WEBVTT - Part One: How The U.S.A. Murdered Panama with Chelsea Manning 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:08.000 What's worrying my crimes? I'm I'm Robert Evans hosted Behind 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:11.720 the Bastards podcast about the worst people in all of 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.080 history and consequently about an awful lot of war crimes, 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:17.280 which is what we're gonna be talking about today more 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.040 or less with our special guests, Sophie Cut the airhorns, 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:27.000 the airhorns eight or nine, eight or nine airhorns. Chelsea mending, Chelsea. Hey, 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:28.840 how are you doing today? How are doing today? It's 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:30.960 all right, a little it's a little cold and snowy 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.159 out here in New York. Got the uh, got the 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.480 lovely Brooklyn weather. But I have at least at least 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:41.880 they have power and some kind of functioning, functioning emergency 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:47.800 services and transportation and water and basic essentials, all those 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:52.440 Yankee things, those carpetbagger luxuries that we don't have down 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.280 in Texas. All we need is to freeze to death. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:57.920 And if we don't freeze to death, to be build 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.040 tens of thousands of dollars for several ways of natural gas, 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:10.200 because that's how freedom looks. I'm in Texas, by the way, yes, uh, Chelsea, Um, 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:14.960 what do you know? What do you know about Panama? Uh? 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.959 What do I know about Panama? Whenever I think about it. 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.120 Whenever I think about I usually think of like Teddy 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:26.360 Roosevelt and uh, steam shovels. So yeah, that's that's that's 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.560 what I usually think of. Um, I don't know much 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.200 about the actual I don't know much about it beyond 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:37.000 like imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, naval strategy, and engineering. That is 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.039 a lot of the history of Panama. And that's what 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.720 we're gonna be talking about today. Today. Our bastard is 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.240 the United States of America, a little country you might 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.800 have heard of, I don't know. Um. And and specifically, 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.880 we're talking about the relationship between the United States of 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.200 America and Panama, which is one of the most abusive 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:02.680 relationships in the entire history of geopolitics. It's it's really outstanding. Hey, 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.920 that's a nice it's miss you got. There be a 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:12.880 shame if America were to happen to it North America. UM. Yeah. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.519 So this this was all inspired when a friend advised 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:17.240 me to take a look at a documentary called The 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.880 Panama Deception, which was made in UH and is quite good. 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.079 And so I decided to start looking a little deeper 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:29.280 into the history of Panama. I found a book length 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.760 study on the history of US Panamanian relations and a 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.480 bunch of articles, and my god, it is it is, Chelsea. 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.400 It is as fucked up as I don't know, Sophie. 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:44.120 What's something that's sucked up like a like a like 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:48.040 a bed lash to the ceiling. I mean that makes sense. 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.440 I was gonna say when people put their beds in 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.040 their closets and then like then they can't get into 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.160 it gets stuck, and then you just it's just like 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.160 then you have no bed. Yeah, it's as fucked up 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.120 as a bed closet. Chelsea. Well, I usually I usually 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.960 think of somebody who like uses the toilet and then 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.960 it doesn't slush and then come back three or four 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:11.400 days later. Yeah, you could say I just choked on coffee. 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:14.639 You could. You could say that the history of US 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.600 Panamanian relations would be embodied. Is like if Panama is 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.200 like a small apartment in the US, is a guest 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.080 at a party in that apartment. The US has just 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.440 like continuously been leaving upper deckers for the last hundred 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.680 and fifty years or so, just just just shipping in 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.760 the water tank. That's that's America, as regards Panama and 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.240 also drinking all of their beer. It's good stuff. It's 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.640 good stuff. So Panama is one of those countries you 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:43.680 can look at on a map and immediately no is 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.520 just kind of completely fucked in a historic sense, right, 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.640 It's a beautiful place, but in terms of geopolitics, it's 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:52.720 just doomed because of where it is in the world. 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:54.680 It's sort of like how you can look at Ukraine 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.560 with its fertile soil and its position like right between 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.760 the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe and be like, boy, 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:02.960 I bet those people got their ship fucked up constantly 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.920 because other folks needed wheat. Panamas in the same kind 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.440 of position. Their northern neighbor is Costa Rica and their 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.800 southern neighbor is Columbia. The nation is the bridge between 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.520 Central and South America, and more to the point, it 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.920 is the narrowest land mass in Central America. So if 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.120 you wanted to say, dig a big trench through a 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.680 country to let people travel from the Atlantic Ocean to 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.160 the Pacific Ocean without sailing around an entire extra continent, 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.960 it's basically the best place to do it. And people 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.120 realize that pretty much as soon as they found Panama. 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.000 In the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds, travelers who wanted 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.039 to go from New York to San Francisco would generally 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.040 go by way of Panama. So if you were trying 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:40.560 to get to like, if you were doing like the 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:44.040 New York to San Francisco route, traveling through the middle 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.240 of the United States was just you would you were 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.000 you would probably die horribly, right. We all played Oregon 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.640 Trail or some version of that. Um, So your best 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.240 bet was to sail down to Panama from New York, 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.640 then spend like three days going across Panama on the 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.640 back of a borough, and then sail from Panama's Pacific 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.120 coast up to San Francisco. That was how you did, 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.000 like went from east coast to west coast back in 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.200 the day. UM. And I think if things were still 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.159 that way, rint would probably be cheaper in Los Angeles. 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.800 So you've got this, You've got this perfectly situated country, 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.120 and from kind of the beginning of the United States 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.600 being a thing, American or US leaders are looking down 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.040 there and being like, boy, I bet we could fucking 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.800 cut cut a hole in the middle of that country, 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.240 and that would really make it easier for us to 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.760 colonize North America. Um So, like most of Latin America, 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.760 Panama was owned by Spain for centuries, and Spain used 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:41.039 its resources to buy gold for their various kings and 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.560 spices to make better paya. In eight one, Panama freed 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:47.560 itself from its now ailing colonial master. There was a 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.479 strong independence movement in the Isthmus, but they were overruled 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:54.960 by the folks who wanted to join the Grand Columbia Federation. So, yeah, Panama, 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.640 and like Colombia, a whole bunch of Central and South 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.320 America separates from Spain in eighteen twenty one, and a 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.520 bunch of guys in Panama are like, hey, you know, 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.680 would be rad if we were our own country, But 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:07.919 more of them are like, you know what, would probably 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.040 be a better idea if we were part of Colombia 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.680 because we're tiny and Columbia is real big, and they're 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.160 probably just gonna take us over if we're if we're not, 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.440 if we don't get on board the Columbia train. It's 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.560 the story as old at time now. Panama subsequently tried 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.120 to free itself from Columbia, and like eighty they there 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.360 were a bunch of different independence attempts in the eighteen 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.280 thirties and up to eighteen forty, but it never quite 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.039 worked out. Um and the region's separatist tendencies were boosted 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.000 by the fact that they were very isolated. There were 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.720 no roads connecting them to Colombia. There were a couple 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.960 of cities and towns in Panama, was not heavily populated, 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.400 and they didn't really trade with Columbia. They mainly traded 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.039 with the Caribbean and other parts of like South America, 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.359 rather than their countrymen in Bogata. From the beginning of Panama, 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.839 Americans saw the isthmus as something to exploit. In eighteen 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.400 forty six, the USA signed the bid Lack Treaty with Columbia, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.840 and this basically, in the bid Lack Treaty, the US 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.400 promise to protect Columbia's control over Panama in exchange for 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.000 access to any future canal that might be dug through 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.400 the country. So we were like, hey, hey, Columbia, you know, 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.400 you guys are a new country, you don't have much 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.560 of a military yet. This place is real isolated and valuable. 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.680 We'll we'll take we'll protect it for you. We're a 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:19.840 big country. We've got a whole lot of developed we 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.240 got ships and everything. Do you just chill out. Let 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.520 us protect Panama and if someone happens to build a 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.200 canal there, we get free access to it. Because it 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.600 was you know, surely a deal without any sort of 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.840 ulterior motives to it that will never be abused by 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.520 the United States, Right, but it wasn't. The United States 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.400 of the time still considered by the rest of the 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.800 world to be a young upstart with US. Yeah. Yeah, 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.360 like in comparison, it compares it to the European powers 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.560 of the time, like France and France and Spain. And 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:55.200 for for reference, the USA in this period is younger 0:07:55.200 --> 0:08:02.200 than Nancy Pelosi. Um. So yeah, we are a young upstart, 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.240 but we've got more resources than Columbia, which which has 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.680 nothing in Panama, which has like less than nothing. So yeah, 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.280 the US signs this this wonderful treaty that will never 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:15.600 have any any ulterior consequences. Um. And it was kind 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:17.680 of like there wasn't really a lot of other options 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:21.120 that Columbia had at the point, um, because Panama barely 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.640 anyone lived there and they didn't have any sort of 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.400 ability to stop someone from invading them in Columbia didn't 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.720 have any roads connecting them to Panama, so they couldn't 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.600 do anything. And in the eighteen forties everyone knew that 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.560 somebody was going to figure out how to dig a 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:36.360 canal through Panama. So it kind of made sense, like 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.360 trusting in the United States is basically our best bet. 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.920 Maybe they won't suck us over, which is never a 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:48.240 good bet to make with the United States. Nope. So 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.160 the deal was inked right at the end of the 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.840 US Mexican War, and it established a pattern that would 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.040 hold true for more than a century, which was that 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:59.400 Panama was to become a pawn of United States power politics. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.679 Um and not just the United States really, just in general. 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.920 White people were going to continue to come in and 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.720 funk around in Panama because we wanted to get to 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.520 the Pacific Ocean more easily. So after the bid Lack Treaty, 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.800 the US government felt free to act as if the 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.600 Isthmus was basically their property. In eighteen fifty, we signed 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.960 the Clayton Bulward Treaty with England, which guaranteed US British 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.640 cooperation to build a canal in Panama in the future. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.080 Neither Colombia nor the Panamanian government were referenced in the 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.600 treaty or consulted in this. So as soon as the 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.720 US signs this treaty to protect Panama, we make a 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:34.720 deal with the British to build a canal, and nobody 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:36.560 talks to the people who lived there at all, Like 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.520 it's it's just the white people being consulted here, because 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.200 who else do you really need? They don't have shovels, 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:47.360 not our shovels, not steam shovels. Yeah, steam shovels, clean coal, 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:53.640 clean burning coal. Um. The California Gold Rush of eighteen 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.320 forty nine that the first massive wave of US citizens 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.600 in the Panama. Most of these people were just traveling through, 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.200 but a sizeable minority settled in Panama, mainly to establish 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.400 businesses in Panama City and Cologne. Uh. And these businesses 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.400 just serviced white people who are on their way to 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.080 strike it rich in California. So you get all these 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.840 white people traveling through through Panama to get to California 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.760 to dig for gold near San Francisco. And you also 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.760 get a whole bunch of white people who settled in 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.400 Panama because they're like it seems like everyone's gonna die 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:25.040 panning for gold, and it's better to just take their 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.680 money before they make it to the West coast, which 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.040 is the smart play, right. That's those are the people 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:34.040 who really made bank off of the gold rush. Now, 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.880 since the US had just won a nasty little colonial 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.240 war in Mexico and taken a third of the country 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.000 for the United States, most of the whites who settled 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.040 in Panama did so assuming that it was going to 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.160 be a part of the United States. At this point 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.040 in time, a lot of Americans are like, well, of 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.120 course we're going to own all of Central and South 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.080 America at some point. They're connected to us. Why wouldn't 0:10:53.120 --> 0:11:00.240 they be our property, which, you know South, that was 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:01.920 the goal. I mean, there was a lot of talk 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.559 even in like the early stages of the Civil War 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.280 among the Confederacy about like, once we once we beat 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.880 the Union, why wouldn't we go down and take Yeah, 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.559 let's get Cuba, let's get Mexico, let's take it all. Baby. 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.600 Uh it was you know, we don't talk so much 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:18.960 about that anymore. So, Yeah, all of these Americans who 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.120 moved to Panama to make money off of forty niners 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.959 or like eventually this will be like the the I 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:26.400 don't know at this point on what that point would 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.560 have been, like the thirtieth state or something, but they 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:30.760 were sure it was going to be a state now. 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.120 At around this time, the Pacific Male Steamship Company ink 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.720 to deal with the Colombian government to build a railroad 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:38.520 through the region, and the goal of this was to 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.000 speed up the journey from east coast to west coast. 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.319 And I'm gonna quote now from a wonderful book titled 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.360 Emperors in the Jungle about the United States relationship with Panama. 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.040 The company imported workers from China, Ireland and elsewhere for 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.360 the job, but most workers were blacks from Jamaica or Cartagena. 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:57.240 The imported workers gave rise in eighteen fifty three and 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.560 eighteen fifty five to epidemics of yellow fever, which previously 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:03.720 had been rare, exploited, Sick, and full of despair, hundreds 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.680 of Chinese workers in their families killed themselves and moss. 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:10.400 In eighteen fifty four, more than six thousand laborers, perhaps 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.560 twice that many died in the railroad's construction. Completed in 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.400 eighteen fifty five, the railroad allowed passengers to cross the 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.400 Isthmus and leave Panama more quickly in three hours instead 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.439 of three days required by Mueller Boat, charging twenty five 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.600 dollars in gold for passenger and with forty passages annually. 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:27.960 The railroad was a cash flow for its New York 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.520 owners and netted more than seven million in its first 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:34.280 six years of operation. So this is the kind of 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:35.800 thing like I I heard as a kid that we 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.360 built a railroad for Panama. You never hear about like 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.280 the human cost. Like one of the things is there 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.480 used to be a sizeable Chinese population in Panama, but 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.800 they committed mass suicide because of how miserable the work was. 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:50.720 It's just like that didn't make it into the history 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.800 books that I that I came across um as a 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:59.040 kid probably shouldn't. Uh the fact that to nine eleven's 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.280 worth of laborers and maybe more died making the railroad. 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.400 We also, I mean that was every railroad they were 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.080 just like they were just like built in blood and bones. 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.880 It's pretty cool stuff railroads anyway. So the human shrapnel 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.360 from this railroad through Panama didn't stop it, just like 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.520 the massive death toll that was made to build it. 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:18.920 Because when they built the railroad. There had been this 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.400 whole industry in Panama writing white people across the country 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.160 for three days or so to get them to the 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.040 port on the west coast of Panama, and that industry dies. 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.520 So all of the money that used to be going 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.400 to Panamanians is now going to this US owned railroad, 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.880 So instead of flowing into the country, it flows to 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:40.920 New York where you live. Yeah. So it's it's a 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.200 it's basically a cycle where it's just like it's a 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.280 it's a reinvestment cycle. Yeah, a reinvestment away from away 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:50.360 from the place where the railroad actually exists, to the 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:55.440 United States. It's a siphoning of wealth. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Um, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.920 so this is an absolute They invented liberalism, Yeah, they 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.040 figured it out real early. Panama was the test case. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.560 Uh so. Yeah, it's it's kind of a fucking disaster 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.960 for Panama, and an economic depression strikes the isthmus as 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.960 soon as the railroad really like gets going. Um. This 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.200 leads to a simmering anti US sentiment, which was stoked 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.840 by news that Bastard's pot alumni William Walker, had recently 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.240 conquered nearby Nicaragua and declared at a slave state. We 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.240 did a couple episodes on him back in the day. 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.920 But yeah, that he was like an American who conquered 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:33.160 Nicaragua briefly in order to spread slavery there. So this 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.520 really freaked out people in Panama because a ton of 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.920 black slaves in Panama had been freed while in Colombia 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:41.520 had been freed in eighteen fifty two. Um, there were 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.920 huge numbers of them in Panama to build the railroad, 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.800 and they started to worry that America was coming for them. Right, 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:51.160 we just got freed. This American just conquered Nicaragua to 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:54.800 make slavery legal there. It's not far away from us. Clearly, 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.240 they're getting ready to take us over and re enslave 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.880 us again. And all of these tensions boiled over in 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.720 April nineteen, eighteen fifty six, into what came to be 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.520 called the Watermelon Riot. The gist of the story was 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.520 that a drunken man named John Oliver um and I'm 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:11.800 pretty sure it's a different John Oliver than the guy 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.840 who has a TV show so Television's darling. John Oliver 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.760 was on his way to California in eighteen fifties six, 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.360 waiting at a train station in Cologne, and he decided 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:23.720 he wanted some watermelon, so he walks over to a 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.040 fruit stand and because he's wasted, he just steals it. Now, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.320 the fruit stands owned by a guy named Jose Manuel 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:33.520 Luna Uh, and Luna gets angry that John Oliver, NBC's 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.960 darling has just walked off. Is it HBO? They're the 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.520 same thing, they are, but they're not, they're not at all. 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.440 I'm sorry. So John Oliver, with his big Hollywood salary, 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:48.480 steals some fucking watermelon and this guy Luna, gets really 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:51.520 angry and he chases after him, being like, what the funk, dude, 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.040 you make millions of dollars a year. John Oliver pulls 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.120 a gun on him. Luna pulls a knife in return, 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.560 which takes some takes some balls, like to for someone 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:02.960 to pull a gun on you and you just pull 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.360 a knife right back. That's a that's a move, um. 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.440 And thankfully there's a lot of like Panamanians around. It's 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:11.840 a crowded market area. And as soon as John Oliver 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.600 pulls a gun, another man pulls like grabs the gun 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.000 away from Oliver and takes it from him and it 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.400 fires in the in the process of this, but it 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:23.280 doesn't injure anyone. So John Oliver runs like hell um, 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.920 but word of the theft in the confrontation spreads quickly 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.800 and everybody's already angry at the United States here, So 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.160 this kind of sparks a mob, and the mob heads 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.120 to the train station, protesting the U S in general 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:38.120 and protesting American travelers in particular. They assault people along 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:40.920 the way and they loot traveler's luggage. By the time 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.040 the violence dies down, sixteen passengers had been killed and 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:46.960 another sixteen had been injured, and one or two locals 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.200 were also killed. And just like the general melee that 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:53.960 breaks out. So yeah, they kill a bunch of people. Um, 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.640 this causes an uproar in the United States. Yeah. This 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:59.160 you know, this is this is this is a this 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.720 is a country that was funded basically on like they 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.920 massacred nine people in Boston in time to start a war. 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.360 Yeah much, I mean, and it's just you know, obviously 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.680 America has changed since then, because now we're still in 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.439 massacred nine people in Boston. We wouldn't do anything, you know, 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:19.120 it's just Boston, right, Um, it's not like I don't 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:25.160 know Pittsburgh, shout out to Pittsburgh. Um, so yeah, it's 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.800 we're a different country then, and we get angry over this, 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.560 but we don't go to war because again America is 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.760 a lot chiller in these days. Um. We do, however, 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.560 demand reparations from Columbia, which is broadly reasonable. You know, 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.560 sixteen citizens get murdered in a in a riot. You know, 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.000 you kind of sparked the riot by being shitty, but 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.199 it's not unreasonably be like, hey, he should give us 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:47.440 some money because a bunch of our people got killed, 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:49.920 better than going to war. So at this point the 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.320 United States is old. US is getting a better grade 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:55.639 than I think New u s would have gotten because 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.040 if sixteen Americans got killed in Panama to day, well 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:00.680 we'll talk about what happens when one American gets killed 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.320 in Panama in nineteen eighty nine. So the next couple 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.000 commenced five months later, So they pay off the United 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.800 States and we we we chill out. The next couple 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.800 happens five months later. Due to internal unrest that started 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.480 in the Panamanian General Assembly, the Blacks, which were Panama's 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.280 opposition party, threatened to take up arms over a political dispute, 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.840 William Mervin, commanding the U. S. Pacific Squadron, landed troops 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.600 in Panama under the ages of protecting U. S. Citizens 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.680 who lived in Panama from unrest. The whole situation ended uneventfully, 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.040 but Mervin unwittingly established a pattern that would repeat itself 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.800 more than a dozen times up to nineteen eighty nine. 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.680 In fact, the United States intervened militarily on at least 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.320 a dozen occasions in Panama just during the later half 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.520 of the Night of the eighteen hundreds. So this guy Mervyn, 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:47.200 he sends in U. S. Troops for the first time 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:51.639 just to protect American citizens from unrest and local Panamanian politics, 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.360 and that just keeps happening forever up until like literally 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.159 the nineteen nineties. In eighteen sixty, violence breaks out in 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.440 the Panamanian led Slatter again. Black Panamanians take up arms 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:06.320 against the government. US railway agent William Nelson writes worryingly 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:08.919 to the US Console, the in words are at the 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.200 railroad bridge, and I fear that if they get out 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.200 of ammunition, they may come here to take our arms. 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.080 Nelson begged the government to send in the Marines to 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.560 protect the railroad. The Panamanian government also begged the US 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.000 to send in the Marines, and again a popular domestic 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.359 political movement was clamped down on with the help of 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.040 North American soldiers. So this is the first time that 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.720 we actually send in troops to shut down like a 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.359 popular uprising, that's a local uprising. The Blacks as a 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:40.120 political party are heavily dominated by like Caribbean immigrants who 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.000 were brought in to build the railroad, and they're agitating 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:47.040 for better, uh like treatment from the government. And because 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:50.160 they're threatening the government, which is friendly to the United States, 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.159 the US sends and marines to crack some skulls and 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.960 stop them from you know, protesting. Uh. This would again 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.879 content that's the whole history of the y car that 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.320 Smedley Butler would agree with you, and he spent a 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.960 lot of time in Panama. UM. So, the Civil War 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.000 breaks out back in the United States, and after a 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:11.840 year or two, it was pretty clear that ought to 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.800 uh Abraham Lincoln that the United States wasn't going to 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.960 get out of this thing without proclaiming, you know, some emancipation. Now, 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:21.359 Abe was a bit of a racist himself, and he 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:23.720 was still convinced that white people and black people could 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.440 not co exist together in the same country. The only 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:28.560 solution he could see was to find a big, empty 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:30.919 foreign land that he could ship all of the United 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:33.159 States as black people too. And this is how we 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:35.520 got Liberia. As I think most people know. But Abe's 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.560 first idea was actually Panama. See it was filled with 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.520 coal mines, and in Lincoln's head, this made it the 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:44.400 perfect place to send freed slaves. And I'm gonna quote 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.160 again from Emperors in the Jungle by John Lindsay poland 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.120 coal mines, he told a room full of free blacks 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:52.800 and eight in August eighteen sixty two, will afford an 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:55.880 opportunity to the inhabitants for immediate employment until they get 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.440 ready to settle permanently in their homes. Columbia, however, saw 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.879 the plan the kind of subtle invasion. Central American countries 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.399 were also opposed, and many free blacks in the United 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:11.119 States greeted Lincoln's proposal with hostility. It was scrapped. So, yeah, 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:13.320 that was that was abs first idea. It's like, you know, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:15.240 you know what, these freed slaves are gonna need to 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:19.359 do coal mining. That'll make him happy. Philip fill the 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:25.840 minds up. No, no, I mean it counted as woke 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.960 for the day because he didn't think they should be 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:31.359 able to earn money. So I guess I mean fair, 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:37.800 but good on, good on you. It's there. No, So 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.560 the Civil War ends, and yeah, I mean everybody's like 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:50.240 it's it's right there. Yeah. Yeah, with Abraham Lincoln taking 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.960 the role of ices. So the Civil War ends, and 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.000 you know, pretty pretty much the best case scenario if 0:21:57.000 --> 0:21:59.960 you're gonna have a civil war, the worst people don't win. 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.040 But then comes reconstruction, which is pretty much the worst 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:06.280 case scenario. The US never gives up on its dream 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.440 of a Panama Canal controlled controlled for the profit of 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.400 the United States, but for a while, devastated by war, 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.520 it had no ability to pursue that goal. So France 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:18.360 steps in because France, you know, they're doing a lot 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:20.360 better at this point, and they do have the ability 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:22.200 to go into Panama and try to make a canal 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.760 of their own, and they have experience in colonies. Yeah, 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:28.119 they've got they've got a lot more experience in colonies. 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:31.680 They've got a better navy at this point. Um, they're 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:34.240 really good at imperialism in these days. But you know what. 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:41.800 They're bad at Chelsea building a fucking canal. And it's 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:43.720 not the only it's not the only canal that they 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:47.439 failed at building. No, no, this might be the worst 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.520 failure of canal building probably that anyone has. This is 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:55.240 second to the Suez Canal. Yeah. Second, well we'll see 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:58.560 that they finished the Suez Canal though, right, I don't 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:00.879 think the French did. Oh yeah, you're right. This is 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:03.320 the same story because I think the British had to fit. Yeah, 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:07.359 France has a proud history of fucking up canals, getting 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:10.760 thousands of people killed, and then someone else finishes it. Well, 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:14.000 here's another story of that. I'm gonna quote from a 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:16.760 rite up by Thomas Leidenberg of the University of Houston. 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.280 In the eighteen seventies, a brilliant French engineer by the 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:22.919 name of Ferdinand de Lessups was put in charge of 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:25.919 a project to replace the railroad link connecting the the 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:29.000 Atlantic to the Pacific with the sea level Canal. De 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:32.239 Lessups one worldwide acclaim for completing the Suez Canal, and 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:34.320 he fervently believed that he was the best man to 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:37.359 meet the new challenge, paying scant attention to reports by 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:40.240 the American Army engineers that the obstacles in the mountains 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:42.840 and jungles of Panama were too numerous. The great engineer 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:45.320 determined to build a sea level canal like the one 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:48.600 at Suez. De lessups attempted canal building in Panama was 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.480 a disaster from the beginning to end. Malaria and yellow 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:54.320 fever carried away the lives of French engineers, their families, 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:57.240 and the hapless workers who took part in the project. Altogether, 0:23:57.359 --> 0:24:00.280 twenty thousand people died in the eight years, and fluding 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:04.000 the best young engineers graduating from French universities. Nature itself 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:06.960 conspired against the French canal builders. With an hour's slippery 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:09.520 soil filled up with holes which had taken days to dig, 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:12.639 Machines rusted in the rain and broken er heavy loads. 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:15.720 The river Chagra rose up more than its normal forty 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:18.040 feet and even wiped out the railroad tracks built above 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:20.720 it thirty years earlier. Less Ups was forced to give 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:23.840 up on his projected sea level canal after eight torturous years. 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:26.360 By this time it had already cost twice the original 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:28.879 estimate of a hundred and thirty one million dollars, with 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:31.560 less than one third of the canal completed, the famous 0:24:31.560 --> 0:24:34.920 Canal Company to declared bankruptcy. De lessups in the company's 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:37.400 directors had light about or covered up the many factors 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:41.440 that plagued the canals progress, its costs, the death's caven's malaria, 0:24:41.480 --> 0:24:44.359 broken machinery, and the pickled corpses sent to French medical 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:47.000 schools to help pay the bills. Yeah, they sent the 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:49.760 corpses of the people who died building the canal to 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:53.719 medical schools. Yeah, pickled them and mailed them over. I 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:58.680 thought you used the word pickled. I wasn't. Yeah, all 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:00.919 of like France's young engine years die and they just 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:03.640 pickle the corpses and send them to medical schools because 0:25:03.640 --> 0:25:06.800 they're trying to make ends meet. It's so expensive. The 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:09.440 thing that's most valuable about the canal winds up being 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:11.800 the corpses of the men who try to build it. 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:16.159 It's pretty great. Yeah, yeah, what what are you gonna dorry? 0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:19.359 Are you going to preserve a corpse in the word 0:25:19.640 --> 0:25:24.680 when you're talking about like a human. No, they didn't 0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:28.320 have refrigeration yet, didn't know. They did not pickle. They 0:25:28.400 --> 0:25:33.480 have pickles, though they have a lot of pickles. Those 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:36.399 are your options back in the day. So this like 0:25:36.560 --> 0:25:39.320 almost leads to the collapse of the French government because 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:42.960 it was such a big project that basically everyone in 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:46.200 French society of any position of power was involved, not 0:25:46.280 --> 0:25:50.320 just like politicians, but journalists and editors of newspapers and 0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:52.959 business leaders. All of these guys have been bribed by 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:55.520 members of the canal company in order to provide positive 0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:58.200 coverage and in order to like get the government on board. 0:25:58.240 --> 0:26:01.000 And when this thing fails, so does asterous lye. It 0:26:01.160 --> 0:26:04.479 like almost collapses the French government. It's it's hard to 0:26:04.520 --> 0:26:07.119 exaggerate how big of a funk up this canal is. 0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:11.080 It fucking rules In other words, it's a very fun story, 0:26:12.080 --> 0:26:15.399 minus the pickled part. That's the best part of it. 0:26:15.640 --> 0:26:17.679 That's literally not the best part of it. You know, 0:26:17.800 --> 0:26:21.160 you've really succeeded in building a canal when the corpses 0:26:21.200 --> 0:26:22.800 of the men who worked on it are the most 0:26:22.880 --> 0:26:26.040 valuable part of it, that's just awesome to me. Robert, Well, 0:26:26.040 --> 0:26:28.439 you know what the most valuable part of our podcast 0:26:28.560 --> 0:26:31.879 is are we selling pickled corpses? So we are absolutely 0:26:31.920 --> 0:26:35.520 not selling pickled corpses. I don't think you can guarantee 0:26:35.520 --> 0:26:39.080 that I can guarantee you we're not selling pickled corpses. 0:26:39.640 --> 0:26:42.520 I mean, look, who knows what ad is going to 0:26:42.640 --> 0:26:47.800 come on after this. I'm sure the fridge, I mean, 0:26:47.880 --> 0:26:51.000 that could be a new raytheon makes a lot of corpses. 0:26:51.040 --> 0:26:53.400 You're leaving money on the table by not pickling them. 0:26:53.480 --> 0:27:01.080 Let's just see what the ads happened to be. We're 0:27:01.119 --> 0:27:03.639 back and Chelsea just finished doing a little on the 0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:06.760 spot research. Well, y'all were hearing all those wonderful ads 0:27:06.760 --> 0:27:10.480 for pickled corpses on the Suez Canal because we were 0:27:10.880 --> 0:27:13.040 we were talking out of our our our rears a 0:27:13.040 --> 0:27:15.600 little bit there, Although it's a nice at anyway, Chelsea, 0:27:16.600 --> 0:27:19.160 why don't you throw out what you found? I found 0:27:19.160 --> 0:27:23.720 that the French did maintain control of the of of 0:27:23.760 --> 0:27:26.840 the Suez Canal for at least for at least a 0:27:26.840 --> 0:27:30.439 few years, but it basically had enormous difficulties and was 0:27:30.480 --> 0:27:33.440 a financial and economics sort of disaster for a few years. 0:27:33.840 --> 0:27:35.760 So that was a I just wanted to job. I 0:27:35.840 --> 0:27:37.119 just wanted to double check that because I was like, 0:27:37.160 --> 0:27:39.080 I'm pretty sure it didn't end up well for the 0:27:39.119 --> 0:27:41.240 French either. There and and and you know what the 0:27:41.280 --> 0:27:45.000 death toll on the Suez Canal was. Uh no, I don't. 0:27:45.040 --> 0:27:47.400 I don't have that in front of me. Okay, I'm curious. 0:27:47.760 --> 0:27:50.520 And it must have been astronomical. Yeah, because it's a 0:27:50.680 --> 0:27:52.960 it's it's basically a dessert and you have to it's 0:27:53.000 --> 0:27:56.240 it's not like you have, like you know, equatorial rains constantly. 0:27:56.440 --> 0:28:02.760 Holy shit, I just looked it up. A hundred twenty Yeah, 0:28:03.280 --> 0:28:06.000 it was didn't mark out for a well, yeah, a 0:28:06.080 --> 0:28:09.560 hundred and twenty thousand deaths among one point five million workers. 0:28:10.000 --> 0:28:15.800 Jesus Christ canals a brutal. Yeah, that's so many dead people. 0:28:17.080 --> 0:28:24.119 That's like a war. I don't know. So I guess 0:28:24.520 --> 0:28:26.800 we're really having trouble when we're trying to determine which 0:28:26.800 --> 0:28:29.680 canal is more of a funk up, because way more 0:28:29.720 --> 0:28:32.040 people died on the Suez Canal. But at least they 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:35.679 got a canal out of the deal. I mean, you know, 0:28:35.720 --> 0:28:38.400 but you know, maintaining control of it seems to be 0:28:38.440 --> 0:28:41.240 an issue. Yeah, that was also a problem for them. 0:28:41.800 --> 0:28:46.200 Good God Almighty, don't build canals, is the message I'm 0:28:46.240 --> 0:28:52.040 taking out of the existing one. Endlessly leave the land 0:28:52.080 --> 0:28:55.120 where it is. Bred them, don't build them, sail around 0:28:55.240 --> 0:28:59.280 fucking wherever. Just stop this terrible idea. It doesn't it's bad. 0:29:00.000 --> 0:29:04.800 Don't build canals. That's gonna be my only motto now. So, uh, 0:29:05.040 --> 0:29:08.080 French efforts in Panama end in disaster. Uh. And the 0:29:08.160 --> 0:29:11.640 US government was still really but so the French obviously 0:29:11.640 --> 0:29:13.840 failed to make this canal. And even though they fail 0:29:14.120 --> 0:29:17.880 their efforts, they're really worry the United States, UM, because 0:29:18.200 --> 0:29:20.480 we assume that like, okay, France didn't make it happen 0:29:20.560 --> 0:29:22.800 this time, but one of these fucking Europeans is going 0:29:22.840 --> 0:29:24.360 to figure out how to make a canal, and then 0:29:24.400 --> 0:29:26.680 they're gonna be making all that sweet canal money and 0:29:26.680 --> 0:29:28.040 we in the US are going to be left to 0:29:28.080 --> 0:29:30.840 sit and spin. Uh. And you know, this is the 0:29:30.880 --> 0:29:34.040 era of the Monroe doctrine, when President Monroe had been like, 0:29:34.720 --> 0:29:38.360 all of Latin America is basically our backyard, and if 0:29:38.480 --> 0:29:41.520 if Europe fox around there, then then we'll come. We'll 0:29:41.520 --> 0:29:43.480 come beat them up. And it was not like a 0:29:43.800 --> 0:29:46.000 we want to protect Latin America thing. It was a 0:29:46.360 --> 0:29:48.560 we want to profit off of Latin America. You guys, 0:29:48.640 --> 0:29:53.600 you guys steal Africa. Um. And President Rutherford Hades, after 0:29:53.680 --> 0:29:56.000 French failure in the canal, warned Europe that when it 0:29:56.040 --> 0:29:58.960 came to Panama, the policy of this country is a 0:29:59.000 --> 0:30:03.600 canal under a American control. Obviously, Panamanians were not consulted 0:30:03.640 --> 0:30:06.240 in this declaration, but Ruth Oft Hayes didn't really care 0:30:06.280 --> 0:30:08.600 what they thought. He was trying to scare Europe away 0:30:08.600 --> 0:30:10.720 from building a canal, and to this end, he warned 0:30:10.760 --> 0:30:13.040 them that if they did succeed in building a canal 0:30:13.080 --> 0:30:16.200 there and local unrest threatened their control of it, they 0:30:16.200 --> 0:30:18.240 would have to send in their navy and their soldiers. 0:30:18.280 --> 0:30:20.800 And since this would be a violation of the Monroe doctrine, 0:30:21.000 --> 0:30:24.360 the United States would get involved to fight Europeans trying 0:30:24.400 --> 0:30:26.880 to regain control of the canal. It's a little bit 0:30:26.920 --> 0:30:29.760 of i don't know, pre gun boat diplomacy there. And 0:30:29.880 --> 0:30:32.360 right around this same time, the United States is like 0:30:32.400 --> 0:30:35.560 the eighteen eighties, uh, eighteen seventies, eighteen eighties, the United 0:30:35.560 --> 0:30:38.000 States sends in a flotilla of ships to scout out 0:30:38.040 --> 0:30:40.880 the area around the Panamanian Isthmus and this is so 0:30:40.960 --> 0:30:43.440 that the United States can start making plans to construct 0:30:43.440 --> 0:30:46.120 a canal of their own. Again, the Colombian government was 0:30:46.160 --> 0:30:48.840 not consulted. Neither was anyone in Panama. We just send 0:30:48.880 --> 0:30:51.320 some boats over to scout shit out, and the president 0:30:51.400 --> 0:30:54.520 gives the ship's captain's orders to open fire on any 0:30:54.560 --> 0:30:57.360 local boats that try to stop them. This pisss off 0:30:57.400 --> 0:31:00.480 the Colombian government's representative in Washington, d See, and he 0:31:00.560 --> 0:31:03.880 complained in writing, when government's attempt to acquire land in 0:31:03.920 --> 0:31:08.160 foreign countries for construction or enterprises such as that under discussion, 0:31:08.360 --> 0:31:11.320 they normally begin by obtaining the consent of the sovereign 0:31:11.320 --> 0:31:14.080 of the country in which the land is located. Um, 0:31:14.120 --> 0:31:19.080 which is a fair point. But the United States is 0:31:19.080 --> 0:31:21.480 not going to do that. Uh. In the mid eighties, 0:31:21.600 --> 0:31:24.840 this piece of metal right here is sovereign. Yeah, we 0:31:24.920 --> 0:31:28.680 have we have the last argument of kings. Yeah, is 0:31:28.720 --> 0:31:32.040 the cannon. And it also is the last argument of 0:31:32.080 --> 0:31:34.240 people who don't really care if you have a king, 0:31:34.480 --> 0:31:39.400 because we got democracy guns. Baby, they're better than your 0:31:39.640 --> 0:31:43.040 king guns. I don't know anyway. In the mid eighteen eighties, 0:31:43.080 --> 0:31:46.080 Columbia was convulsed by a civil war with between the 0:31:46.120 --> 0:31:50.040 conservative government and an insurgent liberal army. The rebel leader, 0:31:50.080 --> 0:31:53.040 a guy named Preston, was ordered ordered a shipload of 0:31:53.040 --> 0:31:55.520 weapons from the United States, and we sold them to him. 0:31:55.800 --> 0:31:58.320 But when the shipment arrived in Central America, the U. S. 0:31:58.400 --> 0:32:01.120 Customs clear refused to release east them at the pressuring 0:32:01.120 --> 0:32:04.320 of Columbia's right wing government. This provokes a riot, and 0:32:04.360 --> 0:32:07.240 Preston briefly took US citizen hostage to try to get 0:32:07.240 --> 0:32:09.720 his guns released. The U. S. Marines were sent into 0:32:09.720 --> 0:32:13.160 Panama again, and the resulting situation degenerated into a riot. 0:32:13.480 --> 0:32:16.440 Some rioters looted property owned by the French canal company, 0:32:16.640 --> 0:32:18.800 who asked and received the help of U. S. Marines 0:32:18.880 --> 0:32:21.840 to round up and execute looters. The New York Times 0:32:21.920 --> 0:32:24.800 reported at the time fifty eight persons, among whom it 0:32:24.880 --> 0:32:28.920 is believed were several innocent people, were thus summarily summarily dispatched. 0:32:30.160 --> 0:32:33.520 Just a good solid report. They were probably innocent, but 0:32:33.720 --> 0:32:38.040 you know we shot summary execution. Yeah. I mean, there's 0:32:38.080 --> 0:32:41.560 so much that's in that that is just classic United 0:32:41.600 --> 0:32:44.200 States right up to today, Like, oh, there's this rubble 0:32:44.240 --> 0:32:46.200 and he wants guns, will sell them to him, but 0:32:46.240 --> 0:32:48.480 then we won't let him take them because he's going 0:32:48.520 --> 0:32:51.640 to fight against the government that that we broadly support. 0:32:51.760 --> 0:32:56.000 Because they acquiesced to our needs. Yeah, it's it's it's 0:32:56.040 --> 0:33:00.280 the it's the equivalent of the military age mail today. Yeah. Yeah, 0:33:00.280 --> 0:33:03.960 it's it's fucking around contract ship. Yeah, I mean it's everything. 0:33:04.000 --> 0:33:08.880 It's everything American in one perfect little package. Uh. We're 0:33:09.000 --> 0:33:11.640 We've just always been the irrepressible little scamp that we 0:33:11.680 --> 0:33:14.960 are today. So the war turned against the rebels, and 0:33:15.000 --> 0:33:17.200 in March they fled the city of Cologne, leaving it 0:33:17.240 --> 0:33:20.600 burning behind them. The fires tour through Panama's largest city, 0:33:20.680 --> 0:33:23.760 leaving thousands of mostly black Panamanians homeless and launching a 0:33:23.840 --> 0:33:27.280 refugee crisis. The United States Secretary of the Navy saw 0:33:27.320 --> 0:33:29.520 this all as a great opportunity to make the case 0:33:29.560 --> 0:33:31.320 that the U. S. Navy deserved a bigger role in 0:33:31.360 --> 0:33:34.400 Latin America and thus more money. He dispatched ships to 0:33:34.440 --> 0:33:37.240 Columbia to apprehend the rebel leader. He also sent in 0:33:37.280 --> 0:33:40.360 Marines to protect the railroad in US property from unrest. 0:33:40.920 --> 0:33:43.160 The Commodore in charge of all this was given special 0:33:43.240 --> 0:33:45.160 orders to involve the press and give them all of 0:33:45.200 --> 0:33:47.800 the access they wanted so that Navy could keep the 0:33:47.840 --> 0:33:51.160 country with us in the matter. The guy the commodore 0:33:51.240 --> 0:33:53.320 was also ordered to scout out good potential sites for 0:33:53.360 --> 0:33:56.560 new navy bases. No attempt was taken to help refugees, 0:33:56.680 --> 0:33:59.320 or to eliminate the or to alleviate the crisis. No 0:33:59.480 --> 0:34:02.400 humanity arian aide was dispensed, but the Civil War led 0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:04.040 to the start of what would become a century long 0:34:04.160 --> 0:34:07.680 U S. Navy presence on the Panamanian ISTHMUS. Now this 0:34:07.720 --> 0:34:09.600 should make it clear that from the beginning, the only 0:34:09.719 --> 0:34:12.960 value Panama held to the United States government and military 0:34:13.080 --> 0:34:15.799 was due to its location. The people who actually lived 0:34:15.840 --> 0:34:17.840 there were an afterthought at best. And I meant it 0:34:17.880 --> 0:34:20.879 when I said at best, because when US officials spent 0:34:21.000 --> 0:34:24.080 time thinking about Panamanians, they tended to get really fucking 0:34:24.160 --> 0:34:26.919 racist about it. Here's how the New York Herald wrote 0:34:26.920 --> 0:34:30.239 about Panamanians in this period. I'm gonna try to put 0:34:30.239 --> 0:34:32.840 on my old timey voice, my old timey racist voice. 0:34:33.280 --> 0:34:39.000 Oh it's a very reliable newspaper too. It's the fake 0:34:39.080 --> 0:34:41.600 Zoo incident. I think was the New York Herald. Wait, 0:34:41.600 --> 0:34:44.160 what was the fake two incident? Oh it's an interesting 0:34:44.400 --> 0:34:46.719 like do your thing, dear bit. First of all, I 0:34:46.719 --> 0:34:50.280 go crap this, Okay. Uh So here's the New York Herald, 0:34:50.320 --> 0:34:53.880 writing about Panamanians, the vast majority of the inhabitants of 0:34:53.880 --> 0:34:56.640 the Isthmus have never emerged from a half savage condition 0:34:56.840 --> 0:34:59.520 or else have relapsed into that state. But no one 0:34:59.600 --> 0:35:02.440 can a to underestimate the prowess of the savages when 0:35:02.480 --> 0:35:05.000 they are mustard and swarms as they can be here 0:35:05.040 --> 0:35:10.719 from the miserable morass and the jungle clothed mountains. That's 0:35:10.760 --> 0:35:15.759 some good that's some good racist pros right there. Yeah. Yeah, 0:35:15.800 --> 0:35:17.560 so this is this is coming from the same news 0:35:17.680 --> 0:35:23.960 that yeah, and the like. Apparently there was a awful calamity, 0:35:24.080 --> 0:35:30.279 was like the headline in on November nine, eighteen seventy four. Yeah, 0:35:30.560 --> 0:35:33.200 the Herald filled this entire front page news to an 0:35:33.239 --> 0:35:36.279 account of an escape from the Central Park Zoo by 0:35:36.719 --> 0:35:41.560 basically like a herd of animals like tigers, bears. Uh 0:35:41.600 --> 0:35:44.920 and uh that twelve of the wild carnivorous beasts are 0:35:44.920 --> 0:35:48.200 still at large. The Herald warned and left in a 0:35:48.320 --> 0:35:50.600 very tiny little bit of small print and said that 0:35:50.640 --> 0:35:53.640 this is that all of this, uh sounds true, but 0:35:53.680 --> 0:35:58.320 it's not. Wait what they just wrote a fake article 0:35:58.640 --> 0:36:00.799 that it's not true. By the way, heads up. This 0:36:00.880 --> 0:36:06.000 was a joke. Amazing a little just a little bit 0:36:06.040 --> 0:36:09.360 of light libel. It's history like that that makes you 0:36:09.440 --> 0:36:13.560 proud to be a journalist. Yeah, just just lying about 0:36:13.560 --> 0:36:19.960 a zoo breakout for nothing. Oh god, that's good. That's good, 0:36:20.200 --> 0:36:23.520 you know it really it really serves to point out 0:36:23.680 --> 0:36:28.200 how respectable journalism has always been as a discipline. Um, 0:36:28.440 --> 0:36:32.120 just just makes my heart swell. So pamphleteera was the 0:36:32.120 --> 0:36:35.600 original Twitter. Yeah, I mean there's actually a lot to 0:36:35.600 --> 0:36:39.680 say about how um, the old kind of like and 0:36:39.719 --> 0:36:42.400 this is in Europe to like the network of pamphlets 0:36:42.400 --> 0:36:44.959 and newsletters and stuff that were just like these cheap, 0:36:45.040 --> 0:36:48.200 little kind of mimiographed things printed out. We're like what 0:36:48.320 --> 0:36:51.359 eight Chan became today. Right, It's where all of your 0:36:51.360 --> 0:36:54.400 anti Semitic conspiracy theories, which this is actually happening in 0:36:54.440 --> 0:36:58.280 this period of time eighteen seventies, eighteen eighties, eighteen nineties. 0:36:58.320 --> 0:37:01.040 This is like the spread of of the toxic ship 0:37:01.120 --> 0:37:03.920 that we have today that goes through through Twitter and 0:37:03.960 --> 0:37:06.120 parlor and stuff like that. It was spreading in these 0:37:06.160 --> 0:37:10.480 little shitty pamphlets and these yellow press magazines and stuff 0:37:10.520 --> 0:37:13.800 like the New York Herald. You know, it's it's it's cool, 0:37:13.960 --> 0:37:16.040 I guess is what I'm saying. This has been a 0:37:16.080 --> 0:37:18.840 problem with forever. It's pre industrial Twitter, and then you 0:37:18.880 --> 0:37:22.000 have like you have posted, you have like the industrial 0:37:22.080 --> 0:37:26.480 area era of like circulated newspapers, widely circulated newspapers, and 0:37:26.480 --> 0:37:28.960 now we're going back, you know, from mass media to 0:37:29.719 --> 0:37:33.160 a decentralized platform anyway, and part of well, now, partly 0:37:33.160 --> 0:37:34.719 I want to dig into this because part of why 0:37:34.760 --> 0:37:37.080 this is a good comparison to make is that the 0:37:37.120 --> 0:37:39.920 purpose of all of the racist propaganda spreading in places 0:37:39.960 --> 0:37:43.280 like Parlor and Twitter right now is to build up 0:37:43.320 --> 0:37:48.160 a kind of xenophobic and explicitly kind of exterminationist far right. 0:37:48.640 --> 0:37:50.839 And the purpose of all of the racism that like 0:37:51.040 --> 0:37:54.520 US newspapers were writing about Panamanians in the eighteen eighties 0:37:54.520 --> 0:37:57.920 and nineties was to justify the US taking over the 0:37:57.960 --> 0:38:01.759 country to build a canal. These people are savages, their monsters, 0:38:02.040 --> 0:38:04.640 and they have this They don't deserve this valuable land. 0:38:04.680 --> 0:38:06.879 We have to take it from them because they're they're 0:38:06.880 --> 0:38:09.839 too incompetent and dangerous to manage it themselves. It is 0:38:10.400 --> 0:38:12.879 it's the same basic process, right, It's the same thing 0:38:12.880 --> 0:38:16.200 as scaring people about Mexican immigrants in order to, you know, 0:38:16.640 --> 0:38:20.480 distract from the damage that neoliberal capitalism is doing from 0:38:20.520 --> 0:38:22.880 the working class and blame it on immigrants and stuff 0:38:22.880 --> 0:38:24.640 like it is or a fake or a fake you know, 0:38:24.719 --> 0:38:27.520 central park Zewo escape effect and for park Zewo escape, 0:38:27.560 --> 0:38:30.919 which I guess has less of a political purpose to it. Yeah, 0:38:30.880 --> 0:38:33.360 I think it did, but I don't want to I 0:38:33.360 --> 0:38:35.239 don't want to dig into that. Yeah, I'm sure there 0:38:35.280 --> 0:38:41.360 was some bizarre, bizarre racist underpinning of that whole story anyway. 0:38:41.440 --> 0:38:43.759 Uh So, Yeah, all of these interventions by U S 0:38:43.800 --> 0:38:47.279 soldiers had been firmly one sided affairs up until this point. 0:38:47.280 --> 0:38:49.239 Through the eighteen eighties, the U S would either gun 0:38:49.280 --> 0:38:52.280 down or capture and execute people with very little resistance. 0:38:52.560 --> 0:38:55.440 And this didn't look good in the media, right, Nobody, 0:38:55.560 --> 0:38:57.799 nobody wants to see their soldiers is just shooting a 0:38:57.800 --> 0:39:01.440 bunch of defenseless people protesting for better living conditions. So 0:39:01.480 --> 0:39:03.799 the American media made sure to build a narrative of 0:39:03.800 --> 0:39:07.960 Panamanian natives is terrifying, violent monsters. Irvan King of the 0:39:07.960 --> 0:39:10.560 New York Tribune wrote that the people of Panama were 0:39:10.680 --> 0:39:14.680 quote to all intents and purposes savages the Isthmian the 0:39:14.800 --> 0:39:17.640 Isthmian Indians are an expert and a kind of savage 0:39:17.680 --> 0:39:20.719 warfare and are always aided by a mob of negroes. 0:39:21.960 --> 0:39:27.200 Some bad stuff. Yeah. King was an expert propagandist for 0:39:27.320 --> 0:39:30.719 US interests, and while the locals were slavering beasts. In 0:39:30.760 --> 0:39:34.440 his articles, US soldiers were described as having captured the 0:39:34.480 --> 0:39:37.320 place as if by magic. Their neat and clean appearance 0:39:37.360 --> 0:39:40.480 and quick and precise movements solicited the admiration and respective 0:39:40.520 --> 0:39:42.960 men of all nations, even that of those who are 0:39:43.000 --> 0:39:46.680 most opposed to the proceeding. I think about like when 0:39:47.040 --> 0:39:51.080 Trump shot missiles at Syria, and that was an NBC 0:39:51.200 --> 0:39:55.040 anchor was like talking about the beauty of our weapons. Yeah, 0:39:55.080 --> 0:39:58.320 it's this, it's it's this constant need to like contrast 0:39:58.480 --> 0:40:03.040 US military intervention as like shining and clean and precise 0:40:03.200 --> 0:40:06.160 to the to the violent savages that we're deploying our 0:40:06.200 --> 0:40:09.320 weapons against. It again, something that has now not changed 0:40:09.400 --> 0:40:12.359 in a hundred and what forty years fifty something like that. 0:40:13.000 --> 0:40:17.799 It's rade. So a lot of powerful, rich white North 0:40:17.840 --> 0:40:20.879 Americans had a vested interest in getting and keeping other 0:40:21.040 --> 0:40:25.799 Americans US citizens interested in Panama. Obviously, a Panama Canal 0:40:25.920 --> 0:40:28.640 would have both military and economic benefits, but those were 0:40:28.680 --> 0:40:31.880 not the only reasons for such a venture. US naval 0:40:31.920 --> 0:40:34.720 strategist Alfred Mahon was one of the first to suggest 0:40:34.760 --> 0:40:37.080 building a canal in order in order to make it 0:40:37.120 --> 0:40:41.200 easier to people the US West coast with white Europeans. 0:40:41.600 --> 0:40:45.400 From John Lindsay Poland quote Mahon, who strongly influenced the 0:40:45.440 --> 0:40:48.680 young Theodore Roosevelt, believed that control of the seed determined 0:40:48.719 --> 0:40:52.000 the world struggles for power, and had done so throughout history. 0:40:52.120 --> 0:40:55.200 Mayhan's strategic thinking about the Panama Canal also had a 0:40:55.320 --> 0:40:58.640 racial dimension. A canal would allow Europeans to reach Oregon 0:40:58.680 --> 0:41:01.680 and California without even stepping off the coast en route, 0:41:01.920 --> 0:41:05.360 thus avoiding contact with savages in the Western plains or 0:41:05.400 --> 0:41:08.680 along the Panama Railroad. The greatest factor of sea power 0:41:08.719 --> 0:41:11.040 in any region is the distribution and numbers of its 0:41:11.080 --> 0:41:14.680 population and their characteristics. Mayhan wrote in an essay about 0:41:14.680 --> 0:41:17.560 the canal two years before its completion, the foremost question 0:41:17.560 --> 0:41:20.520 of the Pacific as affecting sea power is the filling 0:41:20.600 --> 0:41:23.360 up of the now partly vacant regions our own Pacific 0:41:23.360 --> 0:41:27.360 coast by a population of European derivation, it is most 0:41:27.400 --> 0:41:31.120 desirable that such immigration should be from northern Europe. So 0:41:31.200 --> 0:41:33.719 a big part of why the Panama Canal whether such 0:41:33.719 --> 0:41:36.560 immediacy to it is that in this period of time, 0:41:36.640 --> 0:41:39.360 it's actually easier in some cases for people from China, 0:41:39.400 --> 0:41:42.400 from Japan, from Asia to migrate to the U. S. 0:41:42.480 --> 0:41:45.479 West Coast or to the North American West Coast, because 0:41:45.520 --> 0:41:47.479 it's kind of a more direct route for them, because 0:41:47.480 --> 0:41:49.160 you gotta go all the way through fucking Panama to 0:41:49.160 --> 0:41:51.680 get there from the east coast, and that makes it 0:41:51.719 --> 0:41:55.840 harder for Europeans to fill up California, Oregon in Washington, 0:41:56.320 --> 0:41:59.160 UM and so Mayhan and guys like Roosevelts started to 0:41:59.160 --> 0:42:02.080 think that, like we in order to stop the Asiatic 0:42:02.160 --> 0:42:05.000 hordes from dominating the West coast, we have to cut 0:42:05.000 --> 0:42:10.839 a hole through Panama. That's another major factor in this um. 0:42:11.080 --> 0:42:14.799 Asian immigration threatened political efficiency, in Mahean's view, because of 0:42:14.800 --> 0:42:18.239 the different ethnic people's ideas quote do not allow intermingling 0:42:18.239 --> 0:42:21.600 and consequently, if admitted, are ominous of national weakness through 0:42:22.120 --> 0:42:27.160 flaws in homogeneity. Roosevelt shared Mahean's thesis no greater calamity 0:42:27.160 --> 0:42:29.200 could now befall the United States that they have the 0:42:29.200 --> 0:42:35.600 Pacific Slope fill up with a Mongolian population. Peake cringe. 0:42:35.920 --> 0:42:39.879 Pete Roosevelt, I mean, he's this, It's there's there's two 0:42:39.960 --> 0:42:42.319 Roosevelts in history. One of them is the Roosevelt you 0:42:42.400 --> 0:42:44.480 learn about when you're a fourteen year old boy and 0:42:44.520 --> 0:42:48.120 the boy scouts who is rad and like every young 0:42:48.360 --> 0:42:51.160 man who likes knives in the wilderness is hero, right. 0:42:51.360 --> 0:42:54.120 He and John the rough writers and like Hike and 0:42:54.200 --> 0:42:58.319 with John Muir, and he's exploring the Amazon and he is, 0:42:58.360 --> 0:43:00.480 you know, getting shot in the middle of the speech, 0:43:01.440 --> 0:43:04.880 getting malaria. Well the Amazon does finally get It's like 0:43:05.200 --> 0:43:08.319 Latin America gets its revenge on Roosevelt in the end. 0:43:08.920 --> 0:43:10.960 But you when you learn about him as a young 0:43:11.120 --> 0:43:13.879 like as like I'm literally holding a machette right now, 0:43:14.160 --> 0:43:15.880 as the young kind of boy that I grew up 0:43:15.920 --> 0:43:19.080 like you grew up idolizing Teddy Roosevelt. And then my 0:43:19.160 --> 0:43:21.600 adulthood and I think a lot of people's adulthood is 0:43:21.600 --> 0:43:23.880 a long process of learning, Oh my god, he was 0:43:23.920 --> 0:43:26.160 one of the worst people who ever lived, just a 0:43:26.880 --> 0:43:30.600 not just racist within a time of racism, but like 0:43:31.000 --> 0:43:35.680 an arch an arch bigot of his day, like it's 0:43:35.719 --> 0:43:39.000 so so bad and he's so he did split the 0:43:39.080 --> 0:43:42.560 vote and allowed somebody even worse to come into power. Yeah, 0:43:42.640 --> 0:43:45.360 he did, he did, he did. He fumed up in 0:43:45.400 --> 0:43:48.200 a lot of ways politically. He did also give us 0:43:48.200 --> 0:43:51.440 the National Park System, which is I mean, that's the 0:43:51.480 --> 0:43:54.160 thing about America. It's like with Eisenhower, where there's a 0:43:54.160 --> 0:43:57.120 lot of horrible stuff, including the military industrial complex that 0:43:57.160 --> 0:44:02.480 you but we got the Interstates. Uh, it's very frustrating, 0:44:03.320 --> 0:44:06.279 the comp past job of the AUTOMU. Yeah, I mean, 0:44:06.280 --> 0:44:08.680 we will talk about the only US president that you 0:44:08.719 --> 0:44:12.839 can even sort of feel good about in this episode two. Um, 0:44:12.880 --> 0:44:15.680 who's who's the only US president who doesn't funk over Panama? 0:44:15.840 --> 0:44:20.879 Jimmy Jimmy Carter. I'm sure that's not a surprise c anybody. Um. So. 0:44:21.000 --> 0:44:23.960 Columbia had another civil war from eighteen ninety nine to 0:44:24.080 --> 0:44:26.960 nineteen o two. This one was again between liberal and 0:44:27.000 --> 0:44:31.080 conservative factions in the government. The Liberals were particularly popular 0:44:31.080 --> 0:44:34.080 in rural areas among the peasantry. Before long, the war 0:44:34.120 --> 0:44:36.520 became a fight between the left wing masses of peasants 0:44:36.560 --> 0:44:39.279 in the country and poor laborers on the left in 0:44:39.320 --> 0:44:43.680 Panama cities and wealthy conservative central conservatives who ran the 0:44:43.719 --> 0:44:47.239 central government of Colombia. Liberal troops gained control of most 0:44:47.239 --> 0:44:49.800 of Panama in nineteen o one, and again they're fighting 0:44:49.840 --> 0:44:52.400 against the government in Bogata at this point, and the 0:44:52.440 --> 0:44:55.160 government in Bogata goes to the US to beg for help, 0:44:55.480 --> 0:44:57.919 taking advantage of the bid Lack Treaty, which again gives 0:44:57.960 --> 0:45:00.160 the US the right to use force to defit into 0:45:00.160 --> 0:45:02.560 its railroads and the canal zone, or the zone that 0:45:02.600 --> 0:45:05.000 they think will be the canal. So the bid Luck 0:45:05.080 --> 0:45:07.080 Treaty was just meant so the U s could protect 0:45:07.120 --> 0:45:09.680 a future canal and protect the railroad that they have, 0:45:10.239 --> 0:45:12.680 But as soon as Bogata calls in them for help, 0:45:12.719 --> 0:45:15.200 they use it to justify going in to crack down 0:45:15.200 --> 0:45:18.000 on a left wing populist movement that's threatening to free 0:45:18.320 --> 0:45:22.680 Panama from Colombian control. Captain Thomas Perry and his gunboat 0:45:22.719 --> 0:45:25.760 the Iowa, sail up and warn the liberal military leaders 0:45:25.960 --> 0:45:28.200 that he's going to send in the Marines if liberals 0:45:28.239 --> 0:45:30.960 interfere with the railroad. Because of how things were laid 0:45:30.960 --> 0:45:33.680 out geographically, this made it impossible for the Liberals to 0:45:33.719 --> 0:45:36.480 kick the central government out of the Isthmus and complete 0:45:36.480 --> 0:45:39.280 their victory. Because of where the railroads located, it basically 0:45:39.400 --> 0:45:43.320 lets the U. S. Marines wall off government controlled Panama 0:45:43.360 --> 0:45:46.040 from the regions that the liberals control, so they're forced 0:45:46.080 --> 0:45:48.560 to sign a peace settlement which has written out under 0:45:48.600 --> 0:45:51.760 the watchful eye of U. S. Navy officers. The treaty 0:45:51.800 --> 0:45:54.360 did not last, though, and fighting started up literally a 0:45:54.400 --> 0:45:57.720 month later. The liberals quickly took again all of Panama 0:45:57.800 --> 0:46:00.600 except for the big cities, and again Club asked for 0:46:00.600 --> 0:46:03.640 the United States to intervene. Marines were sent in the 0:46:03.640 --> 0:46:06.640 protect Cologne and Panama City. At this point, the US 0:46:06.719 --> 0:46:09.720 throughout the bid lect treaty entirely and started stationing troops 0:46:09.760 --> 0:46:12.400 on trains, saying that only U. S. Soldiers were allowed 0:46:12.400 --> 0:46:14.879 to use the railwaid ways and basically acting as armed 0:46:14.960 --> 0:46:18.560 enforces for the failed Colombian government. US interventions stopped a 0:46:18.600 --> 0:46:21.160 Liberal victory which would have led to Panama separating and 0:46:21.239 --> 0:46:24.400 establishing itself as an independent nation. By the end of 0:46:24.400 --> 0:46:26.759 the civil war, which could have ended fairly quickly but 0:46:26.880 --> 0:46:30.360 was elongated by years due to the United States, Panama 0:46:30.480 --> 0:46:33.920 was completely fucking devastated, and the Colombian government was broke. 0:46:34.400 --> 0:46:38.080 Six of Panama's cattle were killed during the fighting, thousands 0:46:38.120 --> 0:46:41.719 of civilians were turned into refugees, agriculture broke down, and 0:46:41.719 --> 0:46:45.359 the local economy shattered entirely. The only places that were 0:46:45.440 --> 0:46:48.000 left sort of intact with the cities, which were dominated 0:46:48.000 --> 0:46:51.000 by conservative elites who had by this point learned well 0:46:51.120 --> 0:46:54.759 that their continued comfort relied on pleasing the North Americans. 0:46:55.719 --> 0:47:02.000 Now right, yeah, it's not great now. Right before the 0:47:02.000 --> 0:47:05.000 start of the Columbian Civil War in eighteen the US 0:47:05.040 --> 0:47:07.360 had gone to war with Spain. This had been a 0:47:07.400 --> 0:47:09.719 fairly quick and easy victory, but there had been one 0:47:09.800 --> 0:47:13.759 major snack. The USA's most powerful battleship, the Oregon, had 0:47:13.800 --> 0:47:16.719 been docked in San Francisco. Now, the Oregon had never 0:47:16.760 --> 0:47:20.319 been used in war, and obviously American North American people 0:47:20.320 --> 0:47:22.239 were really excited to see how good this ship was 0:47:22.280 --> 0:47:24.800 going to be at killing foreigners. But it was far away, 0:47:25.040 --> 0:47:27.480 and it took it weeks to actually get to Cuba, 0:47:27.520 --> 0:47:29.920 and so it missed all of the fun fighting and stuff. 0:47:30.280 --> 0:47:32.640 Um And like the news as it's sailing, the news 0:47:32.680 --> 0:47:35.200 is breathlessly covering how far the Oregans made it because 0:47:35.200 --> 0:47:37.200 everybody's just got such a boner to see how this 0:47:37.320 --> 0:47:42.520 modern warship fucking you know, kills people. Um, And because 0:47:42.520 --> 0:47:45.240 the Oregon gets there so late, all of these pundits 0:47:45.239 --> 0:47:46.239 in the news are like, you know, if we had 0:47:46.280 --> 0:47:49.160 a pan a canal and Panama, this eight thousand mile 0:47:49.239 --> 0:47:51.400 journey would have just been four thousand miles and we 0:47:51.440 --> 0:47:54.800 could have watched this boat kill Spaniards. Really, that wouldn't 0:47:54.800 --> 0:48:00.920 that have been nice? That is a priorities. So the 0:48:00.960 --> 0:48:03.080 fact that the Oregon takes so long to get into 0:48:03.080 --> 0:48:05.400 the fight as the last draw for hawks in the 0:48:05.520 --> 0:48:09.160 US defense establishment. With a canal in Panama, they argued, 0:48:09.239 --> 0:48:11.680 and this was actually like, militarily is a good point. 0:48:11.960 --> 0:48:13.719 The same fleet would be able to protect both the 0:48:13.760 --> 0:48:16.840 Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Right, you don't need two feets 0:48:16.840 --> 0:48:19.399 if you can sail went around both sides. Now, when 0:48:19.400 --> 0:48:22.799 Teddy Roosevelt became president, he'd made building a canal in 0:48:22.840 --> 0:48:25.879 Panama one of his top goals. That this canal would 0:48:25.880 --> 0:48:28.520 be in Panama was not yet a foregone conclusion, though 0:48:28.800 --> 0:48:31.799 many in Congress wanted to build through Nicaragua, which would 0:48:31.800 --> 0:48:33.840 be you know, it would be a longer canal, but 0:48:33.880 --> 0:48:36.280 it would also probably be easier and safer to build 0:48:36.280 --> 0:48:40.640 because of Nicaraguan geography and stuff. So enter the New 0:48:40.680 --> 0:48:43.440 Panama Canal Company, which was run by the same people 0:48:43.440 --> 0:48:46.319 who had managed the disastrous French canal project that could 0:48:46.400 --> 0:48:49.440 kill twenty thousand people. One of these people was Philippe 0:48:49.440 --> 0:48:52.760 bunal Varia. He and one of his shareholders weren't warned 0:48:52.800 --> 0:48:55.160 the United States to pick Panama because they'd gone to 0:48:55.200 --> 0:48:57.399 all the wanted the United States to pick Panama because 0:48:57.400 --> 0:48:59.480 they'd gone to all the trouble of purchasing a canal's 0:48:59.520 --> 0:49:01.799 worth of land and from the Colombian government. If they 0:49:01.800 --> 0:49:04.120 could sell it to the USA, it would mitigate the 0:49:04.160 --> 0:49:07.200 horrible financial losses they had suffered failing to build a 0:49:07.239 --> 0:49:10.520 canal for France. Thomas Leidenberg rights for the University of 0:49:10.520 --> 0:49:14.080 Houston quote by priority agreement, The New Panama Company had 0:49:14.160 --> 0:49:17.080 until December thirty one, nineteen o three, before the areas 0:49:17.080 --> 0:49:19.560 approved by the Old Canal Company, as well as the 0:49:19.560 --> 0:49:23.239 construction machinery, railroad track, locomotives and so forth, would be 0:49:23.320 --> 0:49:26.239 deeded to the Columbia. Then Colombia and not the New 0:49:26.520 --> 0:49:29.040 Panama Canal company could sell these rights, for which the 0:49:29.040 --> 0:49:31.640 new canal company was demanding forty million dollars from the 0:49:31.680 --> 0:49:35.000 United States. Congressmen serving on a committee to inspect the 0:49:35.040 --> 0:49:37.840 sites where the canal might be built were invited to 0:49:37.880 --> 0:49:41.000 talk with officials in France, where they were entertained lavishly 0:49:41.040 --> 0:49:43.760 and presented with the French perspective on the doomed canal 0:49:43.840 --> 0:49:46.840 project for five weeks. Then their fridge hosts brought the 0:49:46.840 --> 0:49:50.160 congressman to Panama, where canal company officials showed them only 0:49:50.200 --> 0:49:52.560 what the company wanted them to see. As luck would 0:49:52.600 --> 0:49:55.320 have it, a volcano and Nicaragua erupted in nineteen o 0:49:55.400 --> 0:49:59.840 two for the first time in sixty eight years. Yeah, 0:50:00.120 --> 0:50:03.560 and Bueno Veria made quick quickly made postage stamps as 0:50:03.560 --> 0:50:05.720 a reminder of the eruption and sent them to members 0:50:05.760 --> 0:50:10.680 of Congress. Not surprisingly, Congress selected the Panama route. Jesus, 0:50:12.120 --> 0:50:20.000 it's a really convenient volcano eruption, historically significant like natural occurrence. Yeah, 0:50:20.040 --> 0:50:23.080 this is why the Panama Canal is not in Nicaragua. Well, 0:50:23.239 --> 0:50:25.640 also would have been the Nicaraguan Canal. But yeah, and 0:50:25.680 --> 0:50:28.919 of course Buenoveria, being a smart guy, is like, oh yeah, 0:50:28.960 --> 0:50:32.359 we gotta like remind them of of how dangerous Nicaragua's 0:50:32.400 --> 0:50:37.239 camp canal there we'll get volcanoed. Uh So. Obviously the 0:50:37.280 --> 0:50:40.200 whole situation was not quite as simple as Buenoveria made 0:50:40.239 --> 0:50:42.560 it out to be though. For one thing, the French 0:50:42.640 --> 0:50:44.839 were selling land they didn't have the right to sell 0:50:44.880 --> 0:50:47.920 because under their agreement with Colombia, that land was supposed 0:50:47.920 --> 0:50:50.640 to revert to Colombian control and all of the equipment 0:50:50.960 --> 0:50:54.040 pretty soon. And they also legally did not have the 0:50:54.160 --> 0:50:56.800 right to sell that land to a foreign power because 0:50:56.800 --> 0:51:00.239 it was not their land. Obviously, the United States not 0:51:00.320 --> 0:51:05.680 care about this ship now, we do. We do not 0:51:05.800 --> 0:51:09.480 give one solitary funk about what Columbia's contract with the 0:51:09.480 --> 0:51:13.720 French says. Um any Yeah, And obviously, so the government 0:51:14.000 --> 0:51:16.160 in Bogata is really unhappy with the fact that the 0:51:16.239 --> 0:51:18.160 US is talking with the French like this, but they're 0:51:18.200 --> 0:51:22.360 effective count Like, they can't really counter this because Bogata 0:51:22.560 --> 0:51:24.319 is kind of in the middle of nowhere right in 0:51:24.360 --> 0:51:27.040 this period of time, they don't have reliable telegraph connections. 0:51:27.239 --> 0:51:30.280 It takes other representatives a while to get messages anywhere. 0:51:30.719 --> 0:51:32.799 Um and when they eventually get in touch with the 0:51:32.840 --> 0:51:35.160 US government and let them know that they don't agree 0:51:35.200 --> 0:51:39.720 to the purchase. Washington said, like, by the time Columbia 0:51:39.760 --> 0:51:41.239 is able to get a message out that like, hey, 0:51:41.480 --> 0:51:44.239 the French don't have the right to sell you this stuff, um, 0:51:44.480 --> 0:51:48.080 negotiations have already progressed. Now the US does try to 0:51:48.120 --> 0:51:50.279 make a deal with Bogata. They're like, what if we 0:51:50.320 --> 0:51:52.560 give you ten million of the forty million that we're 0:51:52.560 --> 0:51:54.320 going to give to the French and a quarter of 0:51:54.360 --> 0:51:56.720 a million dollars a year in rent. So we send 0:51:56.800 --> 0:51:59.680 this offer back to Bogata and there's no response for 0:51:59.760 --> 0:52:03.040 what Teddy Roosevelt considers to be an unacceptable length of time. 0:52:03.400 --> 0:52:05.440 The President starts to get afraid that they're going to 0:52:05.480 --> 0:52:07.600 have to be forced to go back and pic Nicaraguay 0:52:07.640 --> 0:52:11.320 after all, and angry Teddy gets racist at a staff meeting, 0:52:11.520 --> 0:52:15.399 yelling this is like, like, so America right now, it's 0:52:15.480 --> 0:52:21.319 not Yeah, I think peak United States, Peak USA right now, 0:52:21.520 --> 0:52:26.520 And again peak Teddy. Those contemptible little creatures in Bogata 0:52:26.640 --> 0:52:29.560 ought to understand how much they are jeopardizing things and 0:52:29.600 --> 0:52:35.920 imperiling their own future. I'm sorry, temptable little creatures. So 0:52:36.000 --> 0:52:38.600 this is so this is the this is the this 0:52:38.680 --> 0:52:42.160 is the dawn of the big stick of the Yeah, 0:52:42.320 --> 0:52:45.760 he is about to use his big stick. Um. Yeah. 0:52:45.960 --> 0:52:48.640 And he doesn't speak softly either. That always goes together 0:52:48.680 --> 0:52:52.040 in the quote. But he's a pretty loud guy, you 0:52:52.080 --> 0:52:54.880 know who does speak softly while carrying a big stick, 0:52:55.080 --> 0:52:57.440 A big stick that they will sell you for a 0:52:57.440 --> 0:53:03.200 reasonable price. Raytheon, Oh God, I was coming. Ray Theon 0:53:03.360 --> 0:53:07.200 does speak softly. You rarely hear statements from the Raytheon corporation. 0:53:07.920 --> 0:53:10.040 They prefer to speak through their missiles that are made 0:53:10.040 --> 0:53:23.200 out of knives. Breda, And thank you for that, Chelsea. 0:53:23.320 --> 0:53:27.200 I was out of breath from yelling products. Still, so 0:53:28.680 --> 0:53:32.120 the reality of the situation so obviously, like the US 0:53:32.280 --> 0:53:34.640 is like trying to at least kind of sort of 0:53:34.680 --> 0:53:36.880 do the right thing. When Columbia points out that the 0:53:36.880 --> 0:53:38.920 French don't have the right to sell this car, okay, 0:53:39.120 --> 0:53:41.400 we'll we'll pay you a quarter of what we were 0:53:41.400 --> 0:53:43.440 going to pay the French company. And they send this 0:53:43.520 --> 0:53:45.680 out and they don't get a response for a long time, 0:53:46.040 --> 0:53:48.440 and part of the reason why the response is delayed 0:53:48.920 --> 0:53:51.200 is the fault of a lawyer for the French company, 0:53:51.280 --> 0:53:54.400 Cromwell who was deliberately trying to gum things up in 0:53:54.520 --> 0:53:57.839 order to make the Americans angry at the Colombians. And 0:53:58.200 --> 0:54:00.239 one of the things he wants to avoid because he's 0:54:00.239 --> 0:54:02.480 getting a cut of what the French company makes, he 0:54:02.520 --> 0:54:04.520 doesn't want the company to part with any of the 0:54:04.560 --> 0:54:08.560 forty million dollars they're being paid um by the Americans, 0:54:08.560 --> 0:54:10.719 so he doesn't want the Colombian government to get paid off. 0:54:11.120 --> 0:54:14.479 And he both like kind of jams up the works 0:54:14.480 --> 0:54:17.120 within the Colombian government. And he has several meetings in 0:54:17.239 --> 0:54:20.280 Rose with Roosevelt where he tries to convince him basically 0:54:20.320 --> 0:54:22.880 that hey, you know, the Panamanians don't even want to 0:54:22.920 --> 0:54:24.799 be a part of Colombia, and if Panama is an 0:54:24.800 --> 0:54:28.120 independent country, this whole process of negotiation is going to 0:54:28.160 --> 0:54:32.719 be a lot easier. Um. He also pays like journalists 0:54:32.719 --> 0:54:35.200 in the United States to write articles on this same 0:54:35.440 --> 0:54:38.279 like in this same line, he bribes the New York 0:54:38.320 --> 0:54:40.160 World to put out an article because he knows that 0:54:40.200 --> 0:54:43.160 Teddy reads the New York World, and the article announces 0:54:43.400 --> 0:54:46.440 the state of Panama stands ready to secede from Colombia 0:54:46.480 --> 0:54:49.000 and enter into a canal treaty with the United States. 0:54:49.400 --> 0:54:52.120 So the final straw comes in late nineteen o three, 0:54:52.160 --> 0:54:55.120 when the Colombian government rejects the US offer and demands 0:54:55.160 --> 0:54:57.840 more money in exchange for the canal. The Colombian government 0:54:57.880 --> 0:55:00.400 is very reasonably like, why is a French company getting 0:55:00.400 --> 0:55:02.520 three quarters of the money you're paying for this canal 0:55:02.880 --> 0:55:04.880 when it's our fucking land and they don't have the 0:55:04.960 --> 0:55:07.360 right to sell it to you. And this really pisses 0:55:07.360 --> 0:55:10.000 off Roosevelt because he doesn't want any delay. He calls 0:55:10.040 --> 0:55:15.560 the Colombian people jack rabbits and a corrupt pithecoid community 0:55:15.640 --> 0:55:19.840 undeserving of the rights and privileges enjoyed by Europeans, and 0:55:19.920 --> 0:55:22.680 this causes Teddy Roosevelt to give the green light for 0:55:22.760 --> 0:55:26.520 a US backed separatist coup in Panama. Now, Roosevelt and 0:55:26.560 --> 0:55:28.520 his cronies had been chatting for a while about how 0:55:28.640 --> 0:55:31.279 much easier this whole business would be if Panama were 0:55:31.320 --> 0:55:34.360 its own country, conveniently dominated by the United States, and 0:55:34.400 --> 0:55:38.239 obviously Cromwell had stoked these conversations. No one seemed to 0:55:38.239 --> 0:55:40.359 think it was ironic that the United States had just 0:55:40.560 --> 0:55:43.680 intervened repeatedly in a civil war to stop Panama from 0:55:43.719 --> 0:55:48.040 separating from Colombia. Now, though the United States supported Panamanian 0:55:48.080 --> 0:55:51.640 independence from a right up by the BBC quote, there 0:55:51.719 --> 0:55:54.360 was indeed an independence movement in Panama centered around the 0:55:54.360 --> 0:55:57.919 American owned railroad between Cologne and Panama City. This also 0:55:57.960 --> 0:56:00.640 happened to be represented by Cromwell, and it was Cromwell 0:56:00.680 --> 0:56:02.200 who sent a man he believed to be one of 0:56:02.239 --> 0:56:06.080 Panama's conspirators, Gabrielle du Bac, to see Hay, who was 0:56:06.120 --> 0:56:08.600 like the Secretary of State at the time. During that meeting, 0:56:08.600 --> 0:56:11.480 Hay claimed that if revolutionaries were to seize power in Panama, 0:56:11.480 --> 0:56:14.439 the United States could stop Colombian troops from intervening under 0:56:14.440 --> 0:56:16.680 the guys of protecting the railway. And again this is 0:56:16.719 --> 0:56:21.080 like the bid Lack Treaty. Unfortunately for Cromwell, Dubach reported 0:56:21.120 --> 0:56:25.239 everything to the Colombian legation, double crossed exposed an unnerved 0:56:25.280 --> 0:56:28.440 Cromwell disowned the genuine Panamanian rebel He had also been 0:56:28.440 --> 0:56:32.960 dealing with Manuel Amador Guerrero. But Amador was quickly taken 0:56:33.040 --> 0:56:35.520 up by Bueno Varia, who sent him back to Panama 0:56:35.600 --> 0:56:39.560 with a revolution kit, a proclamation of independence, draft constitution, 0:56:39.800 --> 0:56:42.120 a homemade flag, and a promise of a hundred thousand 0:56:42.160 --> 0:56:45.240 dollars to underwrite the new government. It was quite by chance. 0:56:45.280 --> 0:56:47.680 The frenchman later insisted that he bumped into the U. S. 0:56:47.680 --> 0:56:50.560 Secretary of the Navy while strolling around Washington, who told 0:56:50.640 --> 0:56:52.520 him that an American gunboat was on its way to 0:56:52.560 --> 0:56:55.640 Cologne when Ovaria sent Amador and his accomplice as a 0:56:55.680 --> 0:56:58.040 coded cable giving them the news which convinced them of 0:56:58.080 --> 0:57:01.120 American support for their revolution. So well, lot is happening here, 0:57:01.800 --> 0:57:05.839 but gist of it is the French find a Panamanian 0:57:05.880 --> 0:57:08.840 revel give him a flag that they made themselves, a 0:57:08.920 --> 0:57:12.320 constitution that they made themselves, and a hundred thousand dollars, 0:57:12.560 --> 0:57:15.680 and say go start a revolution. Will take care of 0:57:15.719 --> 0:57:18.600 the rest. And then the same French representative of the 0:57:18.600 --> 0:57:21.000 Canal Company goes to the U. S. Secretary of the 0:57:21.080 --> 0:57:23.720 Navy and is like, will you shoot the Colombians if 0:57:23.720 --> 0:57:25.440 they try to stop this? And the Secretary of the 0:57:25.520 --> 0:57:28.680 Navy is like, yeah, why the funk not? Yeah, let's go. 0:57:31.200 --> 0:57:33.840 It's rad So the panem we're on You're on our 0:57:33.880 --> 0:57:39.440 side now, So now everyone's fine with an independent Panama. 0:57:39.520 --> 0:57:42.000 And that is what happens. The Panamanian rebels use the 0:57:42.000 --> 0:57:44.520 money the US had given them to bribe the Colombian 0:57:44.560 --> 0:57:48.880 military in Panama, and on November three nine, Panama to 0:57:48.920 --> 0:57:52.120 claes it's independence. More US money and silver coins was 0:57:52.200 --> 0:57:54.400 handed out to hundreds of Colombian soldiers who had all 0:57:54.440 --> 0:57:57.120 been bribed to go along with it. Amador gave an 0:57:57.160 --> 0:58:00.640 Independence Day speech where he declared, the world is astounded 0:58:00.640 --> 0:58:04.120 in our heroism. Yesterday we were slaves of Colombia. Today 0:58:04.160 --> 0:58:11.080 we are free. Long lived President Roosevelt. Yeah no, did 0:58:11.120 --> 0:58:14.080 not age well, yeah, free would be a little bit 0:58:14.160 --> 0:58:18.880 much to state about the status of Panamanians in the 0:58:18.960 --> 0:58:21.200 new order of things. I didn't I didn't like that 0:58:21.320 --> 0:58:25.040 very much. So the U. S. State Department recognizes Panama 0:58:25.080 --> 0:58:29.280 as an independent nation. Several hours after the declaration, the press, 0:58:29.320 --> 0:58:32.640 who weren't very corrupt, all attacked Teddy Roosevelt for this, 0:58:32.800 --> 0:58:36.080 pointing out that basically he had stolen Panama from Colombia 0:58:36.120 --> 0:58:40.160 and blatantly violated US treaties with Columbia um now. The 0:58:40.160 --> 0:58:43.120 New York Times called it an act of sordid conquest. 0:58:43.440 --> 0:58:46.440 Roosevelt responded by pointing out that no US troops or 0:58:46.480 --> 0:58:48.560 ships had been in Panama City, but it was taken, 0:58:48.600 --> 0:58:51.760 so how could this be an active conquest. Roosevelt told 0:58:52.040 --> 0:58:55.640 Congress that the people of Panama rose literally as one man. 0:58:56.000 --> 0:59:04.920 A senator responded, the one man was Roosevelt. That's solid 0:59:04.960 --> 0:59:09.160 congressing guy. So Roosevelt immediately authorized the negotiation of a 0:59:09.160 --> 0:59:11.960 new canal treaty with the new government of Panama. The 0:59:12.040 --> 0:59:15.320 negotiation was handed by Bueno Varia, who had been permitted 0:59:15.320 --> 0:59:18.160 to by the new government to discuss arrangements with the US. 0:59:18.240 --> 0:59:21.640 So the new Panamanian government says to Bueno Varia, who 0:59:21.680 --> 0:59:24.360 was the guy who had told the people who became 0:59:24.400 --> 0:59:27.400 the new Panamanian government to start a revolution, They're like, 0:59:27.480 --> 0:59:30.920 you can start negotiations with the United States, but he 0:59:30.960 --> 0:59:33.720 had not been approved to actually sign a treaty or 0:59:33.720 --> 0:59:37.840 conclude negotiations. Bueno Varia ignored this. He in the United 0:59:37.880 --> 0:59:41.000 States decided that actual Panamanians were still not a necessary 0:59:41.040 --> 0:59:44.080 part of the negotiations. They concluded a treaty, which was 0:59:44.160 --> 0:59:47.600 ratified by the new Panamanian government after Teddy Roosevelt threatened 0:59:47.640 --> 0:59:50.440 to let Columbia invade if they didn't ratify it. No 0:59:50.560 --> 0:59:53.600 Panamanians actually signed the treaty giving the US the right 0:59:53.640 --> 0:59:57.360 to build a Panama Canal. Hey, it sounds like how 0:59:57.520 --> 1:00:01.160 foreign policies work fill last basically the eighth century. Yeah, 1:00:01.200 --> 1:00:03.960 I mean this is this is we're definitely, like Teddy is, 1:00:04.560 --> 1:00:08.680 establishing a lot of how US foreign relations and interventions 1:00:08.720 --> 1:00:13.160 will work for more than a century afterwards. It's pretty great. Now. 1:00:13.280 --> 1:00:15.640 Under the treaty, the United States was given control and 1:00:15.760 --> 1:00:19.840 sovereignty over territory including and around the canal zone. Um, 1:00:19.880 --> 1:00:22.120 and it was supposed to be in perpetuity, right, so 1:00:22.160 --> 1:00:25.600 basically forever we get this territory. Roosevelt was over the 1:00:25.640 --> 1:00:28.080 moon with the deal, but he had no trouble justifying 1:00:28.120 --> 1:00:30.480 the blatant and shameless contempt for a people's right to 1:00:30.520 --> 1:00:34.520 self determination. He said, quote, reasons of convenience have been 1:00:34.560 --> 1:00:38.120 superseded by reasons of vital necessity, which do not admit 1:00:38.160 --> 1:00:41.120 acts of infinite delays. If ever, a government could be 1:00:41.120 --> 1:00:44.600 said to have received a mandate from civilization, the United 1:00:44.640 --> 1:00:50.080 States holds that position with regard to the inter Oceanic Canal. So, yeah, 1:00:50.160 --> 1:00:53.640 we stole this land from Panama. Yeah, we didn't ask 1:00:53.720 --> 1:00:57.320 them or like, and we violated our principles of democracy. 1:00:57.360 --> 1:01:01.680 But divine right, divine not just write all of civilization 1:01:01.840 --> 1:01:04.160 demands that we make this canal, and then it be 1:01:04.200 --> 1:01:08.160 as the profit from it. Right. But of course the 1:01:08.200 --> 1:01:10.760 United States was not building a canal in Panama purely 1:01:10.760 --> 1:01:13.040 for the good civilization. We were doing it for profit, 1:01:13.120 --> 1:01:16.040 for military advantage, and to extend the white race across 1:01:16.080 --> 1:01:19.240 the west coast of North America. The agreement Washington and 1:01:19.320 --> 1:01:21.760 Panama signed was heavily influenced by the fact that the 1:01:21.800 --> 1:01:25.040 Isthmus had been devastated by war and that Panama's continued 1:01:25.040 --> 1:01:28.680 existence was contingent upon US goodwill. In their new constitution, 1:01:28.880 --> 1:01:31.800 Panama was officially a protectorate of the United States, who 1:01:31.880 --> 1:01:35.080 had the power to intervene militarily quote in any part 1:01:35.120 --> 1:01:37.720 of the Republic of Panama to re establish public peace 1:01:37.760 --> 1:01:40.600 and constitutional order in the event of their being disturbed. 1:01:40.920 --> 1:01:43.080 So we take the bid Lack Treaty and we just 1:01:43.240 --> 1:01:45.840 extended to now that we're building a canal, we can 1:01:45.880 --> 1:01:50.000 send our soldiers anywhere in Panama for any reason. That's 1:01:50.040 --> 1:01:53.480 wrap US efforts in Panama started with the removal of 1:01:53.520 --> 1:01:56.080 nearly a hundred million cubic yards of soil which were 1:01:56.120 --> 1:01:58.960 dumped just sort of wherever four dred and twenty three 1:01:59.000 --> 1:02:01.920 square kilometers to be flooded for the project, which led 1:02:01.960 --> 1:02:05.360 to the creation of Gattan Lake. This required the displacement 1:02:05.400 --> 1:02:08.280 of thousands of Panamanians who previously leaved in the lived 1:02:08.280 --> 1:02:10.640 in the territory we were digging up. Many of these 1:02:10.680 --> 1:02:12.920 people were made homeless by the early stages of the 1:02:12.920 --> 1:02:15.720 conuct construction product, and of course they were not paid 1:02:15.720 --> 1:02:17.720 anything for this. We just forced them off of their 1:02:17.800 --> 1:02:21.280 land and destroyed their owns. The creation of Gatton Lake, though, 1:02:21.320 --> 1:02:25.640 created a problem for the white occupiers. Mosquitoes, Uh you know, 1:02:25.760 --> 1:02:28.920 mosquitoes breed and water, and Gatton Lake was basically a 1:02:28.960 --> 1:02:33.080 giant puddle of still water and mosquitoes bread like crazy 1:02:33.160 --> 1:02:36.960 in it. Uh yeah, yeah, it's a bad idea. It 1:02:37.000 --> 1:02:39.200 was not a great call for us. So soon all 1:02:39.240 --> 1:02:41.200 of the white people that we had sent to Panama 1:02:41.240 --> 1:02:44.000 to build this canal start dropping like flies, because we 1:02:44.120 --> 1:02:47.760 basically build a giant mosquito incubator. Many of the workers 1:02:47.800 --> 1:02:50.840 who died, of course, we're black Africans, but that was 1:02:50.920 --> 1:02:53.240 not what concerned anyone in the United States. It was 1:02:53.240 --> 1:02:57.280 the death of white workers that was really a problem. Um. 1:02:57.320 --> 1:02:59.520 And this was in part of problem because the US 1:02:59.560 --> 1:03:02.600 plans and Panama. This was not like a normal colonial venture, right, 1:03:02.840 --> 1:03:05.160 This is not just about resource extraction. It was not 1:03:05.200 --> 1:03:07.280 a situation of like, yeah, we're gonna lose some white people, 1:03:07.520 --> 1:03:09.640 but eventually we'll get all of the good stuff out 1:03:09.640 --> 1:03:11.920 of there and we can just abandon it. The canal 1:03:12.080 --> 1:03:14.040 is always going to be valuable, so you need to 1:03:14.040 --> 1:03:16.760 have a population of white people there to maintain it. 1:03:17.240 --> 1:03:19.400 And that meant that Panama was going to be needed, 1:03:20.160 --> 1:03:22.760 would need to be made safe for white people to 1:03:22.880 --> 1:03:26.280 live it, um. And that meant that essentially what was 1:03:26.320 --> 1:03:29.560 going to follow was a war on biology itself on 1:03:29.600 --> 1:03:32.240 behalf of the white race, because like all of these 1:03:32.280 --> 1:03:36.360 tropical diseases needed to be eradicated. John Lindsay Poland describes 1:03:36.400 --> 1:03:39.080 it as the transformation of the canal zone to make 1:03:39.080 --> 1:03:43.200 it biologically safe for white men. And in Part two, Chelsea, 1:03:43.600 --> 1:03:48.120 that's what we're going to talk about. Oh yeah, this 1:03:48.200 --> 1:03:50.520 is this is going in a fascinating direction that I'm 1:03:50.560 --> 1:03:53.080 not familiar with, the sort of like bio the sort 1:03:53.120 --> 1:03:56.800 of like the like terraforming of the region, or the 1:03:56.800 --> 1:03:59.920 attempt to terraform yeah. This this is like a terraform 1:04:00.120 --> 1:04:04.080 project and spoilers were bad at it. We we do 1:04:04.160 --> 1:04:06.920 everything wrong. Yeah, which is probably why I don't know 1:04:07.000 --> 1:04:10.800 much about it. No, yeah, it's it's very funny. But 1:04:10.840 --> 1:04:15.439 we'll have to wait until Thursday for that. Until Thursday, Chelsea. Wait, wait, 1:04:15.960 --> 1:04:19.400 we were people fighting on the interwebs dot net dot com. 1:04:19.760 --> 1:04:21.880 You have socials to plug? You got plug? Oh I 1:04:21.920 --> 1:04:26.080 have I have socials? What so? I? Yeah, so I 1:04:26.120 --> 1:04:28.680 have a I have a Twitter account. Uh x y 1:04:28.800 --> 1:04:32.040 Chelsea on Twitter. Um I am also x y Chelsea 1:04:32.120 --> 1:04:35.440 eight seven on Twitch. I do twitch strings mostly video games. 1:04:35.920 --> 1:04:38.720 Uh uh and uh a little bit of some text 1:04:39.000 --> 1:04:41.680 of some like tech related stuff. Um so yeah, you know, 1:04:41.720 --> 1:04:45.360 I just play video games and chat about technology. So 1:04:45.520 --> 1:04:50.400 check Chelsea out there. And check out Panama when there's 1:04:50.400 --> 1:04:53.400 not a plate We're not, I mean, I I don't know. 1:04:53.440 --> 1:04:55.920 I assume they have a vibrant tourist industry that's been 1:04:55.920 --> 1:05:00.120 suffering from this. Their food is great. Just may all 1:05:00.160 --> 1:05:03.240 the money we really old Panama. We we we fucked 1:05:03.320 --> 1:05:06.640 him up pretty bad. Um so send him money to Panama. 1:05:06.960 --> 1:05:09.040 Stick at the mail like Panama and an en girlp 1:05:09.080 --> 1:05:13.760 and send him forty dollars yep, hell yeah, yep, let's go. 1:05:18.360 --> 1:05:18.400 H