The U.S., led by President Theodore Roosevelt, entered into negotiations with Colombia, which, at that time, ruled over the territory of Panama, but it failed to secure a deal to allow it to proceed with the canal’s construction. It then considered invading Panama, but, in the end, a slightly less direct course of action was pursued. Roosevelt ordered warships to the coast of the territory, where they then supported the Panamanian independence movement. This was no simple act of revolutionary solidarity, and, following the 1903 declaration of Panama’s independence, the new republic was essentially absorbed into America’s rising empire. A treaty was signed without a Panamanian present, granting the United States control of the strip of land where the canal would be constructed. Panama received payments from the U.S., but at the expense of its sovereignty.
Roosevelt framed the enormous construction project that followed in terms of American greatness, thereby obscuring from history the people who, for the most part, actually did the work. While Americans certainly were involved in the project, the vast majority of the work was undertaken by people from around the world, particularly from the West Indies. These laborers were managed within a sort of apartheid system, wherein unskilled Black workers were paid less than their white counterparts, while, simultaneously, being tasked with the most dangerous jobs. It is for this reason, in combination with the fact they were housed in terrible conditions, that Black workers were much more likely to die on the job.
Trump, during his inauguration speech, implied that the United States “lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal,” but, in reality, the number of U.S. citizens who died is closer to 300. Americans were only a tiny fraction of 25,000 people who died during the original French project and the 6,000 who died during the later American one, but that’s not really the point. Trump, as Roosevelt did before him, is casting the canal’s construction as a strictly American achievement, which, the logic implies, grants the U.S. the right to control it.
The finished canal, after it began operating in 1914, immediately became vital to American trade and naval activities, while, as Roosevelt intended, it also served as a grand symbol of U.S. imperial might. But the thing about imperialism is that it can stir a fair amount of resentment among those it touches, and, as the 20th century drew on, people in Panama began to resist. Even Henry Kissinger saw the danger in this imperialist hubris, saying in 1975, “if these [Canal] negotiations fail, we will be beaten to death in every international forum and there will be riots all over Latin America.” Protests against the Americans did break out, which, in 1977, led President Jimmy Carter to agree to the slow transfer of power over the canal to Panama itself.
“Fairness,” the president said at the time, “and not force should lie at the heart of our dealings with the nations of the world,” but not quite everyone agreed. Plenty of American politicians resented Carter’s deal, including one Ronald Regan, who claimed “the people of the United States” were “the rightful owners of the canal zone.” Trump, then, is hardly an aberration, but is rather drawing from a deep well of American imperialistic hubris and acrimony.
It took two decades for the transfer of power to be completed, but, by 1999, Panama was finally in control of the canal cutting its country in two. And, as it quickly became clear, they were far better equipped to manage it than the Americans had been, with efficiency increasing and less accidents taking place. By 2007, it was necessary to expand the canal to accommodate additional traffic, so Panama pumped more than $5 billion into doing so. By the time the expansion project was finished in 2016, the canal’s capacity had more than doubled, which was, to be clear, a Panamanian achievement, not one the United States can claim ownership of.
Almost a quarter of Panama’s annual income is generated from the canal today, but it is not entirely smooth sailing—an accidental pun—as climate change lowers the water levels essential to its functionality. Panama, in response, has set limits on the amount of traffic allowed to pass through the canal, while raising fees upon the ships that do. It is this action, seemingly, that has so irked Trump, the 78-year-old tantrum-prone boy king. The “ridiculous” fees are, from Trump’s perspective, “highly unfair, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama, I say, very foolishly, by the United States.”
Trump likely does want to drive down the fees American ships pay to pass through the Panama Canal, but there is, too, another concern on the president’s strange and addled mind. As per his inauguration speech, “And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”
It is not true that China is plainly “operating the Panama Canal,” but it is becoming increasingly powerful in Panama and Latin America more broadly. China has become South America’s biggest trading partner, while it has specifically invested heavily in the canal. This increased investment corresponds neatly with Panama, in 2017, officially committing to China’s wishes that it not maintain relations with Taiwan, which, clearly, is a diplomatic win for America’s chief rival. Contained within Trump’s babbling about Chinese control of the canal, then, is a deeper, entirely evidence-based anxiety experienced by the American elite as a whole that China is moving into America’s resource-rich “backyard.”
None of this means that Trump will actually invade Panama over the course of his term—although it certainly can’t be ruled out—but it does signal that he takes very seriously the idea of rebuilding U.S. imperial might throughout the Americas. Trump is looking to old-school imperialists like Roosevelt to inspire his latest attempt to make America great again, and that should be a big concern. The U.S. has done terrible damage in Latin America over the years, and Trump, amid all the bluster and bullshit, is telling us he wants to do some more.
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