Bonus: The American Desire To Take Back The Panama Canal

History of Everything

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 691 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

Do not stay ignorant of the world around you: go to https://groundnews.com/historyofeverything and get 40% off the Vantage plan, the same one that I use! At the beginning of the 20th century, an expanding United States wanted a way to expedite naval passage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. And in 1904, Panama granted the United States the right to build and operate a canal and control five miles of land on either side of the water. But ownership of the region had been a thorny issue for decades as Panamanians were locked out of the prosperity the canal created right in their own front yard, and in 1977 President Carter signed a treaty with Panamanian Chief of Government Omar Torrijos to return the canal area to Panama. Since then, Panama has invested nearly $6 billion to improve the infrastructure and increase the shipping capacity to expand the canal’s use worldwide. The Panama Canal was not an issue in the 2024 election, but in December, President Trump began claiming that the United States, the shipping lane’s biggest user, was “being severely overcharged and not treated fairly” and threatened to “take [the canal] back or something very powerful is going to happen.” Support me on Patreon for extra content. https://www.patreon.com/stakuyi For sources: Make sure to check out my Patreon, I will be posting all sources there for future videos for the public BUY MY COFFEE IT’S DELICIOUS https://tablowroastingco.com/products/stakuyi-lewis-dark Subscribe to my channels and let me know what more you would like to see. We organize games through discord: https://discord.gg/BJsRA6UpXx Twitch https://twitch.tv/stakuyi Podcast: https://historyofeverythingpodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:06.2	As a long-time foreign correspondent, I've worked in lots of places, but nowhere is
0:11.3	important to the world as China. I'm Jane Perlase, former Beijing Bureau Chief for the New York
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0:31.5	available now, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:38.2	Wait, did the United States just take back the Panama Canal again?
0:42.1	Hello, my friends, Takuya here, and welcome back to the History of Everything
0:44.5	Podcasts YouTube channel, and from the very beginning of this episode, I just need to say
0:47.7	something right now. I need to let you all know that this entire saga has been just a wild
0:52.8	ride, and really, who knows exactly where it is going to end up.
0:56.0	Because when I talk about this, this is something that involves not just Panama and Trump,
1:00.2	but also China, as well as now BlackRock. Like, yes, the private equity firm, which has
1:06.0	apparently struck a $23 billion deal in order to place Panama Canal ports under American control.
1:13.3	Something which, at the time that I'm making this, only yesterday, Trump would go in law as
1:17.0	taking back or reclaiming the canal, stating, quote, my administration will be reclaiming the
1:22.4	Panama Canal, and we've already started doing it. Just today, a large American company announced
1:27.4	that they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal.
1:30.4	This was in and of itself pretty massive news, and in turn, the president of Panama would respond by calling the entire thing an outright lie.
1:40.1	And as a result, this whole thing has generated very mixed reactions depending upon one's political affiliation.
1:47.0	For context, the issue between Donald Trump and the Panama Canal is something that revolves around Trump's claims that the Canal is under Chinese control or Chinese influence or at risk of.
1:57.7	In 2018, Trump would state that the Panama Canal was, quote, controlled by China,
	...

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