USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR

[SOURCES]
Construction continued on the Panama Canal after Panama gained independence from ____

(A) ** Colombia

(B) the United States

(C) Great Britain

(D) Nicaragua

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -With the support of the U.S. government, Panama issues a declaration of independence from Colombia. The revolution was engineered by a Panamanian faction backed by the Panama Canal Company, a French-U.S. corporation that hoped to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama.

Concept note-2: -The United States spent almost $500 million (roughly equivalent to $13.5 billion in 2021) to finish the project. This was by far the largest American engineering project to date. The canal was formally opened on August 15, 1914, with the passage of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

Concept note-3: -Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal symbolized U.S. technological prowess and economic power. Although U.S. control of the canal eventually became an irritant to U.S.-Panamanian relations, at the time it was heralded as a major foreign policy achievement.

Concept note-4: -The Panama Canal was first developed following the failure of a French construction team in the 1880s, when the United States commenced building a canal across a 50-mile stretch of the narrow Panama isthmus in 1904.