How Roosevelt Secured the Panama Canal Zone

After Colombia rejected the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty (granting canal rights), President Theodore Roosevelt:

1. Supported a Panamanian revolution against Colombia (Nov 1903).
2. U.S. warships prevented Colombian troops from suppressing it.
3. Panama declared independence; the new government immediately signed the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the U.S., granting a 10-mile-wide Canal Zone "in perpetuity."

Construction began 1904; the canal opened 1914.