Question

What did President Roosevelt do to aid Panama in becoming an independent country?

Answer 1

Panama was at first part of Colombia, but they continually revolted. The United States assisted Colombia in putting the rebellions all throughout the 19th century. In the early 1900's, Theodore Roosevelt wanted to build the Panama Canal, so he asked Colombia if the US could. The rejected it. Of course, the US suddenly supported the panamanians, so the US helped Panama gain independence to build the canal. That is basically how they gained independence.

Answer 2

Quoting an African proverb, Roosevelt claimed that the right way to conduct foreign policy was to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Roosevelt resorted to big-stick diplomacy most conspicuously in 1903, when he helped Panama to secede from Colombia and gave the United States a Canal Zone. Construction began at once on the Panama Canal, which Roosevelt visited in 1906, the first president to leave the country while in office. He considered the construction of the canal, a symbol of the triumph of American determination and technological know-how, his greatest accomplishment as president. As he later boasted in his autobiography, “I took the Isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me.” Other examples of wielding the big stick came in 1906 when Roosevelt occupied and set up a military protectorate in Cuba and when he put pressure on Canada in a boundary dispute in Alaska.