Theodore Roosevelt Panama Canal

832 Words2 Pages

After reading a very brief section regarding the Panama Canal in the last essay on Theodore Roosevelt, I was more than excited to read about it in depth. At first I imagined there would be hardly any information on the subject, but I was a bit overwhelmed by the plethora of material in each section. So far, I have browsed through the following four sections: Why Build a Canal?, Choosing a Route, Waging War on Mosquitoes, and Life in the Canal Zone. I found this first section to be quite informative because I often wondered why the United States built the Panama Canal. However, it became increasingly obvious why once I read about how America was approaching a new century. Along with this new century came innovative technology and advances in …show more content…

Prior to reading, questions like why or how they selected the piece of land that they did never really occurred to me. However, it makes perfect sense as to why the president picked Panama over Nicaragua considering the possible environmental dangers surrounding it. I also regarded it as a wise choice due to the progress that was already done to the land by the French, which would have been wasted if they chose Nicaragua. Lastly, one can clearly see from one picture in the article that a canal in Nicaragua would have been four times longer than in Panama and would have cost quadruple the price to build. So after taking into account all of the various issues, I think that the route chosen was indeed the safest and most feasible …show more content…

I resolved to save this particular segment and review it last because it was undoubtedly my favorite article. Although the section was not exactly long, I extracted plenty of information from it regardless. Just from the title alone, I made quite a few wrong assumptions about the section before actually reading it. Considering the time when the canal was built, many workplaces in America had awful conditions with parsimonious pay, so my first assumption was that the canal work would reflect many of these qualities. I pictured the canal life to consist of measly portions of overpriced repugnant foods, shabby living quarters, and several depressed workers being underpaid and overworked. But on the contrary, I could not have been further from the truth. As it turns out, the majority of the workers had conditions and amenities that were better than what they had back home. When I saw pictures of the cottages and building they stayed in, I was indeed impressed. But, what truly amazed me was when I discovered that nearly all of them were furnished with electricity. In summary, even though some workers had less than others, they were all treated fairly and had provisions that were well above the average American lifestyle. All in all, after studying all of these articles from the website I was very satisfied with how much knowledge I was able attain from all of it. From the beginning I

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