Theodore Roosevelt, who was then president, recorded his contempt of the Bogota Treaty which was made after this revolution. He expressed himself in these words: "I did not lift my finger to incite the revolutionists. Colombia was solely responsible for her own humiliation, and she had not then and has not now, one shadow of claim upon us moral or legal; all the wrong that was done, was done by her.
The Bogota Treaty promises the South American republic twenty-five million dollars, together with certain other concessions as an indemnity for any injury which Colombia might have suffered through the loss of Panama and the building of the Panama canal. The attempt of the present Administration to obtain its immediate ratification recently failed and the Roosevelt senators have served notice on President Harding that they would not allow the treaty to go to vote until the people had a chance to read and hear the question debated in the senate.
If you need to return an item, please Contact Us with your order number and details about the product you would like to return. We will respond quickly with instructions for how to return items from your order. Posterazzi is offering Free Shipping on all U. Orders placed today. We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Size: Required 18 x 24 24 x Current Stock:. Quantity: Decrease Quantity: Increase Quantity:. Mudslides buried men, supplies, and machines. And from the freshwater pools that lay everywhere, a deadly plague of insects rose.
In , the French recorded about 60 deaths from disease. In , the number doubled. The following year, died. Malaria and yellow fever were the most common killers. Because the company often fired sick men to reduce medical costs, the numbers probably reflect low estimates. Believing the fumes from rotting vegetation caused the disease, doctors at the French hospital at Ancon advised workers to avoid the night air.
Only after thousands of deaths would the cause be attributed to virus-carrying mosquitoes. Three out of four men hospitalized at Ancon died, despite the massive investments that made the hospital among the finest in the tropical world.
In no small manner was this hastened by the architecture of the hospital gardens. To protect the potted plants from attack by ants, gardeners had set the pots in pottery bowls filled with water. Disease-carrying mosquitoes multiplied in these reservoirs by the million and carried their deadly cargo through the screenless windows of the hospital each night. Year after year, the digging-and the dying-continued. As the toll mounted, so did discontent. French investors grumbled at the lack of progress.
The word Panama quickly became synonymous with scandal and fraud. Fifty million cubic meters of earth and rock had been moved. Eleven miles of canal had been dug. Twenty thousand men had died. The canal remained unfinished, but the dream had not yet ended. Theodore Roosevelt would soon take up the cause.
Shortly after ascending to the presidency, Roosevelt spoke of the Panama Canal in a speech to Congress. The U. S Department of War would direct excavation. Many, both in the press and in the public, sensed a scandal, or, worse yet, good money thrown after bad. In the New York Journal, William Randolph Hearst opined that "the only way we could secure a satisfactory concession from Colombia would be to go down there, take the contending statesmen by the necks, and hold a batch of them in office long enough to get a contract in mind.
When Colombia grew reticent in its negotiations, Roosevelt and Panamanian business interests collaborated on a revolution. The battle for Panama lasted only a few hours. Nashville cruised off the Panamanian coast in a show of support. On November 3, , the nation of Panama was born. S quickly assumed parental interest. Americans had written the Panamanian Constitution in advance; the wife of pro-canal lobbyist Phillipe Bunau-Varilla had sewn the country's first flag. Bunau-Varilla, installed as Panamanian minister to the U.
P Morgan for distribution to French stockholders disappeared amid rumors of larcenous speculation. The chief engineer, John Findlay Wallace, neglected to organize the effort or to develop an action plan. The food was putrid, the living conditions abysmal. Political red tape put a stranglehold on appropriations. Disease struck, and three out of four Americans booked passage home.
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