas:

• The United States build the Panama Canal in the early 1900s.

• Theodore Roosevelt changed U.S. policy toward Latin America.

• Presidents Taft and Wilson promoted U.S. interest in Latin America.

• The Untied States expanded its role in Latin America in the early 1900s.

Building the Panama Canal

• Link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and cut some 8,000 miles of the voyage by ship from the West to the East coasts of the United States.

• Would allow the U.S. Navy to link its Atlantic and Pacific naval fleets quickly.

Revolution in Panama

• President Theodore Roosevelt knew the best spot for the canal was the Isthmus of Panama, which was apart of the nation of Columbia.

• Roosevelt could not convince the Colombian senate to lease a strip of land across Panama to the U.S.

Revolution in Panama

• Roosevelt needed another way: Panamanian revolutionaries were planning a revolt against Columbia.

• November 2, 1903: U.S. warship arrived outside on Colon, Panama.

• November 3, 1903 the revolt began.

• Blocked by U.S. warship, Colombian forces could not reach Panama to stop rebellion.

• Panama declared itself an independent country.

Revolution in Panama

• The new government in Panama supported the idea of a canal across its land.

• The United States agreed to pay Panama $10 million plus $250,000 a year for 99 year lease on a 10 mile wide strip of land across the isthmus.

Building the Canal

• Canal construction began 1904.

• Tropical disease was an obstacle, forests and swamps full of mosquitoes.

• Dr. William C. Gorgas, helped Dr. Walter Reed stamp out yellow fever in Cuba and worked to ride the canal route of disease carrying mosquitoes.

Of the tens of thousands of workers constructing the French canal, over 85% were hospitalized and 22,000 died primarily due to Yellow Fever.

Building a Canal

• Dangerous work: Most of the canal had been blasted out of solid rock with explosives.

• Workers used dozens of steam shovels to cut a narrow, eight mile long channel through the mountains of central Panama.

• Workers died when their shovel struck explosive charges.

• Some 6,000 lives were lost during the American construction of the Panama Canal.

Building a Canal

• The Panama Canal opened August 15, 1914 linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

• It took 10 years to complete and cost $375 million.

• It is known as "the highway between oceans".

U.S. Policy Toward Latin America

• Roosevelt believed the U.S. should take an active role in the Western Hemisphere.

• "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far".

• The "Big Stick" is the U.S. military force (it would protect U.S. interests in Latin America.)

U.S. Policy Toward Latin America

• Monroe Doctrine: warned European nations not to interfere in the Western Hemisphere (U.S. could not enforce this at the time).

• Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine warned that in cases of "wrongdoing" by Latin America countries, the United States might exercise "international police power".

• Roosevelt enforced the corollary thought his presidency.

U.S. Interests in Latin America

• Dollar Diplomacy: influencing governments through economic, not military intervention (used by Taft).

• "substituting dollars for bullets. It is directed to the increase of American trade."

• Keep Europeans out of Latin America by expanding U.S. business interests there.

U.S. Interests in Latin America

• Woodrow Wilson: rejected dollar diplomacy and agreed with big stick policy.

• Wilson was willing to use military force to protect U.S. interests in the region.

U.S. Interests in Latin America

• 1910: Mexicans revolted against the harsh rule of Mexican dictator Porfino Diaz.

• Mexican Revolution: long violent struggle for power in Mexico.

• War affected U.S. interests because Americans invested more than $1 billion in Mexican land, mining, oil, and railways... Americans were fearful their investment would be lost.

U.S. Interests in Latin America

• 1914: Woodrow Wilson learned that a German ship carrying weapons was headed to the port of Veracruz, Mexico.

• Wilson ordered the navy to seize Veracruz.

• 1916: John J. Pershing and 15,000 U.S. soldiers into Mexico to catch rebel leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa, who had killed 17 Americans in New Mexico.

• Pershing failed and Wilson recalled the troops.

U.S. Interests in Latin America

In 1917 a new constitution began to bring order to Mexico. The violence caused more than 120,000 Mexicans to flee to the United States between 1905-1915.