Building the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal
by Rit NosotroComparative Essay
Compare the building of the Panama Canal with that of the Suez Canal.
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Summary:
As early as the 1830s railroads had begun to usurp the position of canals as
important transportation routes around the world. But two of the largest and
most important of the world’s canals had yet to be built: the Suez Canal
in Egypt between the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the Panama Canal in Panama
between the Atlantic and Pacific. Both canals divide continents and often save
ships thousands of miles of travel. The Panama Canal, though less than half
as long as the Suez Canal, was more difficult to build. Both, however, required
great amounts of manual labor, and both were to become immensely important waterways
and the control of them controversial political issues.
A canal across the desert from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea had been attempted
more than once throughout history, but without lasting success. That is, until
Ferdinand de Lesseps organized the Suez Canal Company in 1858, and with French
and Ottoman support (the latter in reality coming from the Egyptian Pasha) began
the digging in 1859. 20,000 Egytians would labor for roughly the next ten years,
often working only with shovels, sometimes assisted by mechanized diggers on
rafts and carts on railroad tracks to haul away dirt. At one point explosives
had to be used to break through a rock ledge, but otherwise there were few natural
obstacles, and engineers made use of five small lakes. The canal was completed
in 1869.
de Lesseps, who had led the project, was not done building canals yet. He next
set his sights on a canal through Panama, buying the rights for the project
and beginning digging in 1882. However, the situation in Panama was far different
from that of Egypt. Tropical diseases infested the difficult terrain the route
would traverse. Geographic obstacles, particularly the high altitude of the
continental divide made locks (sets of gates which raise and lower ships between
canal sections of different heights) a necessity, but the French did not realize
this until four years after beginning digging. Financial difficulties, including
the stealing of large sums by corrupt French politicians, added to de Lesseps’
troubles and eventually forced him to give it up in 1889.
The partially-dug canal would lie abandoned until the United States found a
sudden interest in it. The Spanish-American War caused the Americans to realize
what a military advantage the canal would be – it would allow the Navy
to be quicker and more flexible. But negotiations got hung up in the Columbian
legislature, until the people of Panama took things into their own hands (albeit
with help from the French and Americans) with a revolution. They quickly signed
a deal with the U.S., and Americans began work in 1904.
The challenges that had stopped the French were one by one overcome. Colonel
William Gorgas led a massive program to clear land and wipe out mosquitoes and
rats, the principal carriers of disease. The next phase involved three parts:
the building of locks near the two ends of the canal, the damming of the Chagres
River to create the artificial Gatun Lake, and large amounts of digging to accomplish
the Gaillard Cut. At its highest point, the Panama Canal had 43,000 laborers,
primarily from the British West Indies – nearly twice as many as the Suez
Canal. The canal was basically finished in 1914, but a landslide delayed its
official opening until 1920.
Ships no longer had to take the long route around the two southern continents,
Africa and South America. But the canals quickly became thorny political issues.
The English bought a large share of the Suez Canal Company in 1875, and it was
eventually seized by the Egyptians in 1956, sparking a short war and great controversy.
The history of the Panama canal is more peaceful, but a long period of tension
and debate between Panama and the United States culminated in two 1977 treaties
that arranged for Panama to take over the canal in 1999, while still preserving
some of the U.S.’s rights regarding the canal. With both canals now in
the hands of local governments, further political strife is unlikely, except
in the case of war.
The two canals have both many similarities and differences. The Panama Canal,
as has been seen, was quite a bit more difficult than the Suez Canal, requiring
medical and mechanical technology advances to effectively combat diseases and
handle the large volume of digging necessary. More money and more workers were
also required. In contrast to the simpler Suez Canal, the Panama engineers’
task was more difficult, as they built locks and a lake as well as dug a channel
for the canal. Both canals were widely successful, though, and both were the
subject of political wrangling, particularly between the original foreign owners
and nationalist groups in local countries. But these disputes have since been
settled – by force in the case of the Suez Canal, and peacefully in the
case of the Panama Canal. Both of these canals look set to continue their profitable,
productive service of linking the world and its sea routes a little closer together.
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