Having obtained the necessary land, equipment and strategy, the United States set out to build the Panama Canal. Initial progress was slow. The French operation which the Americans bought had been stripped down to minimal operations. The infrastructure around the project was insufficient for the scale of what needed to be done. Disease took a heavy toll on workers. Bureaucratic oversight made ordinary operations almost impossible.

But the canal was built, at great cost of time, effort, and even lives. The U.S. obtained the land in 1903 and the first ship passed through the canal in 1914. The actual expense was much less than original estimates.

One player in the operation that was never happy about its role was Panama. From the time that the U.S. signed the treaty with a French citizen that gave them the rights to build the canal, Panama had sought to negotiate a legitimate treaty. In 1964, protests around the canal resulted in the deaths of 20 Panamanians and injuries to 500 others, mostly at the hands of U.S. troops protecting the canal. Negotiations began on a canal treaty, but were not completed until 1977, with the signing of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties.

The Torrijos–Carter Treaties consisted of two main agreements. The first treaty established the permanent right of the United States to protect the canal’s neutral service to ships of all nations. The second treaty guaranteed that Panama would assume full control of the canal beginning at the end of the day on December 31, 1999.

Opponents of the agreements claimed that the U.S. had given a vital asset to a hostile government. There was also claims that the Panamanians would allow the canal to fall into disrepair. None of the fears proved to have a basis. Since the handover, traffic is up, revenues are up, accidents are down, and Panama is looking to expand the canal.

Hopefully, the handover of the canal will mark a new trend in United States’ relations with neighbors to the south: less paternalism, more partnerships.