USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM

[SOURCES]
The major criticism that some Americans had concerning the construction of the Panama Canal was that

(A) the canal would force America to have a navy in both the Pacific and the Atlantic.

(B) the canal would be outlandishly expensive to build.

(C) ** the tactics that the Americans used to get the rights to build the canal were unsavory at best.

(D) American forces would have to be stationed indefinitely in Panama to guard the canal.

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -A canal across the narrow neck of Central America would link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and cut some 8, 000 miles off the voyage by ship from the West to the East coasts of the United States. It would also allow the U.S. Navy to link its Atlantic and Pacific naval fleets quickly.

Concept note-2: -Americans knew they needed this to move ships from east to west quickly. If they did that, they would control power because they would control the oceans. The Canal was a geopolitical strategy to make the United States the most powerful nation on earth.

Concept note-3: -Which of the following best explains why the building of the Panama Canal supported United States’ efforts to become a world power? By providing a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it opened up new trading opportunities.

Concept note-4: -Construction of the Panama Canal is considered the world’s greatest engineer feats because the workers had to deal with disease such as yellow fever and malaria. There were about 43, 400 workers and over 5, 600 of them had died due to the diseases, soft volcanic soil, or from the dangers of the job.