PANAMA CANAL TREATY

On November 18, 1903, the United States and the then new Republic of Panama signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, granting the United States exclusive control over a 10-mile strip across the Isthmus of Panama. This gave the United States control of the Panama Canal, a lock-type man-made channel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the isthmus. The canal is about 51 miles long, from the deep water of the Atlantic to the deep water of the Pacific. The United States paid $10 million and agreed to pay an annuity of $250,000 to Panama, which became a virtual protectorate of the United States. Because Panama had been a part of Colombia prior to its becoming a protectorate of the United States, the United States compensated Colombia for its loss with the signing of the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty in 1914. In 1921 Colombia was paid $25 million when this treaty was finally ratified in Congress. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 gave the United States the right to build and operate the canal, and it awarded the United States sovereign rights of over five miles of territory on either side of the waterway and area known as the Canal Zone. In 1936 the original treaty was voided by the Hull-Alfaro Treaty, which ended the eminent domain provisions of the original treaty and raised the annual annuity to Panama to $430,000. In 1955 the Eisenhower-Remon Treaty further modified the original treaty to increase the annuity once again and to include building of a bridge over the Canal (finished in 1962). In 1977, because of ongoing rioting in Panama, a final treaty amendment was signed between the United States and Panama. The treaty now stated that control of the canal would revert to the Panamanians by the year 2000, giving Panama exclusive control of all the international ship-traffic passing through the canal yearly, including commercial vessels loaded with cargo.

See also: Panama Canal (Building of)