Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty: Dealing with Panama Direct

Start Your Visit With

Historical Timelines
Chronological Eras
Information Tables
General Interest Maps
Glossary
History Quizzes
nav

Travel and History Blog


Follow OregonCoastMag on Twitter

Share

Philippe Bunau-Varilla

Panama, formerly a department of Colombia, had declared its independence after the rejection by Colombia of the Hay-Herrán Treaty of 1903. The joint efforts of John Hay, U.S. secretary of state, and Philippe Bunau-Varilla, the former engineer for the French canal company and the recently appointed Panamanian envoy to the United States, yielded an agreement acceptable to Roosevelt. Terms of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, signed on November 18, 1903, included the following:

The financial terms were identical with the ones incorporated into the Hay-Herrán Treaty that Colombia had refused to accept. With the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, the United States had the legal basis for proceeding to build the Panama Canal.


See other foreign affairs issues under Theodore Roosevelt.

- - - Books You May Like Include: ----

First Great Triumph by Warren Zimmermann.
“We were sure that we would win, that we should score the first great triumph in a mighty world-movement.”—Theodore Roosevelt, 1904Americans like to t...