an artificial waterway in Panama, Central America, that bisects the Isthmus of Panama at its lowest part and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. One of the most important international waterways, the canal passes through a separate zone under the jurisdiction of the USA (seePANAMA CANAL ZONE).
The idea of building an interoceanic canal was first proposed in the early 16th century, but only the development of capitalism made its construction possible. In 1846 the USA imposed on Colombia (then New Granada, which included present-day Panama) a treaty granting the USA duty-free transit across the Isthmus of Panama. Compelled to reckon with Great Britain’s influence in Central America, the USA concluded the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850, under which both parties renounced exclusive rights to a future canal in the region and pledged to guarantee its neutrality. Taking advantage of Anglo-American rivalries, France established the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique in 1879, but large-scale corruption turned the construction of the canal into a scandal-ridden venture and caused the bankruptcy of the company.
After the Spanish-American War of 1898, the USA intensified its efforts to build a canal with the aim of dominating the western hemisphere. In 1901 it concluded the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty with Great Britain, giving the USA the exclusive right to build the Panama Canal. Taking advantage of the national liberation movement of the Panamanian people, the USA supported Panama’s demand for secession from Colombia in 1903 and received as compensation a strip of land for the construction of the canal. In 1904 the US War Department undertook construction of the canal. Although the first vessel passed through the canal on Aug. 15, 1914, it was officially opened only on June 12, 1920.
The Panama Canal is 81.6 km long, of which 65.2 km are on land and 16.4 km on the bottom of the Panama and Limón bays (for the passage of ships to deep water). On the Atlantic slope the canal runs through the valley of the Chagres River, in which the man-made Lake Gatun has been created. On the Pacific slope it passes through the valley of the Río Grande. The lowest elevation of the Culebra (Gaillard) Mountain Watershed is 87 m above sea level. After the widening of the Culebra Cut in 1970, the canal’s minimum width increased from 91.5 m to almost 150 m. In the locks the water is at least 12.5 m deep. The part of the Panama Canal that runs through the Mountain Watershed— across Lake Gatun and through the Culebra Cut—lies 25.9 m above the average sea level. The canal has six sets of parallel locks (three on each slope) with chambers 305 m by 33.5 m. The ships are towed through the locks by electric towing locomotives. The average time for passing through the Panama Canal is seven or eight hours and the minimum time four hours. Each day an average of 36 ships pass through the canal, whose maximum capacity, if the two rows of locks are used, is 48 ships a day.
After the canal was built, ships no longer had to sail through the Strait of Magellan or around Cape Horn, and the direction of several major sea routes changed. The canal is most important for navigation between the eastern and western coasts of the USA and Canada (the sailing distance was reduced 2.5 to 3 times), between the eastern coast of the USA and the Far East, and between the Latin American countries.
In 1971 a total of 15,300 ships passed through the canal, hauling 121 million tons of freight, 69 million tons from the Atlantic to the Pacific and 52 million tons from the Pacific to the Atlantic. About 70 percent of the cargo was shipped from or destined for US ports. The traffic flow through the canal has almost reached full capacity. Moreover, the canal’s locks do not accommodate ships with a water displacement of more than 40,000 tons, including large ocean liners, supertankers, and the largest aircraft carriers. A number of plans have been drawn up for rebuilding the canal or for building a parallel canal. A special commission recommended to the US president the construction of a sea-level canal along the La Chorrera-Lagarto route, about 15 km west of the present canal. As yet no date has been set for the construction of such a canal. Railroads and highways between Panama City and Colón run parallel to the canal.
Panama has repeatedly asked the USA for a revision of the unequal 1903 treaty concerning the canal and the Canal Zone. A circuit session of the UN Security Council held in Panama in 1973 discussed this question. In 1974, after the signing of the joint declaration On Basic Principles for Negotiating a New Treaty on the Panama Canal, negotiations between Panama and the USA, begun in 1971, entered a new phase.
V. M. GOKHMAN