1 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: What's worrying my crimes? I'm I'm Robert Evans hosted Behind 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,720 Speaker 1: the Bastards podcast about the worst people in all of 3 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:15,080 Speaker 1: history and consequently about an awful lot of war crimes, 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:17,280 Speaker 1: which is what we're gonna be talking about today more 5 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: or less with our special guests, Sophie Cut the airhorns, 6 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: the airhorns eight or nine, eight or nine airhorns. Chelsea mending, Chelsea. Hey, 7 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: how are you doing today? How are doing today? It's 8 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 1: all right, a little it's a little cold and snowy 9 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: out here in New York. Got the uh, got the 10 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:37,480 Speaker 1: lovely Brooklyn weather. But I have at least at least 11 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:41,880 Speaker 1: they have power and some kind of functioning, functioning emergency 12 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: services and transportation and water and basic essentials, all those 13 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:52,440 Speaker 1: Yankee things, those carpetbagger luxuries that we don't have down 14 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:55,280 Speaker 1: in Texas. All we need is to freeze to death. 15 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: And if we don't freeze to death, to be build 16 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: tens of thousands of dollars for several ways of natural gas, 17 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:10,200 Speaker 1: because that's how freedom looks. I'm in Texas, by the way, yes, uh, Chelsea, Um, 18 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:14,960 Speaker 1: what do you know? What do you know about Panama? Uh? 19 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,959 Speaker 1: What do I know about Panama? Whenever I think about it. 20 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 1: Whenever I think about I usually think of like Teddy 21 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: Roosevelt and uh, steam shovels. So yeah, that's that's that's 22 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 1: what I usually think of. Um, I don't know much 23 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: about the actual I don't know much about it beyond 24 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: like imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, naval strategy, and engineering. That is 25 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,039 Speaker 1: a lot of the history of Panama. And that's what 26 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about today. Today. Our bastard is 27 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: the United States of America, a little country you might 28 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 1: have heard of, I don't know. Um. And and specifically, 29 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 1: we're talking about the relationship between the United States of 30 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: America and Panama, which is one of the most abusive 31 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: relationships in the entire history of geopolitics. It's it's really outstanding. Hey, 32 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:06,920 Speaker 1: that's a nice it's miss you got. There be a 33 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 1: shame if America were to happen to it North America. UM. Yeah. 34 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:15,519 Speaker 1: So this this was all inspired when a friend advised 35 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:17,240 Speaker 1: me to take a look at a documentary called The 36 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:21,880 Speaker 1: Panama Deception, which was made in UH and is quite good. 37 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:24,079 Speaker 1: And so I decided to start looking a little deeper 38 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: into the history of Panama. I found a book length 39 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: study on the history of US Panamanian relations and a 40 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: bunch of articles, and my god, it is it is, Chelsea. 41 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,400 Speaker 1: It is as fucked up as I don't know, Sophie. 42 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:44,120 Speaker 1: What's something that's sucked up like a like a like 43 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:48,040 Speaker 1: a bed lash to the ceiling. I mean that makes sense. 44 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:50,440 Speaker 1: I was gonna say when people put their beds in 45 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: their closets and then like then they can't get into 46 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:55,160 Speaker 1: it gets stuck, and then you just it's just like 47 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 1: then you have no bed. Yeah, it's as fucked up 48 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:01,120 Speaker 1: as a bed closet. Chelsea. Well, I usually I usually 49 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:03,960 Speaker 1: think of somebody who like uses the toilet and then 50 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:06,960 Speaker 1: it doesn't slush and then come back three or four 51 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: days later. Yeah, you could say I just choked on coffee. 52 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:14,639 Speaker 1: You could. You could say that the history of US 53 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: Panamanian relations would be embodied. Is like if Panama is 54 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:21,200 Speaker 1: like a small apartment in the US, is a guest 55 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:24,080 Speaker 1: at a party in that apartment. The US has just 56 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 1: like continuously been leaving upper deckers for the last hundred 57 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:30,680 Speaker 1: and fifty years or so, just just just shipping in 58 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: the water tank. That's that's America, as regards Panama and 59 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: also drinking all of their beer. It's good stuff. It's 60 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: good stuff. So Panama is one of those countries you 61 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: can look at on a map and immediately no is 62 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: just kind of completely fucked in a historic sense, right, 63 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,640 Speaker 1: It's a beautiful place, but in terms of geopolitics, it's 64 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: just doomed because of where it is in the world. 65 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:54,680 Speaker 1: It's sort of like how you can look at Ukraine 66 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 1: with its fertile soil and its position like right between 67 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,760 Speaker 1: the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe and be like, boy, 68 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:02,960 Speaker 1: I bet those people got their ship fucked up constantly 69 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 1: because other folks needed wheat. Panamas in the same kind 70 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 1: of position. Their northern neighbor is Costa Rica and their 71 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 1: southern neighbor is Columbia. The nation is the bridge between 72 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: Central and South America, and more to the point, it 73 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,920 Speaker 1: is the narrowest land mass in Central America. So if 74 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:20,120 Speaker 1: you wanted to say, dig a big trench through a 75 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: country to let people travel from the Atlantic Ocean to 76 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:26,160 Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean without sailing around an entire extra continent, 77 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: it's basically the best place to do it. And people 78 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 1: realize that pretty much as soon as they found Panama. 79 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,000 Speaker 1: In the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds, travelers who wanted 80 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:37,039 Speaker 1: to go from New York to San Francisco would generally 81 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,040 Speaker 1: go by way of Panama. So if you were trying 82 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 1: to get to like, if you were doing like the 83 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: New York to San Francisco route, traveling through the middle 84 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: of the United States was just you would you were 85 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: you would probably die horribly, right. We all played Oregon 86 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: Trail or some version of that. Um, So your best 87 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: bet was to sail down to Panama from New York, 88 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: then spend like three days going across Panama on the 89 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 1: back of a borough, and then sail from Panama's Pacific 90 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: coast up to San Francisco. That was how you did, 91 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: like went from east coast to west coast back in 92 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: the day. UM. And I think if things were still 93 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:13,159 Speaker 1: that way, rint would probably be cheaper in Los Angeles. 94 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 1: So you've got this, You've got this perfectly situated country, 95 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:19,120 Speaker 1: and from kind of the beginning of the United States 96 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,600 Speaker 1: being a thing, American or US leaders are looking down 97 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,040 Speaker 1: there and being like, boy, I bet we could fucking 98 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:27,800 Speaker 1: cut cut a hole in the middle of that country, 99 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: and that would really make it easier for us to 100 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: colonize North America. Um So, like most of Latin America, 101 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:38,760 Speaker 1: Panama was owned by Spain for centuries, and Spain used 102 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,039 Speaker 1: its resources to buy gold for their various kings and 103 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:44,560 Speaker 1: spices to make better paya. In eight one, Panama freed 104 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:47,560 Speaker 1: itself from its now ailing colonial master. There was a 105 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,479 Speaker 1: strong independence movement in the Isthmus, but they were overruled 106 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 1: by the folks who wanted to join the Grand Columbia Federation. So, yeah, Panama, 107 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: and like Colombia, a whole bunch of Central and South 108 00:05:57,680 --> 00:06:00,320 Speaker 1: America separates from Spain in eighteen twenty one, and a 109 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: bunch of guys in Panama are like, hey, you know, 110 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: would be rad if we were our own country, But 111 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:07,919 Speaker 1: more of them are like, you know what, would probably 112 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:10,040 Speaker 1: be a better idea if we were part of Colombia 113 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:12,680 Speaker 1: because we're tiny and Columbia is real big, and they're 114 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:15,160 Speaker 1: probably just gonna take us over if we're if we're not, 115 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: if we don't get on board the Columbia train. It's 116 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:21,560 Speaker 1: the story as old at time now. Panama subsequently tried 117 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:24,120 Speaker 1: to free itself from Columbia, and like eighty they there 118 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:26,360 Speaker 1: were a bunch of different independence attempts in the eighteen 119 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:28,280 Speaker 1: thirties and up to eighteen forty, but it never quite 120 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:32,039 Speaker 1: worked out. Um and the region's separatist tendencies were boosted 121 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: by the fact that they were very isolated. There were 122 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,720 Speaker 1: no roads connecting them to Colombia. There were a couple 123 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:39,960 Speaker 1: of cities and towns in Panama, was not heavily populated, 124 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 1: and they didn't really trade with Columbia. They mainly traded 125 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:46,039 Speaker 1: with the Caribbean and other parts of like South America, 126 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:49,359 Speaker 1: rather than their countrymen in Bogata. From the beginning of Panama, 127 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,839 Speaker 1: Americans saw the isthmus as something to exploit. In eighteen 128 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 1: forty six, the USA signed the bid Lack Treaty with Columbia, 129 00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:59,840 Speaker 1: and this basically, in the bid Lack Treaty, the US 130 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: promise to protect Columbia's control over Panama in exchange for 131 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: access to any future canal that might be dug through 132 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: the country. So we were like, hey, hey, Columbia, you know, 133 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:11,400 Speaker 1: you guys are a new country, you don't have much 134 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: of a military yet. This place is real isolated and valuable. 135 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 1: We'll we'll take we'll protect it for you. We're a 136 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: big country. We've got a whole lot of developed we 137 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 1: got ships and everything. Do you just chill out. Let 138 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 1: us protect Panama and if someone happens to build a 139 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,200 Speaker 1: canal there, we get free access to it. Because it 140 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: was you know, surely a deal without any sort of 141 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:35,840 Speaker 1: ulterior motives to it that will never be abused by 142 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:38,520 Speaker 1: the United States, Right, but it wasn't. The United States 143 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 1: of the time still considered by the rest of the 144 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,800 Speaker 1: world to be a young upstart with US. Yeah. Yeah, 145 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 1: like in comparison, it compares it to the European powers 146 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 1: of the time, like France and France and Spain. And 147 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:55,200 Speaker 1: for for reference, the USA in this period is younger 148 00:07:55,200 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: than Nancy Pelosi. Um. So yeah, we are a young upstart, 149 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,240 Speaker 1: but we've got more resources than Columbia, which which has 150 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:08,680 Speaker 1: nothing in Panama, which has like less than nothing. So yeah, 151 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:11,280 Speaker 1: the US signs this this wonderful treaty that will never 152 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:15,600 Speaker 1: have any any ulterior consequences. Um. And it was kind 153 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: of like there wasn't really a lot of other options 154 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:21,120 Speaker 1: that Columbia had at the point, um, because Panama barely 155 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:23,640 Speaker 1: anyone lived there and they didn't have any sort of 156 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:26,400 Speaker 1: ability to stop someone from invading them in Columbia didn't 157 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: have any roads connecting them to Panama, so they couldn't 158 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:31,600 Speaker 1: do anything. And in the eighteen forties everyone knew that 159 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: somebody was going to figure out how to dig a 160 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: canal through Panama. So it kind of made sense, like 161 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,360 Speaker 1: trusting in the United States is basically our best bet. 162 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: Maybe they won't suck us over, which is never a 163 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:48,240 Speaker 1: good bet to make with the United States. Nope. So 164 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:50,160 Speaker 1: the deal was inked right at the end of the 165 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:52,840 Speaker 1: US Mexican War, and it established a pattern that would 166 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:55,040 Speaker 1: hold true for more than a century, which was that 167 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:59,400 Speaker 1: Panama was to become a pawn of United States power politics. 168 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:02,679 Speaker 1: Um and not just the United States really, just in general. 169 00:09:02,679 --> 00:09:04,920 Speaker 1: White people were going to continue to come in and 170 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: funk around in Panama because we wanted to get to 171 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:11,520 Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean more easily. So after the bid Lack Treaty, 172 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: the US government felt free to act as if the 173 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: Isthmus was basically their property. In eighteen fifty, we signed 174 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,960 Speaker 1: the Clayton Bulward Treaty with England, which guaranteed US British 175 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:23,640 Speaker 1: cooperation to build a canal in Panama in the future. 176 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,080 Speaker 1: Neither Colombia nor the Panamanian government were referenced in the 177 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,600 Speaker 1: treaty or consulted in this. So as soon as the 178 00:09:29,679 --> 00:09:32,720 Speaker 1: US signs this treaty to protect Panama, we make a 179 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:34,720 Speaker 1: deal with the British to build a canal, and nobody 180 00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:36,560 Speaker 1: talks to the people who lived there at all, Like 181 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: it's it's just the white people being consulted here, because 182 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,200 Speaker 1: who else do you really need? They don't have shovels, 183 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: not our shovels, not steam shovels. Yeah, steam shovels, clean coal, 184 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:53,640 Speaker 1: clean burning coal. Um. The California Gold Rush of eighteen 185 00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:56,320 Speaker 1: forty nine that the first massive wave of US citizens 186 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 1: in the Panama. Most of these people were just traveling through, 187 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: but a sizeable minority settled in Panama, mainly to establish 188 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: businesses in Panama City and Cologne. Uh. And these businesses 189 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:08,400 Speaker 1: just serviced white people who are on their way to 190 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:11,080 Speaker 1: strike it rich in California. So you get all these 191 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,840 Speaker 1: white people traveling through through Panama to get to California 192 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,760 Speaker 1: to dig for gold near San Francisco. And you also 193 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:19,760 Speaker 1: get a whole bunch of white people who settled in 194 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:22,400 Speaker 1: Panama because they're like it seems like everyone's gonna die 195 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,040 Speaker 1: panning for gold, and it's better to just take their 196 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:27,680 Speaker 1: money before they make it to the West coast, which 197 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:30,040 Speaker 1: is the smart play, right. That's those are the people 198 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:34,040 Speaker 1: who really made bank off of the gold rush. Now, 199 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:36,880 Speaker 1: since the US had just won a nasty little colonial 200 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 1: war in Mexico and taken a third of the country 201 00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:42,000 Speaker 1: for the United States, most of the whites who settled 202 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,040 Speaker 1: in Panama did so assuming that it was going to 203 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 1: be a part of the United States. At this point 204 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:48,040 Speaker 1: in time, a lot of Americans are like, well, of 205 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:50,120 Speaker 1: course we're going to own all of Central and South 206 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:53,080 Speaker 1: America at some point. They're connected to us. Why wouldn't 207 00:10:53,120 --> 00:11:00,240 Speaker 1: they be our property, which, you know South, that was 208 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:01,920 Speaker 1: the goal. I mean, there was a lot of talk 209 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,559 Speaker 1: even in like the early stages of the Civil War 210 00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:07,280 Speaker 1: among the Confederacy about like, once we once we beat 211 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:09,880 Speaker 1: the Union, why wouldn't we go down and take Yeah, 212 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,559 Speaker 1: let's get Cuba, let's get Mexico, let's take it all. Baby. 213 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:16,600 Speaker 1: Uh it was you know, we don't talk so much 214 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:18,960 Speaker 1: about that anymore. So, Yeah, all of these Americans who 215 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:22,120 Speaker 1: moved to Panama to make money off of forty niners 216 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:24,959 Speaker 1: or like eventually this will be like the the I 217 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:26,400 Speaker 1: don't know at this point on what that point would 218 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:28,560 Speaker 1: have been, like the thirtieth state or something, but they 219 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: were sure it was going to be a state now. 220 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:34,120 Speaker 1: At around this time, the Pacific Male Steamship Company ink 221 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:36,720 Speaker 1: to deal with the Colombian government to build a railroad 222 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:38,520 Speaker 1: through the region, and the goal of this was to 223 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:41,000 Speaker 1: speed up the journey from east coast to west coast. 224 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:43,319 Speaker 1: And I'm gonna quote now from a wonderful book titled 225 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:47,360 Speaker 1: Emperors in the Jungle about the United States relationship with Panama. 226 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:51,040 Speaker 1: The company imported workers from China, Ireland and elsewhere for 227 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:54,360 Speaker 1: the job, but most workers were blacks from Jamaica or Cartagena. 228 00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:57,240 Speaker 1: The imported workers gave rise in eighteen fifty three and 229 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:00,560 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty five to epidemics of yellow fever, which previously 230 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:03,720 Speaker 1: had been rare, exploited, Sick, and full of despair, hundreds 231 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:06,680 Speaker 1: of Chinese workers in their families killed themselves and moss. 232 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:10,400 Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty four, more than six thousand laborers, perhaps 233 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:13,560 Speaker 1: twice that many died in the railroad's construction. Completed in 234 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:16,400 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty five, the railroad allowed passengers to cross the 235 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:19,400 Speaker 1: Isthmus and leave Panama more quickly in three hours instead 236 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:22,439 Speaker 1: of three days required by Mueller Boat, charging twenty five 237 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:25,600 Speaker 1: dollars in gold for passenger and with forty passages annually. 238 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:27,960 Speaker 1: The railroad was a cash flow for its New York 239 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 1: owners and netted more than seven million in its first 240 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:34,280 Speaker 1: six years of operation. So this is the kind of 241 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:35,800 Speaker 1: thing like I I heard as a kid that we 242 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 1: built a railroad for Panama. You never hear about like 243 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:41,280 Speaker 1: the human cost. Like one of the things is there 244 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:44,480 Speaker 1: used to be a sizeable Chinese population in Panama, but 245 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:47,800 Speaker 1: they committed mass suicide because of how miserable the work was. 246 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:50,720 Speaker 1: It's just like that didn't make it into the history 247 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: books that I that I came across um as a 248 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:59,040 Speaker 1: kid probably shouldn't. Uh the fact that to nine eleven's 249 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,280 Speaker 1: worth of laborers and maybe more died making the railroad. 250 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:04,400 Speaker 1: We also, I mean that was every railroad they were 251 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:07,080 Speaker 1: just like they were just like built in blood and bones. 252 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:11,880 Speaker 1: It's pretty cool stuff railroads anyway. So the human shrapnel 253 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:14,360 Speaker 1: from this railroad through Panama didn't stop it, just like 254 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: the massive death toll that was made to build it. 255 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: Because when they built the railroad. There had been this 256 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:22,400 Speaker 1: whole industry in Panama writing white people across the country 257 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 1: for three days or so to get them to the 258 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:28,040 Speaker 1: port on the west coast of Panama, and that industry dies. 259 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:30,520 Speaker 1: So all of the money that used to be going 260 00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: to Panamanians is now going to this US owned railroad, 261 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:35,880 Speaker 1: So instead of flowing into the country, it flows to 262 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:40,920 Speaker 1: New York where you live. Yeah. So it's it's a 263 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:43,200 Speaker 1: it's basically a cycle where it's just like it's a 264 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:47,280 Speaker 1: it's a reinvestment cycle. Yeah, a reinvestment away from away 265 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:50,360 Speaker 1: from the place where the railroad actually exists, to the 266 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:55,440 Speaker 1: United States. It's a siphoning of wealth. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Um, 267 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: so this is an absolute They invented liberalism, Yeah, they 268 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 1: figured it out real early. Panama was the test case. 269 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,560 Speaker 1: Uh so. Yeah, it's it's kind of a fucking disaster 270 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:10,960 Speaker 1: for Panama, and an economic depression strikes the isthmus as 271 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:13,960 Speaker 1: soon as the railroad really like gets going. Um. This 272 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:17,200 Speaker 1: leads to a simmering anti US sentiment, which was stoked 273 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:20,840 Speaker 1: by news that Bastard's pot alumni William Walker, had recently 274 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:24,240 Speaker 1: conquered nearby Nicaragua and declared at a slave state. We 275 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:26,240 Speaker 1: did a couple episodes on him back in the day. 276 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:28,920 Speaker 1: But yeah, that he was like an American who conquered 277 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:33,160 Speaker 1: Nicaragua briefly in order to spread slavery there. So this 278 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:35,520 Speaker 1: really freaked out people in Panama because a ton of 279 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: black slaves in Panama had been freed while in Colombia 280 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:41,520 Speaker 1: had been freed in eighteen fifty two. Um, there were 281 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:43,920 Speaker 1: huge numbers of them in Panama to build the railroad, 282 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:46,800 Speaker 1: and they started to worry that America was coming for them. Right, 283 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:51,160 Speaker 1: we just got freed. This American just conquered Nicaragua to 284 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,800 Speaker 1: make slavery legal there. It's not far away from us. Clearly, 285 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:57,240 Speaker 1: they're getting ready to take us over and re enslave 286 00:14:57,360 --> 00:14:59,880 Speaker 1: us again. And all of these tensions boiled over in 287 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,720 Speaker 1: April nineteen, eighteen fifty six, into what came to be 288 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: called the Watermelon Riot. The gist of the story was 289 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 1: that a drunken man named John Oliver um and I'm 290 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:11,800 Speaker 1: pretty sure it's a different John Oliver than the guy 291 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: who has a TV show so Television's darling. John Oliver 292 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:18,760 Speaker 1: was on his way to California in eighteen fifties six, 293 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: waiting at a train station in Cologne, and he decided 294 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:23,720 Speaker 1: he wanted some watermelon, so he walks over to a 295 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:27,040 Speaker 1: fruit stand and because he's wasted, he just steals it. Now, 296 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,320 Speaker 1: the fruit stands owned by a guy named Jose Manuel 297 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:33,520 Speaker 1: Luna Uh, and Luna gets angry that John Oliver, NBC's 298 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 1: darling has just walked off. Is it HBO? They're the 299 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:41,520 Speaker 1: same thing, they are, but they're not, they're not at all. 300 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:45,440 Speaker 1: I'm sorry. So John Oliver, with his big Hollywood salary, 301 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:48,480 Speaker 1: steals some fucking watermelon and this guy Luna, gets really 302 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: angry and he chases after him, being like, what the funk, dude, 303 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 1: you make millions of dollars a year. John Oliver pulls 304 00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:58,120 Speaker 1: a gun on him. Luna pulls a knife in return, 305 00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:01,560 Speaker 1: which takes some takes some balls, like to for someone 306 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:02,960 Speaker 1: to pull a gun on you and you just pull 307 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,360 Speaker 1: a knife right back. That's a that's a move, um. 308 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,440 Speaker 1: And thankfully there's a lot of like Panamanians around. It's 309 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 1: a crowded market area. And as soon as John Oliver 310 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:14,600 Speaker 1: pulls a gun, another man pulls like grabs the gun 311 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:17,000 Speaker 1: away from Oliver and takes it from him and it 312 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:19,400 Speaker 1: fires in the in the process of this, but it 313 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:23,280 Speaker 1: doesn't injure anyone. So John Oliver runs like hell um, 314 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:25,920 Speaker 1: but word of the theft in the confrontation spreads quickly 315 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:28,800 Speaker 1: and everybody's already angry at the United States here, So 316 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 1: this kind of sparks a mob, and the mob heads 317 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:34,120 Speaker 1: to the train station, protesting the U S in general 318 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:38,120 Speaker 1: and protesting American travelers in particular. They assault people along 319 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:40,920 Speaker 1: the way and they loot traveler's luggage. By the time 320 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,040 Speaker 1: the violence dies down, sixteen passengers had been killed and 321 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:46,960 Speaker 1: another sixteen had been injured, and one or two locals 322 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:49,200 Speaker 1: were also killed. And just like the general melee that 323 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:53,960 Speaker 1: breaks out. So yeah, they kill a bunch of people. Um, 324 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,640 Speaker 1: this causes an uproar in the United States. Yeah. This 325 00:16:57,360 --> 00:16:59,160 Speaker 1: you know, this is this is this is a this 326 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:01,720 Speaker 1: is a country that was funded basically on like they 327 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:05,920 Speaker 1: massacred nine people in Boston in time to start a war. 328 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:10,360 Speaker 1: Yeah much, I mean, and it's just you know, obviously 329 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:12,680 Speaker 1: America has changed since then, because now we're still in 330 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,439 Speaker 1: massacred nine people in Boston. We wouldn't do anything, you know, 331 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:19,120 Speaker 1: it's just Boston, right, Um, it's not like I don't 332 00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:25,160 Speaker 1: know Pittsburgh, shout out to Pittsburgh. Um, so yeah, it's 333 00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 1: we're a different country then, and we get angry over this, 334 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: but we don't go to war because again America is 335 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:33,760 Speaker 1: a lot chiller in these days. Um. We do, however, 336 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:37,560 Speaker 1: demand reparations from Columbia, which is broadly reasonable. You know, 337 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,560 Speaker 1: sixteen citizens get murdered in a in a riot. You know, 338 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,000 Speaker 1: you kind of sparked the riot by being shitty, but 339 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:45,199 Speaker 1: it's not unreasonably be like, hey, he should give us 340 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,440 Speaker 1: some money because a bunch of our people got killed, 341 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,920 Speaker 1: better than going to war. So at this point the 342 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:53,320 Speaker 1: United States is old. US is getting a better grade 343 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:55,639 Speaker 1: than I think New u s would have gotten because 344 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,040 Speaker 1: if sixteen Americans got killed in Panama to day, well 345 00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:00,680 Speaker 1: we'll talk about what happens when one American gets killed 346 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:04,320 Speaker 1: in Panama in nineteen eighty nine. So the next couple 347 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:07,000 Speaker 1: commenced five months later, So they pay off the United 348 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:09,800 Speaker 1: States and we we we chill out. The next couple 349 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:12,800 Speaker 1: happens five months later. Due to internal unrest that started 350 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:16,480 Speaker 1: in the Panamanian General Assembly, the Blacks, which were Panama's 351 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,280 Speaker 1: opposition party, threatened to take up arms over a political dispute, 352 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:23,840 Speaker 1: William Mervin, commanding the U. S. Pacific Squadron, landed troops 353 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:26,600 Speaker 1: in Panama under the ages of protecting U. S. Citizens 354 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,680 Speaker 1: who lived in Panama from unrest. The whole situation ended uneventfully, 355 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:34,040 Speaker 1: but Mervin unwittingly established a pattern that would repeat itself 356 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:36,800 Speaker 1: more than a dozen times up to nineteen eighty nine. 357 00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:39,680 Speaker 1: In fact, the United States intervened militarily on at least 358 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,320 Speaker 1: a dozen occasions in Panama just during the later half 359 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:45,520 Speaker 1: of the Night of the eighteen hundreds. So this guy Mervyn, 360 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:47,200 Speaker 1: he sends in U. S. Troops for the first time 361 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:51,639 Speaker 1: just to protect American citizens from unrest and local Panamanian politics, 362 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:55,360 Speaker 1: and that just keeps happening forever up until like literally 363 00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:59,159 Speaker 1: the nineteen nineties. In eighteen sixty, violence breaks out in 364 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:02,440 Speaker 1: the Panamanian led Slatter again. Black Panamanians take up arms 365 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:06,320 Speaker 1: against the government. US railway agent William Nelson writes worryingly 366 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:08,919 Speaker 1: to the US Console, the in words are at the 367 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,200 Speaker 1: railroad bridge, and I fear that if they get out 368 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:14,200 Speaker 1: of ammunition, they may come here to take our arms. 369 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:17,080 Speaker 1: Nelson begged the government to send in the Marines to 370 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:20,560 Speaker 1: protect the railroad. The Panamanian government also begged the US 371 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 1: to send in the Marines, and again a popular domestic 372 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:25,359 Speaker 1: political movement was clamped down on with the help of 373 00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:28,040 Speaker 1: North American soldiers. So this is the first time that 374 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:31,720 Speaker 1: we actually send in troops to shut down like a 375 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,359 Speaker 1: popular uprising, that's a local uprising. The Blacks as a 376 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:40,120 Speaker 1: political party are heavily dominated by like Caribbean immigrants who 377 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:43,000 Speaker 1: were brought in to build the railroad, and they're agitating 378 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:47,040 Speaker 1: for better, uh like treatment from the government. And because 379 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,160 Speaker 1: they're threatening the government, which is friendly to the United States, 380 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:53,159 Speaker 1: the US sends and marines to crack some skulls and 381 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:56,960 Speaker 1: stop them from you know, protesting. Uh. This would again 382 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:00,879 Speaker 1: content that's the whole history of the y car that 383 00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:03,320 Speaker 1: Smedley Butler would agree with you, and he spent a 384 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:07,960 Speaker 1: lot of time in Panama. UM. So, the Civil War 385 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,000 Speaker 1: breaks out back in the United States, and after a 386 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:11,840 Speaker 1: year or two, it was pretty clear that ought to 387 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,800 Speaker 1: uh Abraham Lincoln that the United States wasn't going to 388 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:18,960 Speaker 1: get out of this thing without proclaiming, you know, some emancipation. Now, 389 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,359 Speaker 1: Abe was a bit of a racist himself, and he 390 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:23,720 Speaker 1: was still convinced that white people and black people could 391 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:26,440 Speaker 1: not co exist together in the same country. The only 392 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: solution he could see was to find a big, empty 393 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:30,919 Speaker 1: foreign land that he could ship all of the United 394 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:33,159 Speaker 1: States as black people too. And this is how we 395 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:35,520 Speaker 1: got Liberia. As I think most people know. But Abe's 396 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,560 Speaker 1: first idea was actually Panama. See it was filled with 397 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 1: coal mines, and in Lincoln's head, this made it the 398 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,400 Speaker 1: perfect place to send freed slaves. And I'm gonna quote 399 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,160 Speaker 1: again from Emperors in the Jungle by John Lindsay poland 400 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:50,120 Speaker 1: coal mines, he told a room full of free blacks 401 00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:52,800 Speaker 1: and eight in August eighteen sixty two, will afford an 402 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:55,880 Speaker 1: opportunity to the inhabitants for immediate employment until they get 403 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,440 Speaker 1: ready to settle permanently in their homes. Columbia, however, saw 404 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:02,879 Speaker 1: the plan the kind of subtle invasion. Central American countries 405 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:05,399 Speaker 1: were also opposed, and many free blacks in the United 406 00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:11,119 Speaker 1: States greeted Lincoln's proposal with hostility. It was scrapped. So, yeah, 407 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,320 Speaker 1: that was that was abs first idea. It's like, you know, 408 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:15,240 Speaker 1: you know what, these freed slaves are gonna need to 409 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:19,359 Speaker 1: do coal mining. That'll make him happy. Philip fill the 410 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:25,840 Speaker 1: minds up. No, no, I mean it counted as woke 411 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 1: for the day because he didn't think they should be 412 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:31,359 Speaker 1: able to earn money. So I guess I mean fair, 413 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:37,800 Speaker 1: but good on, good on you. It's there. No, So 414 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:40,560 Speaker 1: the Civil War ends, and yeah, I mean everybody's like 415 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:50,240 Speaker 1: it's it's right there. Yeah. Yeah, with Abraham Lincoln taking 416 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:53,960 Speaker 1: the role of ices. So the Civil War ends, and 417 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:57,000 Speaker 1: you know, pretty pretty much the best case scenario if 418 00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,960 Speaker 1: you're gonna have a civil war, the worst people don't win. 419 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 1: But then comes reconstruction, which is pretty much the worst 420 00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:06,280 Speaker 1: case scenario. The US never gives up on its dream 421 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,440 Speaker 1: of a Panama Canal controlled controlled for the profit of 422 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:12,400 Speaker 1: the United States, but for a while, devastated by war, 423 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,520 Speaker 1: it had no ability to pursue that goal. So France 424 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:18,360 Speaker 1: steps in because France, you know, they're doing a lot 425 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:20,360 Speaker 1: better at this point, and they do have the ability 426 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:22,200 Speaker 1: to go into Panama and try to make a canal 427 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:25,760 Speaker 1: of their own, and they have experience in colonies. Yeah, 428 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,119 Speaker 1: they've got they've got a lot more experience in colonies. 429 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,680 Speaker 1: They've got a better navy at this point. Um, they're 430 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:34,240 Speaker 1: really good at imperialism in these days. But you know what. 431 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:41,800 Speaker 1: They're bad at Chelsea building a fucking canal. And it's 432 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:43,720 Speaker 1: not the only it's not the only canal that they 433 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:47,439 Speaker 1: failed at building. No, no, this might be the worst 434 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,520 Speaker 1: failure of canal building probably that anyone has. This is 435 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,240 Speaker 1: second to the Suez Canal. Yeah. Second, well we'll see 436 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,560 Speaker 1: that they finished the Suez Canal though, right, I don't 437 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:00,879 Speaker 1: think the French did. Oh yeah, you're right. This is 438 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,320 Speaker 1: the same story because I think the British had to fit. Yeah, 439 00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:07,359 Speaker 1: France has a proud history of fucking up canals, getting 440 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:10,760 Speaker 1: thousands of people killed, and then someone else finishes it. Well, 441 00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:14,000 Speaker 1: here's another story of that. I'm gonna quote from a 442 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,760 Speaker 1: rite up by Thomas Leidenberg of the University of Houston. 443 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:20,280 Speaker 1: In the eighteen seventies, a brilliant French engineer by the 444 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:22,919 Speaker 1: name of Ferdinand de Lessups was put in charge of 445 00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:25,919 Speaker 1: a project to replace the railroad link connecting the the 446 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:29,000 Speaker 1: Atlantic to the Pacific with the sea level Canal. De 447 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:32,239 Speaker 1: Lessups one worldwide acclaim for completing the Suez Canal, and 448 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:34,320 Speaker 1: he fervently believed that he was the best man to 449 00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:37,359 Speaker 1: meet the new challenge, paying scant attention to reports by 450 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,240 Speaker 1: the American Army engineers that the obstacles in the mountains 451 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:42,840 Speaker 1: and jungles of Panama were too numerous. The great engineer 452 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:45,320 Speaker 1: determined to build a sea level canal like the one 453 00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:48,600 Speaker 1: at Suez. De lessups attempted canal building in Panama was 454 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:51,480 Speaker 1: a disaster from the beginning to end. Malaria and yellow 455 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 1: fever carried away the lives of French engineers, their families, 456 00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 1: and the hapless workers who took part in the project. Altogether, 457 00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:00,280 Speaker 1: twenty thousand people died in the eight years, and fluding 458 00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:04,000 Speaker 1: the best young engineers graduating from French universities. Nature itself 459 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:06,960 Speaker 1: conspired against the French canal builders. With an hour's slippery 460 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,520 Speaker 1: soil filled up with holes which had taken days to dig, 461 00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:12,639 Speaker 1: Machines rusted in the rain and broken er heavy loads. 462 00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:15,720 Speaker 1: The river Chagra rose up more than its normal forty 463 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:18,040 Speaker 1: feet and even wiped out the railroad tracks built above 464 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,720 Speaker 1: it thirty years earlier. Less Ups was forced to give 465 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,840 Speaker 1: up on his projected sea level canal after eight torturous years. 466 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,360 Speaker 1: By this time it had already cost twice the original 467 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,879 Speaker 1: estimate of a hundred and thirty one million dollars, with 468 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:31,560 Speaker 1: less than one third of the canal completed, the famous 469 00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,920 Speaker 1: Canal Company to declared bankruptcy. De lessups in the company's 470 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,400 Speaker 1: directors had light about or covered up the many factors 471 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:41,440 Speaker 1: that plagued the canals progress, its costs, the death's caven's malaria, 472 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,359 Speaker 1: broken machinery, and the pickled corpses sent to French medical 473 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,000 Speaker 1: schools to help pay the bills. Yeah, they sent the 474 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:49,760 Speaker 1: corpses of the people who died building the canal to 475 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,719 Speaker 1: medical schools. Yeah, pickled them and mailed them over. I 476 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:58,680 Speaker 1: thought you used the word pickled. I wasn't. Yeah, all 477 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:00,919 Speaker 1: of like France's young engine years die and they just 478 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,640 Speaker 1: pickle the corpses and send them to medical schools because 479 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,800 Speaker 1: they're trying to make ends meet. It's so expensive. The 480 00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:09,440 Speaker 1: thing that's most valuable about the canal winds up being 481 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:11,800 Speaker 1: the corpses of the men who try to build it. 482 00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 1: It's pretty great. Yeah, yeah, what what are you gonna dorry? 483 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:19,359 Speaker 1: Are you going to preserve a corpse in the word 484 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:24,680 Speaker 1: when you're talking about like a human. No, they didn't 485 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:28,320 Speaker 1: have refrigeration yet, didn't know. They did not pickle. They 486 00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:33,480 Speaker 1: have pickles, though they have a lot of pickles. Those 487 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,399 Speaker 1: are your options back in the day. So this like 488 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,320 Speaker 1: almost leads to the collapse of the French government because 489 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:42,960 Speaker 1: it was such a big project that basically everyone in 490 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,200 Speaker 1: French society of any position of power was involved, not 491 00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:50,320 Speaker 1: just like politicians, but journalists and editors of newspapers and 492 00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:52,959 Speaker 1: business leaders. All of these guys have been bribed by 493 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:55,520 Speaker 1: members of the canal company in order to provide positive 494 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,200 Speaker 1: coverage and in order to like get the government on board. 495 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:01,000 Speaker 1: And when this thing fails, so does asterous lye. It 496 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,479 Speaker 1: like almost collapses the French government. It's it's hard to 497 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:07,119 Speaker 1: exaggerate how big of a funk up this canal is. 498 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:11,080 Speaker 1: It fucking rules In other words, it's a very fun story, 499 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:15,399 Speaker 1: minus the pickled part. That's the best part of it. 500 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:17,679 Speaker 1: That's literally not the best part of it. You know, 501 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,160 Speaker 1: you've really succeeded in building a canal when the corpses 502 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:22,800 Speaker 1: of the men who worked on it are the most 503 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,040 Speaker 1: valuable part of it, that's just awesome to me. Robert, Well, 504 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:28,439 Speaker 1: you know what the most valuable part of our podcast 505 00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,879 Speaker 1: is are we selling pickled corpses? So we are absolutely 506 00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:35,520 Speaker 1: not selling pickled corpses. I don't think you can guarantee 507 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:39,080 Speaker 1: that I can guarantee you we're not selling pickled corpses. 508 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,520 Speaker 1: I mean, look, who knows what ad is going to 509 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:47,800 Speaker 1: come on after this. I'm sure the fridge, I mean, 510 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,000 Speaker 1: that could be a new raytheon makes a lot of corpses. 511 00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,400 Speaker 1: You're leaving money on the table by not pickling them. 512 00:26:53,480 --> 00:27:01,080 Speaker 1: Let's just see what the ads happened to be. We're 513 00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:03,639 Speaker 1: back and Chelsea just finished doing a little on the 514 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,760 Speaker 1: spot research. Well, y'all were hearing all those wonderful ads 515 00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:10,480 Speaker 1: for pickled corpses on the Suez Canal because we were 516 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:13,040 Speaker 1: we were talking out of our our our rears a 517 00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:15,600 Speaker 1: little bit there, Although it's a nice at anyway, Chelsea, 518 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,160 Speaker 1: why don't you throw out what you found? I found 519 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: that the French did maintain control of the of of 520 00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,840 Speaker 1: the Suez Canal for at least for at least a 521 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:30,439 Speaker 1: few years, but it basically had enormous difficulties and was 522 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,440 Speaker 1: a financial and economics sort of disaster for a few years. 523 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:35,760 Speaker 1: So that was a I just wanted to job. I 524 00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:37,119 Speaker 1: just wanted to double check that because I was like, 525 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:39,080 Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it didn't end up well for the 526 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,240 Speaker 1: French either. There and and and you know what the 527 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:45,000 Speaker 1: death toll on the Suez Canal was. Uh no, I don't. 528 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,400 Speaker 1: I don't have that in front of me. Okay, I'm curious. 529 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,520 Speaker 1: And it must have been astronomical. Yeah, because it's a 530 00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:52,960 Speaker 1: it's it's basically a dessert and you have to it's 531 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,240 Speaker 1: it's not like you have, like you know, equatorial rains constantly. 532 00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 1: Holy shit, I just looked it up. A hundred twenty Yeah, 533 00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:06,000 Speaker 1: it was didn't mark out for a well, yeah, a 534 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:09,560 Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand deaths among one point five million workers. 535 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:15,800 Speaker 1: Jesus Christ canals a brutal. Yeah, that's so many dead people. 536 00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:24,119 Speaker 1: That's like a war. I don't know. So I guess 537 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:26,800 Speaker 1: we're really having trouble when we're trying to determine which 538 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,680 Speaker 1: canal is more of a funk up, because way more 539 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,040 Speaker 1: people died on the Suez Canal. But at least they 540 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,679 Speaker 1: got a canal out of the deal. I mean, you know, 541 00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,400 Speaker 1: but you know, maintaining control of it seems to be 542 00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:41,240 Speaker 1: an issue. Yeah, that was also a problem for them. 543 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:46,200 Speaker 1: Good God Almighty, don't build canals, is the message I'm 544 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:52,040 Speaker 1: taking out of the existing one. Endlessly leave the land 545 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:55,120 Speaker 1: where it is. Bred them, don't build them, sail around 546 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,280 Speaker 1: fucking wherever. Just stop this terrible idea. It doesn't it's bad. 547 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: Don't build canals. That's gonna be my only motto now. So, uh, 548 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:08,080 Speaker 1: French efforts in Panama end in disaster. Uh. And the 549 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,640 Speaker 1: US government was still really but so the French obviously 550 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:13,840 Speaker 1: failed to make this canal. And even though they fail 551 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:17,880 Speaker 1: their efforts, they're really worry the United States, UM, because 552 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:20,480 Speaker 1: we assume that like, okay, France didn't make it happen 553 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:22,800 Speaker 1: this time, but one of these fucking Europeans is going 554 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:24,360 Speaker 1: to figure out how to make a canal, and then 555 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:26,680 Speaker 1: they're gonna be making all that sweet canal money and 556 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:28,040 Speaker 1: we in the US are going to be left to 557 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:30,840 Speaker 1: sit and spin. Uh. And you know, this is the 558 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: era of the Monroe doctrine, when President Monroe had been like, 559 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: all of Latin America is basically our backyard, and if 560 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,520 Speaker 1: if Europe fox around there, then then we'll come. We'll 561 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,480 Speaker 1: come beat them up. And it was not like a 562 00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 1: we want to protect Latin America thing. It was a 563 00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:48,560 Speaker 1: we want to profit off of Latin America. You guys, 564 00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:53,600 Speaker 1: you guys steal Africa. Um. And President Rutherford Hades, after 565 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,000 Speaker 1: French failure in the canal, warned Europe that when it 566 00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:58,960 Speaker 1: came to Panama, the policy of this country is a 567 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,600 Speaker 1: canal under a American control. Obviously, Panamanians were not consulted 568 00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,240 Speaker 1: in this declaration, but Ruth Oft Hayes didn't really care 569 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:08,600 Speaker 1: what they thought. He was trying to scare Europe away 570 00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:10,720 Speaker 1: from building a canal, and to this end, he warned 571 00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:13,040 Speaker 1: them that if they did succeed in building a canal 572 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 1: there and local unrest threatened their control of it, they 573 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:18,240 Speaker 1: would have to send in their navy and their soldiers. 574 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:20,800 Speaker 1: And since this would be a violation of the Monroe doctrine, 575 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,360 Speaker 1: the United States would get involved to fight Europeans trying 576 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 1: to regain control of the canal. It's a little bit 577 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,760 Speaker 1: of i don't know, pre gun boat diplomacy there. And 578 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,360 Speaker 1: right around this same time, the United States is like 579 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:35,560 Speaker 1: the eighteen eighties, uh, eighteen seventies, eighteen eighties, the United 580 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,000 Speaker 1: States sends in a flotilla of ships to scout out 581 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,880 Speaker 1: the area around the Panamanian Isthmus and this is so 582 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,440 Speaker 1: that the United States can start making plans to construct 583 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,120 Speaker 1: a canal of their own. Again, the Colombian government was 584 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:48,840 Speaker 1: not consulted. Neither was anyone in Panama. We just send 585 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,320 Speaker 1: some boats over to scout shit out, and the president 586 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,520 Speaker 1: gives the ship's captain's orders to open fire on any 587 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,360 Speaker 1: local boats that try to stop them. This pisss off 588 00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 1: the Colombian government's representative in Washington, d See, and he 589 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:03,880 Speaker 1: complained in writing, when government's attempt to acquire land in 590 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:08,160 Speaker 1: foreign countries for construction or enterprises such as that under discussion, 591 00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: they normally begin by obtaining the consent of the sovereign 592 00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:14,080 Speaker 1: of the country in which the land is located. Um, 593 00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: which is a fair point. But the United States is 594 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:21,480 Speaker 1: not going to do that. Uh. In the mid eighties, 595 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,840 Speaker 1: this piece of metal right here is sovereign. Yeah, we 596 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,680 Speaker 1: have we have the last argument of kings. Yeah, is 597 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: the cannon. And it also is the last argument of 598 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:34,240 Speaker 1: people who don't really care if you have a king, 599 00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:39,400 Speaker 1: because we got democracy guns. Baby, they're better than your 600 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:43,040 Speaker 1: king guns. I don't know anyway. In the mid eighteen eighties, 601 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:46,080 Speaker 1: Columbia was convulsed by a civil war with between the 602 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:50,040 Speaker 1: conservative government and an insurgent liberal army. The rebel leader, 603 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,040 Speaker 1: a guy named Preston, was ordered ordered a shipload of 604 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:55,520 Speaker 1: weapons from the United States, and we sold them to him. 605 00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:58,320 Speaker 1: But when the shipment arrived in Central America, the U. S. 606 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,120 Speaker 1: Customs clear refused to release east them at the pressuring 607 00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:04,320 Speaker 1: of Columbia's right wing government. This provokes a riot, and 608 00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,240 Speaker 1: Preston briefly took US citizen hostage to try to get 609 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:09,720 Speaker 1: his guns released. The U. S. Marines were sent into 610 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,160 Speaker 1: Panama again, and the resulting situation degenerated into a riot. 611 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:16,440 Speaker 1: Some rioters looted property owned by the French canal company, 612 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:18,800 Speaker 1: who asked and received the help of U. S. Marines 613 00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:21,840 Speaker 1: to round up and execute looters. The New York Times 614 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 1: reported at the time fifty eight persons, among whom it 615 00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:28,920 Speaker 1: is believed were several innocent people, were thus summarily summarily dispatched. 616 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,520 Speaker 1: Just a good solid report. They were probably innocent, but 617 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 1: you know we shot summary execution. Yeah. I mean, there's 618 00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:41,560 Speaker 1: so much that's in that that is just classic United 619 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:44,200 Speaker 1: States right up to today, Like, oh, there's this rubble 620 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:46,200 Speaker 1: and he wants guns, will sell them to him, but 621 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:48,480 Speaker 1: then we won't let him take them because he's going 622 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,640 Speaker 1: to fight against the government that that we broadly support. 623 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:56,000 Speaker 1: Because they acquiesced to our needs. Yeah, it's it's it's 624 00:32:56,040 --> 00:33:00,280 Speaker 1: the it's the equivalent of the military age mail today. Yeah. Yeah, 625 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:03,960 Speaker 1: it's it's fucking around contract ship. Yeah, I mean it's everything. 626 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,880 Speaker 1: It's everything American in one perfect little package. Uh. We're 627 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:11,640 Speaker 1: We've just always been the irrepressible little scamp that we 628 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,960 Speaker 1: are today. So the war turned against the rebels, and 629 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,200 Speaker 1: in March they fled the city of Cologne, leaving it 630 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:20,600 Speaker 1: burning behind them. The fires tour through Panama's largest city, 631 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,760 Speaker 1: leaving thousands of mostly black Panamanians homeless and launching a 632 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:27,280 Speaker 1: refugee crisis. The United States Secretary of the Navy saw 633 00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:29,520 Speaker 1: this all as a great opportunity to make the case 634 00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:31,320 Speaker 1: that the U. S. Navy deserved a bigger role in 635 00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,400 Speaker 1: Latin America and thus more money. He dispatched ships to 636 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,240 Speaker 1: Columbia to apprehend the rebel leader. He also sent in 637 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:40,360 Speaker 1: Marines to protect the railroad in US property from unrest. 638 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,160 Speaker 1: The Commodore in charge of all this was given special 639 00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:45,160 Speaker 1: orders to involve the press and give them all of 640 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:47,800 Speaker 1: the access they wanted so that Navy could keep the 641 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,160 Speaker 1: country with us in the matter. The guy the commodore 642 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:53,320 Speaker 1: was also ordered to scout out good potential sites for 643 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:56,560 Speaker 1: new navy bases. No attempt was taken to help refugees, 644 00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,320 Speaker 1: or to eliminate the or to alleviate the crisis. No 645 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:02,400 Speaker 1: humanity arian aide was dispensed, but the Civil War led 646 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:04,040 Speaker 1: to the start of what would become a century long 647 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:07,680 Speaker 1: U S. Navy presence on the Panamanian ISTHMUS. Now this 648 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:09,600 Speaker 1: should make it clear that from the beginning, the only 649 00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,960 Speaker 1: value Panama held to the United States government and military 650 00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:15,799 Speaker 1: was due to its location. The people who actually lived 651 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:17,840 Speaker 1: there were an afterthought at best. And I meant it 652 00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:20,879 Speaker 1: when I said at best, because when US officials spent 653 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,080 Speaker 1: time thinking about Panamanians, they tended to get really fucking 654 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:26,919 Speaker 1: racist about it. Here's how the New York Herald wrote 655 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:30,239 Speaker 1: about Panamanians in this period. I'm gonna try to put 656 00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:32,840 Speaker 1: on my old timey voice, my old timey racist voice. 657 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:39,000 Speaker 1: Oh it's a very reliable newspaper too. It's the fake 658 00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,600 Speaker 1: Zoo incident. I think was the New York Herald. Wait, 659 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,160 Speaker 1: what was the fake two incident? Oh it's an interesting 660 00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:46,719 Speaker 1: like do your thing, dear bit. First of all, I 661 00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:50,280 Speaker 1: go crap this, Okay. Uh So here's the New York Herald, 662 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,880 Speaker 1: writing about Panamanians, the vast majority of the inhabitants of 663 00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:56,640 Speaker 1: the Isthmus have never emerged from a half savage condition 664 00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:59,520 Speaker 1: or else have relapsed into that state. But no one 665 00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:02,440 Speaker 1: can a to underestimate the prowess of the savages when 666 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:05,000 Speaker 1: they are mustard and swarms as they can be here 667 00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:10,719 Speaker 1: from the miserable morass and the jungle clothed mountains. That's 668 00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:15,759 Speaker 1: some good that's some good racist pros right there. Yeah. Yeah, 669 00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:17,560 Speaker 1: so this is this is coming from the same news 670 00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:23,960 Speaker 1: that yeah, and the like. Apparently there was a awful calamity, 671 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:30,279 Speaker 1: was like the headline in on November nine, eighteen seventy four. Yeah, 672 00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:33,200 Speaker 1: the Herald filled this entire front page news to an 673 00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:36,279 Speaker 1: account of an escape from the Central Park Zoo by 674 00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:41,560 Speaker 1: basically like a herd of animals like tigers, bears. Uh 675 00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:44,920 Speaker 1: and uh that twelve of the wild carnivorous beasts are 676 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,200 Speaker 1: still at large. The Herald warned and left in a 677 00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:50,600 Speaker 1: very tiny little bit of small print and said that 678 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:53,640 Speaker 1: this is that all of this, uh sounds true, but 679 00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:58,320 Speaker 1: it's not. Wait what they just wrote a fake article 680 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,799 Speaker 1: that it's not true. By the way, heads up. This 681 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:06,000 Speaker 1: was a joke. Amazing a little just a little bit 682 00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:09,360 Speaker 1: of light libel. It's history like that that makes you 683 00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:13,560 Speaker 1: proud to be a journalist. Yeah, just just lying about 684 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:19,960 Speaker 1: a zoo breakout for nothing. Oh god, that's good. That's good, 685 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,520 Speaker 1: you know it really it really serves to point out 686 00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 1: how respectable journalism has always been as a discipline. Um, 687 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:32,120 Speaker 1: just just makes my heart swell. So pamphleteera was the 688 00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:35,600 Speaker 1: original Twitter. Yeah, I mean there's actually a lot to 689 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:39,680 Speaker 1: say about how um, the old kind of like and 690 00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:42,400 Speaker 1: this is in Europe to like the network of pamphlets 691 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,959 Speaker 1: and newsletters and stuff that were just like these cheap, 692 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,200 Speaker 1: little kind of mimiographed things printed out. We're like what 693 00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:51,359 Speaker 1: eight Chan became today. Right, It's where all of your 694 00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:54,400 Speaker 1: anti Semitic conspiracy theories, which this is actually happening in 695 00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:58,280 Speaker 1: this period of time eighteen seventies, eighteen eighties, eighteen nineties. 696 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:01,040 Speaker 1: This is like the spread of of the toxic ship 697 00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:03,920 Speaker 1: that we have today that goes through through Twitter and 698 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 1: parlor and stuff like that. It was spreading in these 699 00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:10,480 Speaker 1: little shitty pamphlets and these yellow press magazines and stuff 700 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:13,800 Speaker 1: like the New York Herald. You know, it's it's it's cool, 701 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 1: I guess is what I'm saying. This has been a 702 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,840 Speaker 1: problem with forever. It's pre industrial Twitter, and then you 703 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,000 Speaker 1: have like you have posted, you have like the industrial 704 00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:26,480 Speaker 1: area era of like circulated newspapers, widely circulated newspapers, and 705 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:28,960 Speaker 1: now we're going back, you know, from mass media to 706 00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:33,160 Speaker 1: a decentralized platform anyway, and part of well, now, partly 707 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:34,719 Speaker 1: I want to dig into this because part of why 708 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,080 Speaker 1: this is a good comparison to make is that the 709 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:39,920 Speaker 1: purpose of all of the racist propaganda spreading in places 710 00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:43,280 Speaker 1: like Parlor and Twitter right now is to build up 711 00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:48,160 Speaker 1: a kind of xenophobic and explicitly kind of exterminationist far right. 712 00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:50,839 Speaker 1: And the purpose of all of the racism that like 713 00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:54,520 Speaker 1: US newspapers were writing about Panamanians in the eighteen eighties 714 00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:57,920 Speaker 1: and nineties was to justify the US taking over the 715 00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:01,759 Speaker 1: country to build a canal. These people are savages, their monsters, 716 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:04,640 Speaker 1: and they have this They don't deserve this valuable land. 717 00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:06,879 Speaker 1: We have to take it from them because they're they're 718 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:09,839 Speaker 1: too incompetent and dangerous to manage it themselves. It is 719 00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:12,879 Speaker 1: it's the same basic process, right, It's the same thing 720 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,200 Speaker 1: as scaring people about Mexican immigrants in order to, you know, 721 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:20,480 Speaker 1: distract from the damage that neoliberal capitalism is doing from 722 00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:22,880 Speaker 1: the working class and blame it on immigrants and stuff 723 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:24,640 Speaker 1: like it is or a fake or a fake you know, 724 00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:27,520 Speaker 1: central park Zewo escape effect and for park Zewo escape, 725 00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:30,919 Speaker 1: which I guess has less of a political purpose to it. Yeah, 726 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:33,360 Speaker 1: I think it did, but I don't want to I 727 00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,239 Speaker 1: don't want to dig into that. Yeah, I'm sure there 728 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:41,360 Speaker 1: was some bizarre, bizarre racist underpinning of that whole story anyway. 729 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:43,759 Speaker 1: Uh So, Yeah, all of these interventions by U S 730 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:47,279 Speaker 1: soldiers had been firmly one sided affairs up until this point. 731 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:49,239 Speaker 1: Through the eighteen eighties, the U S would either gun 732 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:52,280 Speaker 1: down or capture and execute people with very little resistance. 733 00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:55,440 Speaker 1: And this didn't look good in the media, right, Nobody, 734 00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:57,799 Speaker 1: nobody wants to see their soldiers is just shooting a 735 00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:01,440 Speaker 1: bunch of defenseless people protesting for better living conditions. So 736 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:03,799 Speaker 1: the American media made sure to build a narrative of 737 00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:07,960 Speaker 1: Panamanian natives is terrifying, violent monsters. Irvan King of the 738 00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:10,560 Speaker 1: New York Tribune wrote that the people of Panama were 739 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,680 Speaker 1: quote to all intents and purposes savages the Isthmian the 740 00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:17,640 Speaker 1: Isthmian Indians are an expert and a kind of savage 741 00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,719 Speaker 1: warfare and are always aided by a mob of negroes. 742 00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:27,200 Speaker 1: Some bad stuff. Yeah. King was an expert propagandist for 743 00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:30,719 Speaker 1: US interests, and while the locals were slavering beasts. In 744 00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:34,440 Speaker 1: his articles, US soldiers were described as having captured the 745 00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,320 Speaker 1: place as if by magic. Their neat and clean appearance 746 00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:40,480 Speaker 1: and quick and precise movements solicited the admiration and respective 747 00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:42,960 Speaker 1: men of all nations, even that of those who are 748 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,680 Speaker 1: most opposed to the proceeding. I think about like when 749 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: Trump shot missiles at Syria, and that was an NBC 750 00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:55,040 Speaker 1: anchor was like talking about the beauty of our weapons. Yeah, 751 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,320 Speaker 1: it's this, it's it's this constant need to like contrast 752 00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:03,040 Speaker 1: US military intervention as like shining and clean and precise 753 00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:06,160 Speaker 1: to the to the violent savages that we're deploying our 754 00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:09,320 Speaker 1: weapons against. It again, something that has now not changed 755 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,359 Speaker 1: in a hundred and what forty years fifty something like that. 756 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,799 Speaker 1: It's rade. So a lot of powerful, rich white North 757 00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,879 Speaker 1: Americans had a vested interest in getting and keeping other 758 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:25,799 Speaker 1: Americans US citizens interested in Panama. Obviously, a Panama Canal 759 00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,640 Speaker 1: would have both military and economic benefits, but those were 760 00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:31,880 Speaker 1: not the only reasons for such a venture. US naval 761 00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:34,720 Speaker 1: strategist Alfred Mahon was one of the first to suggest 762 00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:37,080 Speaker 1: building a canal in order in order to make it 763 00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:41,200 Speaker 1: easier to people the US West coast with white Europeans. 764 00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:45,400 Speaker 1: From John Lindsay Poland quote Mahon, who strongly influenced the 765 00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:48,680 Speaker 1: young Theodore Roosevelt, believed that control of the seed determined 766 00:40:48,719 --> 00:40:52,000 Speaker 1: the world struggles for power, and had done so throughout history. 767 00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:55,200 Speaker 1: Mayhan's strategic thinking about the Panama Canal also had a 768 00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,640 Speaker 1: racial dimension. A canal would allow Europeans to reach Oregon 769 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,680 Speaker 1: and California without even stepping off the coast en route, 770 00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:05,360 Speaker 1: thus avoiding contact with savages in the Western plains or 771 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,680 Speaker 1: along the Panama Railroad. The greatest factor of sea power 772 00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:11,040 Speaker 1: in any region is the distribution and numbers of its 773 00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:14,680 Speaker 1: population and their characteristics. Mayhan wrote in an essay about 774 00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:17,560 Speaker 1: the canal two years before its completion, the foremost question 775 00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,520 Speaker 1: of the Pacific as affecting sea power is the filling 776 00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:23,360 Speaker 1: up of the now partly vacant regions our own Pacific 777 00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:27,360 Speaker 1: coast by a population of European derivation, it is most 778 00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:31,120 Speaker 1: desirable that such immigration should be from northern Europe. So 779 00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:33,719 Speaker 1: a big part of why the Panama Canal whether such 780 00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:36,560 Speaker 1: immediacy to it is that in this period of time, 781 00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:39,360 Speaker 1: it's actually easier in some cases for people from China, 782 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:42,400 Speaker 1: from Japan, from Asia to migrate to the U. S. 783 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:45,479 Speaker 1: West Coast or to the North American West Coast, because 784 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:47,479 Speaker 1: it's kind of a more direct route for them, because 785 00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:49,160 Speaker 1: you gotta go all the way through fucking Panama to 786 00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:51,680 Speaker 1: get there from the east coast, and that makes it 787 00:41:51,719 --> 00:41:55,840 Speaker 1: harder for Europeans to fill up California, Oregon in Washington, 788 00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,160 Speaker 1: UM and so Mayhan and guys like Roosevelts started to 789 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:02,080 Speaker 1: think that, like we in order to stop the Asiatic 790 00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:05,000 Speaker 1: hordes from dominating the West coast, we have to cut 791 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:10,839 Speaker 1: a hole through Panama. That's another major factor in this um. 792 00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:14,799 Speaker 1: Asian immigration threatened political efficiency, in Mahean's view, because of 793 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:18,239 Speaker 1: the different ethnic people's ideas quote do not allow intermingling 794 00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:21,600 Speaker 1: and consequently, if admitted, are ominous of national weakness through 795 00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:27,160 Speaker 1: flaws in homogeneity. Roosevelt shared Mahean's thesis no greater calamity 796 00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,200 Speaker 1: could now befall the United States that they have the 797 00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:35,600 Speaker 1: Pacific Slope fill up with a Mongolian population. Peake cringe. 798 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:39,879 Speaker 1: Pete Roosevelt, I mean, he's this, It's there's there's two 799 00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:42,319 Speaker 1: Roosevelts in history. One of them is the Roosevelt you 800 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:44,480 Speaker 1: learn about when you're a fourteen year old boy and 801 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:48,120 Speaker 1: the boy scouts who is rad and like every young 802 00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:51,160 Speaker 1: man who likes knives in the wilderness is hero, right. 803 00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,120 Speaker 1: He and John the rough writers and like Hike and 804 00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:58,319 Speaker 1: with John Muir, and he's exploring the Amazon and he is, 805 00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:00,480 Speaker 1: you know, getting shot in the middle of the speech, 806 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:04,880 Speaker 1: getting malaria. Well the Amazon does finally get It's like 807 00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:08,319 Speaker 1: Latin America gets its revenge on Roosevelt in the end. 808 00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:10,960 Speaker 1: But you when you learn about him as a young 809 00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:13,879 Speaker 1: like as like I'm literally holding a machette right now, 810 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:15,880 Speaker 1: as the young kind of boy that I grew up 811 00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:19,080 Speaker 1: like you grew up idolizing Teddy Roosevelt. And then my 812 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,600 Speaker 1: adulthood and I think a lot of people's adulthood is 813 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:23,880 Speaker 1: a long process of learning, Oh my god, he was 814 00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:26,160 Speaker 1: one of the worst people who ever lived, just a 815 00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:30,600 Speaker 1: not just racist within a time of racism, but like 816 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:35,680 Speaker 1: an arch an arch bigot of his day, like it's 817 00:43:35,719 --> 00:43:39,000 Speaker 1: so so bad and he's so he did split the 818 00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 1: vote and allowed somebody even worse to come into power. Yeah, 819 00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:45,360 Speaker 1: he did, he did, he did. He fumed up in 820 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:48,200 Speaker 1: a lot of ways politically. He did also give us 821 00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:51,440 Speaker 1: the National Park System, which is I mean, that's the 822 00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:54,160 Speaker 1: thing about America. It's like with Eisenhower, where there's a 823 00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:57,120 Speaker 1: lot of horrible stuff, including the military industrial complex that 824 00:43:57,160 --> 00:44:02,480 Speaker 1: you but we got the Interstates. Uh, it's very frustrating, 825 00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,279 Speaker 1: the comp past job of the AUTOMU. Yeah, I mean, 826 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:08,680 Speaker 1: we will talk about the only US president that you 827 00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:12,839 Speaker 1: can even sort of feel good about in this episode two. Um, 828 00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:15,680 Speaker 1: who's who's the only US president who doesn't funk over Panama? 829 00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:20,879 Speaker 1: Jimmy Jimmy Carter. I'm sure that's not a surprise c anybody. Um. So. 830 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,960 Speaker 1: Columbia had another civil war from eighteen ninety nine to 831 00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:26,960 Speaker 1: nineteen o two. This one was again between liberal and 832 00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:31,080 Speaker 1: conservative factions in the government. The Liberals were particularly popular 833 00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:34,080 Speaker 1: in rural areas among the peasantry. Before long, the war 834 00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:36,520 Speaker 1: became a fight between the left wing masses of peasants 835 00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:39,279 Speaker 1: in the country and poor laborers on the left in 836 00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:43,680 Speaker 1: Panama cities and wealthy conservative central conservatives who ran the 837 00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:47,239 Speaker 1: central government of Colombia. Liberal troops gained control of most 838 00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:49,800 Speaker 1: of Panama in nineteen o one, and again they're fighting 839 00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:52,400 Speaker 1: against the government in Bogata at this point, and the 840 00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,160 Speaker 1: government in Bogata goes to the US to beg for help, 841 00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:57,919 Speaker 1: taking advantage of the bid Lack Treaty, which again gives 842 00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:00,160 Speaker 1: the US the right to use force to defit into 843 00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:02,560 Speaker 1: its railroads and the canal zone, or the zone that 844 00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:05,000 Speaker 1: they think will be the canal. So the bid Luck 845 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:07,080 Speaker 1: Treaty was just meant so the U s could protect 846 00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:09,680 Speaker 1: a future canal and protect the railroad that they have, 847 00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:12,680 Speaker 1: But as soon as Bogata calls in them for help, 848 00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:15,200 Speaker 1: they use it to justify going in to crack down 849 00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:18,000 Speaker 1: on a left wing populist movement that's threatening to free 850 00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:22,680 Speaker 1: Panama from Colombian control. Captain Thomas Perry and his gunboat 851 00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:25,760 Speaker 1: the Iowa, sail up and warn the liberal military leaders 852 00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:28,200 Speaker 1: that he's going to send in the Marines if liberals 853 00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:30,960 Speaker 1: interfere with the railroad. Because of how things were laid 854 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,680 Speaker 1: out geographically, this made it impossible for the Liberals to 855 00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:36,480 Speaker 1: kick the central government out of the Isthmus and complete 856 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:39,280 Speaker 1: their victory. Because of where the railroads located, it basically 857 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:43,320 Speaker 1: lets the U. S. Marines wall off government controlled Panama 858 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,040 Speaker 1: from the regions that the liberals control, so they're forced 859 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:48,560 Speaker 1: to sign a peace settlement which has written out under 860 00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,760 Speaker 1: the watchful eye of U. S. Navy officers. The treaty 861 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:54,360 Speaker 1: did not last, though, and fighting started up literally a 862 00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,720 Speaker 1: month later. The liberals quickly took again all of Panama 863 00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:00,600 Speaker 1: except for the big cities, and again Club asked for 864 00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,640 Speaker 1: the United States to intervene. Marines were sent in the 865 00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:06,640 Speaker 1: protect Cologne and Panama City. At this point, the US 866 00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:09,720 Speaker 1: throughout the bid lect treaty entirely and started stationing troops 867 00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:12,400 Speaker 1: on trains, saying that only U. S. Soldiers were allowed 868 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:14,879 Speaker 1: to use the railwaid ways and basically acting as armed 869 00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:18,560 Speaker 1: enforces for the failed Colombian government. US interventions stopped a 870 00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:21,160 Speaker 1: Liberal victory which would have led to Panama separating and 871 00:46:21,239 --> 00:46:24,400 Speaker 1: establishing itself as an independent nation. By the end of 872 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:26,759 Speaker 1: the civil war, which could have ended fairly quickly but 873 00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:30,360 Speaker 1: was elongated by years due to the United States, Panama 874 00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:33,920 Speaker 1: was completely fucking devastated, and the Colombian government was broke. 875 00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:38,080 Speaker 1: Six of Panama's cattle were killed during the fighting, thousands 876 00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:41,719 Speaker 1: of civilians were turned into refugees, agriculture broke down, and 877 00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:45,359 Speaker 1: the local economy shattered entirely. The only places that were 878 00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:48,000 Speaker 1: left sort of intact with the cities, which were dominated 879 00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:51,000 Speaker 1: by conservative elites who had by this point learned well 880 00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:54,759 Speaker 1: that their continued comfort relied on pleasing the North Americans. 881 00:46:55,719 --> 00:47:02,000 Speaker 1: Now right, yeah, it's not great now. Right before the 882 00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:05,000 Speaker 1: start of the Columbian Civil War in eighteen the US 883 00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:07,360 Speaker 1: had gone to war with Spain. This had been a 884 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:09,719 Speaker 1: fairly quick and easy victory, but there had been one 885 00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:13,759 Speaker 1: major snack. The USA's most powerful battleship, the Oregon, had 886 00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:16,719 Speaker 1: been docked in San Francisco. Now, the Oregon had never 887 00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:20,319 Speaker 1: been used in war, and obviously American North American people 888 00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,239 Speaker 1: were really excited to see how good this ship was 889 00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:24,800 Speaker 1: going to be at killing foreigners. But it was far away, 890 00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:27,480 Speaker 1: and it took it weeks to actually get to Cuba, 891 00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:29,920 Speaker 1: and so it missed all of the fun fighting and stuff. 892 00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:32,640 Speaker 1: Um And like the news as it's sailing, the news 893 00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,200 Speaker 1: is breathlessly covering how far the Oregans made it because 894 00:47:35,200 --> 00:47:37,200 Speaker 1: everybody's just got such a boner to see how this 895 00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:42,520 Speaker 1: modern warship fucking you know, kills people. Um, And because 896 00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:45,240 Speaker 1: the Oregon gets there so late, all of these pundits 897 00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:46,239 Speaker 1: in the news are like, you know, if we had 898 00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:49,160 Speaker 1: a pan a canal and Panama, this eight thousand mile 899 00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:51,400 Speaker 1: journey would have just been four thousand miles and we 900 00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:54,800 Speaker 1: could have watched this boat kill Spaniards. Really, that wouldn't 901 00:47:54,800 --> 00:48:00,920 Speaker 1: that have been nice? That is a priorities. So the 902 00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:03,080 Speaker 1: fact that the Oregon takes so long to get into 903 00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:05,400 Speaker 1: the fight as the last draw for hawks in the 904 00:48:05,520 --> 00:48:09,160 Speaker 1: US defense establishment. With a canal in Panama, they argued, 905 00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:11,680 Speaker 1: and this was actually like, militarily is a good point. 906 00:48:11,960 --> 00:48:13,719 Speaker 1: The same fleet would be able to protect both the 907 00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:16,840 Speaker 1: Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Right, you don't need two feets 908 00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,399 Speaker 1: if you can sail went around both sides. Now, when 909 00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:22,799 Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt became president, he'd made building a canal in 910 00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:25,879 Speaker 1: Panama one of his top goals. That this canal would 911 00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:28,520 Speaker 1: be in Panama was not yet a foregone conclusion, though 912 00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,799 Speaker 1: many in Congress wanted to build through Nicaragua, which would 913 00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:33,840 Speaker 1: be you know, it would be a longer canal, but 914 00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:36,280 Speaker 1: it would also probably be easier and safer to build 915 00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:40,640 Speaker 1: because of Nicaraguan geography and stuff. So enter the New 916 00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:43,440 Speaker 1: Panama Canal Company, which was run by the same people 917 00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:46,319 Speaker 1: who had managed the disastrous French canal project that could 918 00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:49,440 Speaker 1: kill twenty thousand people. One of these people was Philippe 919 00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:52,760 Speaker 1: bunal Varia. He and one of his shareholders weren't warned 920 00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:55,160 Speaker 1: the United States to pick Panama because they'd gone to 921 00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:57,399 Speaker 1: all the wanted the United States to pick Panama because 922 00:48:57,400 --> 00:48:59,480 Speaker 1: they'd gone to all the trouble of purchasing a canal's 923 00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:01,799 Speaker 1: worth of land and from the Colombian government. If they 924 00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:04,120 Speaker 1: could sell it to the USA, it would mitigate the 925 00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:07,200 Speaker 1: horrible financial losses they had suffered failing to build a 926 00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:10,520 Speaker 1: canal for France. Thomas Leidenberg rights for the University of 927 00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:14,080 Speaker 1: Houston quote by priority agreement, The New Panama Company had 928 00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:17,080 Speaker 1: until December thirty one, nineteen o three, before the areas 929 00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:19,560 Speaker 1: approved by the Old Canal Company, as well as the 930 00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:23,239 Speaker 1: construction machinery, railroad track, locomotives and so forth, would be 931 00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:26,239 Speaker 1: deeded to the Columbia. Then Colombia and not the New 932 00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:29,040 Speaker 1: Panama Canal company could sell these rights, for which the 933 00:49:29,040 --> 00:49:31,640 Speaker 1: new canal company was demanding forty million dollars from the 934 00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:35,000 Speaker 1: United States. Congressmen serving on a committee to inspect the 935 00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:37,840 Speaker 1: sites where the canal might be built were invited to 936 00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:41,000 Speaker 1: talk with officials in France, where they were entertained lavishly 937 00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:43,760 Speaker 1: and presented with the French perspective on the doomed canal 938 00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:46,840 Speaker 1: project for five weeks. Then their fridge hosts brought the 939 00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:50,160 Speaker 1: congressman to Panama, where canal company officials showed them only 940 00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:52,560 Speaker 1: what the company wanted them to see. As luck would 941 00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:55,320 Speaker 1: have it, a volcano and Nicaragua erupted in nineteen o 942 00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:59,840 Speaker 1: two for the first time in sixty eight years. Yeah, 943 00:50:00,120 --> 00:50:03,560 Speaker 1: and Bueno Veria made quick quickly made postage stamps as 944 00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:05,720 Speaker 1: a reminder of the eruption and sent them to members 945 00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:10,680 Speaker 1: of Congress. Not surprisingly, Congress selected the Panama route. Jesus, 946 00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:20,000 Speaker 1: it's a really convenient volcano eruption, historically significant like natural occurrence. Yeah, 947 00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:23,080 Speaker 1: this is why the Panama Canal is not in Nicaragua. Well, 948 00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:25,640 Speaker 1: also would have been the Nicaraguan Canal. But yeah, and 949 00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:28,919 Speaker 1: of course Buenoveria, being a smart guy, is like, oh yeah, 950 00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:32,359 Speaker 1: we gotta like remind them of of how dangerous Nicaragua's 951 00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:37,239 Speaker 1: camp canal there we'll get volcanoed. Uh So. Obviously the 952 00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:40,200 Speaker 1: whole situation was not quite as simple as Buenoveria made 953 00:50:40,239 --> 00:50:42,560 Speaker 1: it out to be though. For one thing, the French 954 00:50:42,640 --> 00:50:44,839 Speaker 1: were selling land they didn't have the right to sell 955 00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:47,920 Speaker 1: because under their agreement with Colombia, that land was supposed 956 00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:50,640 Speaker 1: to revert to Colombian control and all of the equipment 957 00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:54,040 Speaker 1: pretty soon. And they also legally did not have the 958 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:56,800 Speaker 1: right to sell that land to a foreign power because 959 00:50:56,800 --> 00:51:00,239 Speaker 1: it was not their land. Obviously, the United States not 960 00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:05,680 Speaker 1: care about this ship now, we do. We do not 961 00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:09,480 Speaker 1: give one solitary funk about what Columbia's contract with the 962 00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:13,720 Speaker 1: French says. Um any Yeah, And obviously, so the government 963 00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:16,160 Speaker 1: in Bogata is really unhappy with the fact that the 964 00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:18,160 Speaker 1: US is talking with the French like this, but they're 965 00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:22,360 Speaker 1: effective count Like, they can't really counter this because Bogata 966 00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:24,319 Speaker 1: is kind of in the middle of nowhere right in 967 00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:27,040 Speaker 1: this period of time, they don't have reliable telegraph connections. 968 00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:30,280 Speaker 1: It takes other representatives a while to get messages anywhere. 969 00:51:30,719 --> 00:51:32,799 Speaker 1: Um and when they eventually get in touch with the 970 00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:35,160 Speaker 1: US government and let them know that they don't agree 971 00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:39,720 Speaker 1: to the purchase. Washington said, like, by the time Columbia 972 00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:41,239 Speaker 1: is able to get a message out that like, hey, 973 00:51:41,480 --> 00:51:44,239 Speaker 1: the French don't have the right to sell you this stuff, um, 974 00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:48,080 Speaker 1: negotiations have already progressed. Now the US does try to 975 00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:50,279 Speaker 1: make a deal with Bogata. They're like, what if we 976 00:51:50,320 --> 00:51:52,560 Speaker 1: give you ten million of the forty million that we're 977 00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:54,320 Speaker 1: going to give to the French and a quarter of 978 00:51:54,360 --> 00:51:56,720 Speaker 1: a million dollars a year in rent. So we send 979 00:51:56,800 --> 00:51:59,680 Speaker 1: this offer back to Bogata and there's no response for 980 00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:03,040 Speaker 1: what Teddy Roosevelt considers to be an unacceptable length of time. 981 00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:05,440 Speaker 1: The President starts to get afraid that they're going to 982 00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:07,600 Speaker 1: have to be forced to go back and pic Nicaraguay 983 00:52:07,640 --> 00:52:11,320 Speaker 1: after all, and angry Teddy gets racist at a staff meeting, 984 00:52:11,520 --> 00:52:15,399 Speaker 1: yelling this is like, like, so America right now, it's 985 00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:21,319 Speaker 1: not Yeah, I think peak United States, Peak USA right now, 986 00:52:21,520 --> 00:52:26,520 Speaker 1: And again peak Teddy. Those contemptible little creatures in Bogata 987 00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:29,560 Speaker 1: ought to understand how much they are jeopardizing things and 988 00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:35,920 Speaker 1: imperiling their own future. I'm sorry, temptable little creatures. So 989 00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:38,600 Speaker 1: this is so this is the this is the this 990 00:52:38,680 --> 00:52:42,160 Speaker 1: is the dawn of the big stick of the Yeah, 991 00:52:42,320 --> 00:52:45,760 Speaker 1: he is about to use his big stick. Um. Yeah. 992 00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:48,640 Speaker 1: And he doesn't speak softly either. That always goes together 993 00:52:48,680 --> 00:52:52,040 Speaker 1: in the quote. But he's a pretty loud guy, you 994 00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:54,880 Speaker 1: know who does speak softly while carrying a big stick, 995 00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:57,440 Speaker 1: A big stick that they will sell you for a 996 00:52:57,440 --> 00:53:03,200 Speaker 1: reasonable price. Raytheon, Oh God, I was coming. Ray Theon 997 00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:07,200 Speaker 1: does speak softly. You rarely hear statements from the Raytheon corporation. 998 00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:10,040 Speaker 1: They prefer to speak through their missiles that are made 999 00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:23,200 Speaker 1: out of knives. Breda, And thank you for that, Chelsea. 1000 00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:27,200 Speaker 1: I was out of breath from yelling products. Still, so 1001 00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:32,120 Speaker 1: the reality of the situation so obviously, like the US 1002 00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:34,640 Speaker 1: is like trying to at least kind of sort of 1003 00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:36,880 Speaker 1: do the right thing. When Columbia points out that the 1004 00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:38,920 Speaker 1: French don't have the right to sell this car, okay, 1005 00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:41,400 Speaker 1: we'll we'll pay you a quarter of what we were 1006 00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:43,440 Speaker 1: going to pay the French company. And they send this 1007 00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:45,680 Speaker 1: out and they don't get a response for a long time, 1008 00:53:46,040 --> 00:53:48,440 Speaker 1: and part of the reason why the response is delayed 1009 00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:51,200 Speaker 1: is the fault of a lawyer for the French company, 1010 00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:54,400 Speaker 1: Cromwell who was deliberately trying to gum things up in 1011 00:53:54,520 --> 00:53:57,839 Speaker 1: order to make the Americans angry at the Colombians. And 1012 00:53:58,200 --> 00:54:00,239 Speaker 1: one of the things he wants to avoid because he's 1013 00:54:00,239 --> 00:54:02,480 Speaker 1: getting a cut of what the French company makes, he 1014 00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:04,520 Speaker 1: doesn't want the company to part with any of the 1015 00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:08,560 Speaker 1: forty million dollars they're being paid um by the Americans, 1016 00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:10,719 Speaker 1: so he doesn't want the Colombian government to get paid off. 1017 00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:14,479 Speaker 1: And he both like kind of jams up the works 1018 00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,120 Speaker 1: within the Colombian government. And he has several meetings in 1019 00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:20,280 Speaker 1: Rose with Roosevelt where he tries to convince him basically 1020 00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:22,880 Speaker 1: that hey, you know, the Panamanians don't even want to 1021 00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:24,799 Speaker 1: be a part of Colombia, and if Panama is an 1022 00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,120 Speaker 1: independent country, this whole process of negotiation is going to 1023 00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:32,719 Speaker 1: be a lot easier. Um. He also pays like journalists 1024 00:54:32,719 --> 00:54:35,200 Speaker 1: in the United States to write articles on this same 1025 00:54:35,440 --> 00:54:38,279 Speaker 1: like in this same line, he bribes the New York 1026 00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:40,160 Speaker 1: World to put out an article because he knows that 1027 00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:43,160 Speaker 1: Teddy reads the New York World, and the article announces 1028 00:54:43,400 --> 00:54:46,440 Speaker 1: the state of Panama stands ready to secede from Colombia 1029 00:54:46,480 --> 00:54:49,000 Speaker 1: and enter into a canal treaty with the United States. 1030 00:54:49,400 --> 00:54:52,120 Speaker 1: So the final straw comes in late nineteen o three, 1031 00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:55,120 Speaker 1: when the Colombian government rejects the US offer and demands 1032 00:54:55,160 --> 00:54:57,840 Speaker 1: more money in exchange for the canal. The Colombian government 1033 00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:00,400 Speaker 1: is very reasonably like, why is a French company getting 1034 00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:02,520 Speaker 1: three quarters of the money you're paying for this canal 1035 00:55:02,880 --> 00:55:04,880 Speaker 1: when it's our fucking land and they don't have the 1036 00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:07,360 Speaker 1: right to sell it to you. And this really pisses 1037 00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:10,000 Speaker 1: off Roosevelt because he doesn't want any delay. He calls 1038 00:55:10,040 --> 00:55:15,560 Speaker 1: the Colombian people jack rabbits and a corrupt pithecoid community 1039 00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:19,840 Speaker 1: undeserving of the rights and privileges enjoyed by Europeans, and 1040 00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:22,680 Speaker 1: this causes Teddy Roosevelt to give the green light for 1041 00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:26,520 Speaker 1: a US backed separatist coup in Panama. Now, Roosevelt and 1042 00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:28,520 Speaker 1: his cronies had been chatting for a while about how 1043 00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:31,279 Speaker 1: much easier this whole business would be if Panama were 1044 00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:34,360 Speaker 1: its own country, conveniently dominated by the United States, and 1045 00:55:34,400 --> 00:55:38,239 Speaker 1: obviously Cromwell had stoked these conversations. No one seemed to 1046 00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:40,359 Speaker 1: think it was ironic that the United States had just 1047 00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:43,680 Speaker 1: intervened repeatedly in a civil war to stop Panama from 1048 00:55:43,719 --> 00:55:48,040 Speaker 1: separating from Colombia. Now, though the United States supported Panamanian 1049 00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:51,640 Speaker 1: independence from a right up by the BBC quote, there 1050 00:55:51,719 --> 00:55:54,360 Speaker 1: was indeed an independence movement in Panama centered around the 1051 00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:57,919 Speaker 1: American owned railroad between Cologne and Panama City. This also 1052 00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:00,640 Speaker 1: happened to be represented by Cromwell, and it was Cromwell 1053 00:56:00,680 --> 00:56:02,200 Speaker 1: who sent a man he believed to be one of 1054 00:56:02,239 --> 00:56:06,080 Speaker 1: Panama's conspirators, Gabrielle du Bac, to see Hay, who was 1055 00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:08,600 Speaker 1: like the Secretary of State at the time. During that meeting, 1056 00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:11,480 Speaker 1: Hay claimed that if revolutionaries were to seize power in Panama, 1057 00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:14,439 Speaker 1: the United States could stop Colombian troops from intervening under 1058 00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:16,680 Speaker 1: the guys of protecting the railway. And again this is 1059 00:56:16,719 --> 00:56:21,080 Speaker 1: like the bid Lack Treaty. Unfortunately for Cromwell, Dubach reported 1060 00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:25,239 Speaker 1: everything to the Colombian legation, double crossed exposed an unnerved 1061 00:56:25,280 --> 00:56:28,440 Speaker 1: Cromwell disowned the genuine Panamanian rebel He had also been 1062 00:56:28,440 --> 00:56:32,960 Speaker 1: dealing with Manuel Amador Guerrero. But Amador was quickly taken 1063 00:56:33,040 --> 00:56:35,520 Speaker 1: up by Bueno Varia, who sent him back to Panama 1064 00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:39,560 Speaker 1: with a revolution kit, a proclamation of independence, draft constitution, 1065 00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:42,120 Speaker 1: a homemade flag, and a promise of a hundred thousand 1066 00:56:42,160 --> 00:56:45,240 Speaker 1: dollars to underwrite the new government. It was quite by chance. 1067 00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:47,680 Speaker 1: The frenchman later insisted that he bumped into the U. S. 1068 00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:50,560 Speaker 1: Secretary of the Navy while strolling around Washington, who told 1069 00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:52,520 Speaker 1: him that an American gunboat was on its way to 1070 00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:55,640 Speaker 1: Cologne when Ovaria sent Amador and his accomplice as a 1071 00:56:55,680 --> 00:56:58,040 Speaker 1: coded cable giving them the news which convinced them of 1072 00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:01,120 Speaker 1: American support for their revolution. So well, lot is happening here, 1073 00:57:01,800 --> 00:57:05,839 Speaker 1: but gist of it is the French find a Panamanian 1074 00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:08,840 Speaker 1: revel give him a flag that they made themselves, a 1075 00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:12,320 Speaker 1: constitution that they made themselves, and a hundred thousand dollars, 1076 00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:15,680 Speaker 1: and say go start a revolution. Will take care of 1077 00:57:15,719 --> 00:57:18,600 Speaker 1: the rest. And then the same French representative of the 1078 00:57:18,600 --> 00:57:21,000 Speaker 1: Canal Company goes to the U. S. Secretary of the 1079 00:57:21,080 --> 00:57:23,720 Speaker 1: Navy and is like, will you shoot the Colombians if 1080 00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:25,440 Speaker 1: they try to stop this? And the Secretary of the 1081 00:57:25,520 --> 00:57:28,680 Speaker 1: Navy is like, yeah, why the funk not? Yeah, let's go. 1082 00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:33,840 Speaker 1: It's rad So the panem we're on You're on our 1083 00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:39,440 Speaker 1: side now, So now everyone's fine with an independent Panama. 1084 00:57:39,520 --> 00:57:42,000 Speaker 1: And that is what happens. The Panamanian rebels use the 1085 00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:44,520 Speaker 1: money the US had given them to bribe the Colombian 1086 00:57:44,560 --> 00:57:48,880 Speaker 1: military in Panama, and on November three nine, Panama to 1087 00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:52,120 Speaker 1: claes it's independence. More US money and silver coins was 1088 00:57:52,200 --> 00:57:54,400 Speaker 1: handed out to hundreds of Colombian soldiers who had all 1089 00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:57,120 Speaker 1: been bribed to go along with it. Amador gave an 1090 00:57:57,160 --> 00:58:00,640 Speaker 1: Independence Day speech where he declared, the world is astounded 1091 00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:04,120 Speaker 1: in our heroism. Yesterday we were slaves of Colombia. Today 1092 00:58:04,160 --> 00:58:11,080 Speaker 1: we are free. Long lived President Roosevelt. Yeah no, did 1093 00:58:11,120 --> 00:58:14,080 Speaker 1: not age well, yeah, free would be a little bit 1094 00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:18,880 Speaker 1: much to state about the status of Panamanians in the 1095 00:58:18,960 --> 00:58:21,200 Speaker 1: new order of things. I didn't I didn't like that 1096 00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:25,040 Speaker 1: very much. So the U. S. State Department recognizes Panama 1097 00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:29,280 Speaker 1: as an independent nation. Several hours after the declaration, the press, 1098 00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:32,640 Speaker 1: who weren't very corrupt, all attacked Teddy Roosevelt for this, 1099 00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:36,080 Speaker 1: pointing out that basically he had stolen Panama from Colombia 1100 00:58:36,120 --> 00:58:40,160 Speaker 1: and blatantly violated US treaties with Columbia um now. The 1101 00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:43,120 Speaker 1: New York Times called it an act of sordid conquest. 1102 00:58:43,440 --> 00:58:46,440 Speaker 1: Roosevelt responded by pointing out that no US troops or 1103 00:58:46,480 --> 00:58:48,560 Speaker 1: ships had been in Panama City, but it was taken, 1104 00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:51,760 Speaker 1: so how could this be an active conquest. Roosevelt told 1105 00:58:52,040 --> 00:58:55,640 Speaker 1: Congress that the people of Panama rose literally as one man. 1106 00:58:56,000 --> 00:59:04,920 Speaker 1: A senator responded, the one man was Roosevelt. That's solid 1107 00:59:04,960 --> 00:59:09,160 Speaker 1: congressing guy. So Roosevelt immediately authorized the negotiation of a 1108 00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:11,960 Speaker 1: new canal treaty with the new government of Panama. The 1109 00:59:12,040 --> 00:59:15,320 Speaker 1: negotiation was handed by Bueno Varia, who had been permitted 1110 00:59:15,320 --> 00:59:18,160 Speaker 1: to by the new government to discuss arrangements with the US. 1111 00:59:18,240 --> 00:59:21,640 Speaker 1: So the new Panamanian government says to Bueno Varia, who 1112 00:59:21,680 --> 00:59:24,360 Speaker 1: was the guy who had told the people who became 1113 00:59:24,400 --> 00:59:27,400 Speaker 1: the new Panamanian government to start a revolution, They're like, 1114 00:59:27,480 --> 00:59:30,920 Speaker 1: you can start negotiations with the United States, but he 1115 00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:33,720 Speaker 1: had not been approved to actually sign a treaty or 1116 00:59:33,720 --> 00:59:37,840 Speaker 1: conclude negotiations. Bueno Varia ignored this. He in the United 1117 00:59:37,880 --> 00:59:41,000 Speaker 1: States decided that actual Panamanians were still not a necessary 1118 00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:44,080 Speaker 1: part of the negotiations. They concluded a treaty, which was 1119 00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:47,600 Speaker 1: ratified by the new Panamanian government after Teddy Roosevelt threatened 1120 00:59:47,640 --> 00:59:50,440 Speaker 1: to let Columbia invade if they didn't ratify it. No 1121 00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:53,600 Speaker 1: Panamanians actually signed the treaty giving the US the right 1122 00:59:53,640 --> 00:59:57,360 Speaker 1: to build a Panama Canal. Hey, it sounds like how 1123 00:59:57,520 --> 01:00:01,160 Speaker 1: foreign policies work fill last basically the eighth century. Yeah, 1124 01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:03,960 Speaker 1: I mean this is this is we're definitely, like Teddy is, 1125 01:00:04,560 --> 01:00:08,680 Speaker 1: establishing a lot of how US foreign relations and interventions 1126 01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:13,160 Speaker 1: will work for more than a century afterwards. It's pretty great. Now. 1127 01:00:13,280 --> 01:00:15,640 Speaker 1: Under the treaty, the United States was given control and 1128 01:00:15,760 --> 01:00:19,840 Speaker 1: sovereignty over territory including and around the canal zone. Um, 1129 01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:22,120 Speaker 1: and it was supposed to be in perpetuity, right, so 1130 01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:25,600 Speaker 1: basically forever we get this territory. Roosevelt was over the 1131 01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:28,080 Speaker 1: moon with the deal, but he had no trouble justifying 1132 01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:30,480 Speaker 1: the blatant and shameless contempt for a people's right to 1133 01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:34,520 Speaker 1: self determination. He said, quote, reasons of convenience have been 1134 01:00:34,560 --> 01:00:38,120 Speaker 1: superseded by reasons of vital necessity, which do not admit 1135 01:00:38,160 --> 01:00:41,120 Speaker 1: acts of infinite delays. If ever, a government could be 1136 01:00:41,120 --> 01:00:44,600 Speaker 1: said to have received a mandate from civilization, the United 1137 01:00:44,640 --> 01:00:50,080 Speaker 1: States holds that position with regard to the inter Oceanic Canal. So, yeah, 1138 01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:53,640 Speaker 1: we stole this land from Panama. Yeah, we didn't ask 1139 01:00:53,720 --> 01:00:57,320 Speaker 1: them or like, and we violated our principles of democracy. 1140 01:00:57,360 --> 01:01:01,680 Speaker 1: But divine right, divine not just write all of civilization 1141 01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:04,160 Speaker 1: demands that we make this canal, and then it be 1142 01:01:04,200 --> 01:01:08,160 Speaker 1: as the profit from it. Right. But of course the 1143 01:01:08,200 --> 01:01:10,760 Speaker 1: United States was not building a canal in Panama purely 1144 01:01:10,760 --> 01:01:13,040 Speaker 1: for the good civilization. We were doing it for profit, 1145 01:01:13,120 --> 01:01:16,040 Speaker 1: for military advantage, and to extend the white race across 1146 01:01:16,080 --> 01:01:19,240 Speaker 1: the west coast of North America. The agreement Washington and 1147 01:01:19,320 --> 01:01:21,760 Speaker 1: Panama signed was heavily influenced by the fact that the 1148 01:01:21,800 --> 01:01:25,040 Speaker 1: Isthmus had been devastated by war and that Panama's continued 1149 01:01:25,040 --> 01:01:28,680 Speaker 1: existence was contingent upon US goodwill. In their new constitution, 1150 01:01:28,880 --> 01:01:31,800 Speaker 1: Panama was officially a protectorate of the United States, who 1151 01:01:31,880 --> 01:01:35,080 Speaker 1: had the power to intervene militarily quote in any part 1152 01:01:35,120 --> 01:01:37,720 Speaker 1: of the Republic of Panama to re establish public peace 1153 01:01:37,760 --> 01:01:40,600 Speaker 1: and constitutional order in the event of their being disturbed. 1154 01:01:40,920 --> 01:01:43,080 Speaker 1: So we take the bid Lack Treaty and we just 1155 01:01:43,240 --> 01:01:45,840 Speaker 1: extended to now that we're building a canal, we can 1156 01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:50,000 Speaker 1: send our soldiers anywhere in Panama for any reason. That's 1157 01:01:50,040 --> 01:01:53,480 Speaker 1: wrap US efforts in Panama started with the removal of 1158 01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:56,080 Speaker 1: nearly a hundred million cubic yards of soil which were 1159 01:01:56,120 --> 01:01:58,960 Speaker 1: dumped just sort of wherever four dred and twenty three 1160 01:01:59,000 --> 01:02:01,920 Speaker 1: square kilometers to be flooded for the project, which led 1161 01:02:01,960 --> 01:02:05,360 Speaker 1: to the creation of Gattan Lake. This required the displacement 1162 01:02:05,400 --> 01:02:08,280 Speaker 1: of thousands of Panamanians who previously leaved in the lived 1163 01:02:08,280 --> 01:02:10,640 Speaker 1: in the territory we were digging up. Many of these 1164 01:02:10,680 --> 01:02:12,920 Speaker 1: people were made homeless by the early stages of the 1165 01:02:12,920 --> 01:02:15,720 Speaker 1: conuct construction product, and of course they were not paid 1166 01:02:15,720 --> 01:02:17,720 Speaker 1: anything for this. We just forced them off of their 1167 01:02:17,800 --> 01:02:21,280 Speaker 1: land and destroyed their owns. The creation of Gatton Lake, though, 1168 01:02:21,320 --> 01:02:25,640 Speaker 1: created a problem for the white occupiers. Mosquitoes, Uh you know, 1169 01:02:25,760 --> 01:02:28,920 Speaker 1: mosquitoes breed and water, and Gatton Lake was basically a 1170 01:02:28,960 --> 01:02:33,080 Speaker 1: giant puddle of still water and mosquitoes bread like crazy 1171 01:02:33,160 --> 01:02:36,960 Speaker 1: in it. Uh yeah, yeah, it's a bad idea. It 1172 01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:39,200 Speaker 1: was not a great call for us. So soon all 1173 01:02:39,240 --> 01:02:41,200 Speaker 1: of the white people that we had sent to Panama 1174 01:02:41,240 --> 01:02:44,000 Speaker 1: to build this canal start dropping like flies, because we 1175 01:02:44,120 --> 01:02:47,760 Speaker 1: basically build a giant mosquito incubator. Many of the workers 1176 01:02:47,800 --> 01:02:50,840 Speaker 1: who died, of course, we're black Africans, but that was 1177 01:02:50,920 --> 01:02:53,240 Speaker 1: not what concerned anyone in the United States. It was 1178 01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:57,280 Speaker 1: the death of white workers that was really a problem. Um. 1179 01:02:57,320 --> 01:02:59,520 Speaker 1: And this was in part of problem because the US 1180 01:02:59,560 --> 01:03:02,600 Speaker 1: plans and Panama. This was not like a normal colonial venture, right, 1181 01:03:02,840 --> 01:03:05,160 Speaker 1: This is not just about resource extraction. It was not 1182 01:03:05,200 --> 01:03:07,280 Speaker 1: a situation of like, yeah, we're gonna lose some white people, 1183 01:03:07,520 --> 01:03:09,640 Speaker 1: but eventually we'll get all of the good stuff out 1184 01:03:09,640 --> 01:03:11,920 Speaker 1: of there and we can just abandon it. The canal 1185 01:03:12,080 --> 01:03:14,040 Speaker 1: is always going to be valuable, so you need to 1186 01:03:14,040 --> 01:03:16,760 Speaker 1: have a population of white people there to maintain it. 1187 01:03:17,240 --> 01:03:19,400 Speaker 1: And that meant that Panama was going to be needed, 1188 01:03:20,160 --> 01:03:22,760 Speaker 1: would need to be made safe for white people to 1189 01:03:22,880 --> 01:03:26,280 Speaker 1: live it, um. And that meant that essentially what was 1190 01:03:26,320 --> 01:03:29,560 Speaker 1: going to follow was a war on biology itself on 1191 01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:32,240 Speaker 1: behalf of the white race, because like all of these 1192 01:03:32,280 --> 01:03:36,360 Speaker 1: tropical diseases needed to be eradicated. John Lindsay Poland describes 1193 01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:39,080 Speaker 1: it as the transformation of the canal zone to make 1194 01:03:39,080 --> 01:03:43,200 Speaker 1: it biologically safe for white men. And in Part two, Chelsea, 1195 01:03:43,600 --> 01:03:48,120 Speaker 1: that's what we're going to talk about. Oh yeah, this 1196 01:03:48,200 --> 01:03:50,520 Speaker 1: is this is going in a fascinating direction that I'm 1197 01:03:50,560 --> 01:03:53,080 Speaker 1: not familiar with, the sort of like bio the sort 1198 01:03:53,120 --> 01:03:56,800 Speaker 1: of like the like terraforming of the region, or the 1199 01:03:56,800 --> 01:03:59,920 Speaker 1: attempt to terraform yeah. This this is like a terraform 1200 01:04:00,120 --> 01:04:04,080 Speaker 1: project and spoilers were bad at it. We we do 1201 01:04:04,160 --> 01:04:06,920 Speaker 1: everything wrong. Yeah, which is probably why I don't know 1202 01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:10,800 Speaker 1: much about it. No, yeah, it's it's very funny. But 1203 01:04:10,840 --> 01:04:15,439 Speaker 1: we'll have to wait until Thursday for that. Until Thursday, Chelsea. Wait, wait, 1204 01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:19,400 Speaker 1: we were people fighting on the interwebs dot net dot com. 1205 01:04:19,760 --> 01:04:21,880 Speaker 1: You have socials to plug? You got plug? Oh I 1206 01:04:21,920 --> 01:04:26,080 Speaker 1: have I have socials? What so? I? Yeah, so I 1207 01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:28,680 Speaker 1: have a I have a Twitter account. Uh x y 1208 01:04:28,800 --> 01:04:32,040 Speaker 1: Chelsea on Twitter. Um I am also x y Chelsea 1209 01:04:32,120 --> 01:04:35,440 Speaker 1: eight seven on Twitch. I do twitch strings mostly video games. 1210 01:04:35,920 --> 01:04:38,720 Speaker 1: Uh uh and uh a little bit of some text 1211 01:04:39,000 --> 01:04:41,680 Speaker 1: of some like tech related stuff. Um so yeah, you know, 1212 01:04:41,720 --> 01:04:45,360 Speaker 1: I just play video games and chat about technology. So 1213 01:04:45,520 --> 01:04:50,400 Speaker 1: check Chelsea out there. And check out Panama when there's 1214 01:04:50,400 --> 01:04:53,400 Speaker 1: not a plate We're not, I mean, I I don't know. 1215 01:04:53,440 --> 01:04:55,920 Speaker 1: I assume they have a vibrant tourist industry that's been 1216 01:04:55,920 --> 01:05:00,120 Speaker 1: suffering from this. Their food is great. Just may all 1217 01:05:00,160 --> 01:05:03,240 Speaker 1: the money we really old Panama. We we we fucked 1218 01:05:03,320 --> 01:05:06,640 Speaker 1: him up pretty bad. Um so send him money to Panama. 1219 01:05:06,960 --> 01:05:09,040 Speaker 1: Stick at the mail like Panama and an en girlp 1220 01:05:09,080 --> 01:05:13,760 Speaker 1: and send him forty dollars yep, hell yeah, yep, let's go. 1221 01:05:18,360 --> 01:05:18,400 Speaker 1: H