(A) It allowed the United States to colonize Central and South America.
(B) It would help spread democracy to smaller nations.
(C) ** It allowed ships to cross directly between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
(D) It would prevent Russia from doing the same thing.
EXPLANATIONS BELOW
Concept note-1: -The canal would remove trade barriers between the U.S. and South America. The U.S. would elimiate the European financial presence in Central America. In the early-1900s, why did the United States feel that it was important to complete the construction of the Panama Canal AND control the canal?
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: -In the late 1890s Bunau-Varilla began lobbying American lawmakers to buy the French canal assets in Panama, and eventually convinced a number of them that Nicaragua had dangerous volcanoes, making Panama the safer choice.
Concept note-4: -The United States established diplomatic relations with Panama in 1903 following its separation from Colombia. That year, through the Hay/Bunau-Varilla Treaty, Panama granted the United States rights to a zone spanning the country to build, administer, fortify, and defend an inter-oceanic canal.
Concept note-5: -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.