Question

Why was the Panama Canal built and what problems did the U.S. have when building it?

Answer 1

Hey chick who looks just like Juliet

Answer 2

The idea, as implemented by the French with the Suez Canal, was to reduce shipping times and prevent loss of ships on dangerous routes. Both Africa's Cape of Good Hope and South America's Cape Horn are notorious for violent weather. However, the French efforts at a canal (1880-1893) failed.

The advantage to the US, which had consolidated its continental territory, was to improve shipping that connected the two coasts. This included commercial as well as military vessels. The Spanish-American War (1898) illustrated the difficulty of transferring ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back. Under President Theodore Roosevelt, the US decided to unilaterally build a canal, securing the territorial rights by facilitating the independence of Panama from Colombia in 1903. The US efforts from 1904 to 1914 built the canal, and its control was assured by US sovereignty over the Canal Zone until 1999.

Answer 3

A problem might have been all the freaking water and jungle