The Panama Canal
Two oceans joined, and a country created to allow it
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Panama is the narrowest place between the Atlantic and the Pacific, around eighty kilometres from coast to coast. Panama was created as a state in 1903 when the United States backed a secession from Colombia after Colombia refused the canal terms — the canal is therefore the reason for the country, not the other way round. The construction is also a turning point in medical history: William Gorgas's mosquito control was the first large-scale application of vector theory. The Canal Zone remained American until 1999, when it was transferred to Panama under the Torrijos–Carter treaties.
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A canal through Panama meant ships no longer had to sail around all of South America. France tried first and gave up after more than twenty thousand workers died of malaria and yellow fever. The United States succeeded after it was understood that mosquitoes carried the diseases.
Sources
- McCullough, The Path Between the Seas (1977)
- Torrijos–Carter-traktatene (1977)
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