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Panama: Another Major Sea Gate RelinquishedThe Panama Canal is an engineering marvel and a symbol of "The American Century." What is the significance of America's decision to turn it over to Panamanian control?by Melvin RhodesGibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Suez, Aden, the Maldive Islands, Ceylon, Singapore and Hong Kong are legendary sea gates en route from the British Isles to the Far East. These gates gave Great Britain mastery of the seas for over two centuries, a period that came to be known as the "Pax Britannica." They played a vital role in times of military conflict. Without them it is doubtful the Allies would have won the two world wars. For those who traveled west there was Bermuda, one of the first sea gates to be acquired by the British Crown, the first with its own parliament and still a British possession. Further west there were all the island possessions of the Caribbean. Further south the Falkland Islands enabled the Royal Navy to control the area around Cape Horn. St. Helena, Ascension Island, the Cape of Good Hope around South Africa, Mauritius, the Seychelles and Diego Garcia were all strategically located "gates" that controlled key sea passages around the globe, granting the British people unrivaled dominance of the seas. Later the United States was to join Great Britain as a world power following the Spanish-American War of 1898. The peace settlement that followed the war saw the United States become a major sea power with the acquisition of its own sea gates in important locations. The Philippines and Guam gave America a major Pacific presence, while Puerto Rico and a military base in Cuba extended American influence in the Caribbean. Hawaii was also annexed in 1898. But the most important was yet to come. The Spanish-American War had brought home to Americans a weakness that had been noticed before, one which could easily be resolved with the modern technology that was now available. The weakness was due to simple geography, the fact that it took a long time for a ship on one of the country's coasts to travel to the other coast. All ships had to go around Cape Horn at the southern end of South America, one of the most hazardous shipping routes on earth. Even if that had not been a problem, distance alone meant that any sea travel from coast to coast took a considerable period of time. The 1898 war itself demonstrated a military weakness when the U.S. had to quickly dispatch the battleship Oregon to Cuba after the U.S.S. Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor. Victory in the Caribbean was said to depend on the Oregon. Instead of the 4,000 miles from San Francisco to Cuba the trip would take today through the Panama Canal, the Oregon had to travel 12,000 miles around Cape Horn, a journey that was expected to take two months. There were long periods when there was no news of the ship and Americans followed her journey with mounting concern and excitement. Then 67 days after leaving the West Coast, she was spotted off the coast of Florida, arriving just in time to play a role in the crucial Battle of Santiago Bay. Those 67 days emphasized the growing importance of a path between the seas, linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and removing the need for lengthy and dangerous journeys around Cape Horn. Roosevelt's ambitious dream American President Theodore Roosevelt was to be the driving force behind the building of the Panama Canal. Indeed, it was to be the greatest accomplishment of his administration, the one which Roosevelt was to be most proud of and the one which caused the most controversy and division. "Roosevelt was promoting neither a commercial venture nor a universal utility. To him, first, last, and always, the canal was the vital—the indispensable—path to a global destiny for the United States of America. He had a vision of his country as a commanding power on two oceans, and these joined by a canal built, owned, operated, policed, and fortified by his country. The canal was to be the first step to American supremacy at sea" (The Path Between the Seas, by David McCullough, 1977). McCullough adds: "All other benefits resulting, important or admirable as they might be, were to him secondary." Roosevelt might not have bothered to build the canal had he known that it would remain in American hands for less than a century. On the last day of 1999 the United States will cede control of the canal to the nation of Panama, under the terms of a revised treaty agreed to during the Carter administration. In turn Panama hands over the administration of this vital sea gate to a private Mainland Chinese company, which, like all other companies in China, is subject to Chinese government control. Roosevelt was correct. The building of the canal was to be a major step toward America's global domination of the world, replacing Great Britain as the world's major naval power by the end of World War II, ushering in the Pax Americana which has given the world over 50 years of unprecedented prosperity. Before suddenly assuming office following the assassination of President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, Theodore Roosevelt had been heavily influenced both by his own war experiences in the 1898 war with Spain and by an influential book written by a member of the faculty at the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. The writer's name was Alfred Thayer Mahan and Roosevelt had met him when he himself had been invited to lecture there on his specialty as a historian, the War of 1812. Mahan's book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, was published in 1890 and had become an international bestseller. Interestingly, 1890 was also the year in which the U.S. Census Bureau declared that there was no longer any land frontier. Mainland America was complete. Mahan received honorary degrees at Oxford and Cambridge universities before being invited to dine with Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II, anxious to build a navy to rival Britain's, ensured that copies of Mahan's book were given to every one of his naval captains and officers. Japanese military colleges adopted the book as a text, while at home, Yale and Harvard were to confer honorary degrees upon him. He was enthusiastically supported by members of Congress. "It is sea power which is essential to every splendid people," Henry Cabot Lodge declared from the Senate floor. "By tracing the rise and decline of past maritime powers, he had arrived at the extremely simple theory that national greatness and commercial supremacy were directly related to supremacy at sea" (ibid. McCullough). Dream fulfilled The building of the Panama Canal was one of the greatest engineering feats of history. Interest in the project began soon after the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869. Suez, the artery of the British Empire, connecting Great Britain with its Indian and other Asian possessions, was built by a French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps. When the International Congress of Geographical Sciences met in Paris in 1879 and voted to support the construction of the Panama Canal, the 74-year-old de Lesseps undertook the task of constructing the waterway. The project failed some years later, and it was left to the United States to pursue in the new century. The United States waited for the Colombian Congress to debate its request to build a canal across Colombian territory. Preoccupied with a civil war between 1899 and 1903, the Colombians hesitated. The people of Panama then revolted against their Colombian rulers and the United States accepted the rebels' offer of a treaty that granted the United States sovereignty (total control) over a 10-mile-wide Canal Zone in exchange for an annual payment to be made to the new Republic of Panama. Although the U.S. denied any direct involvement in the rebellion against Colombia, U.S.-Colombian relations suffer to this day. Relations with Panama have not been easy either. Work on the canal began in 1904 but little progress was made before 1906 due to disputes over the type of canal that should be built. Completed in 1914, the canal is 51.2 miles long. Ironically, the year of completion saw the commencement of World War I in Europe and among European colonies around the world. This war was to see America's involvement in world affairs increase and leave the U.S. a rival naval power to Great Britain. Importance of sea gates foretold The acquisition of sea gates by the two major English speaking powers was prophesied in the Bible thousands of years ago. The modern descendants of Abraham, through the patriarchs Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, were to become the greatest single nation in history (the United States of America) and the greatest multitude or commonwealth of nations (the British Empire and Commonwealth). (See Genesis 48.) They were to possess the gates of their enemies (Genesis 22:17; 24:60). Just as the acquisition of these sea gates gave the two nations worldwide preeminence, so their loss would dramatically illustrate declining power and military might. Major turning points in the decline of Great Britain were the loss of two of the most strategically important sea gates. The United States is following a similar path to its brother as it, too, loses sea gates seen as vital to national security by previous generations of Americans. Two of the major turning points in the decline and fall of the British Empire were the loss of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942 and the loss of the Suez Canal to Egypt 14 years later. Singapore was Britain's major naval base in the Far East and considered impregnable. It easily fell to the Japanese who invaded from the north, through the jungles of British Malaya, a direction from which the British had not anticipated any threat. This was a major psychological blow to British pride, the biggest defeat the Empire had ever suffered at the hands of an Asian nation, thereby sending a very powerful message to other Asians that it was possible to defeat a seemingly invincible superpower. The British were later to regain control of Singapore following the defeat of Japan in 1945. Ironically, they voluntarily withdrew from the base a quarter of a century later as they could no longer afford to base troops there. Suez was the final death-blow to hopes of continued empire. A group of radical army officers overthrew Eygpt's King Farouk in 1952 promising to rid the country of foreign influences. They began agitating for Egyptian control of the canal and finally seized it in 1956. British, French and Israeli troops invaded Egypt. International financial pressures against Britain followed, and the Eisenhower administration refused to help, thereby effectively ending British and French control of the Suez Canal. The ripple effect was the collapse of both colonial empires and the proliferation of new states around the world that has complicated international diplomacy in the closing years of the century. The loss of superpower status Could the same fate befall the United States? In the less than 25 years since the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty which agreed to the 1999 hand over to Panamanian control, the U.S. has lost its military bases in the Philippines and scaled down the size of its military forces in other parts of the world. At the same time American military commitments have increased, with more and more pledges of support and involvement in minor nations throughout the world, a burden the U.S. increasingly tries to share with its NATO allies and the United Nations. This paradox is sometimes referred to as "imperial overreach," the same problem that afflicted Great Britain in its declining years. It's the tendency of a superpower to overcommit itself in an effort to try to maintain its leadership role. Eventually global commitments effectively result in no commitment, as forces in each area are too thin on the ground to cope. Current trends suggest the U.S. is following the same path as its predecessor as world superpower, Great Britain. The same God who gave us the sea gates also said that because of national disobedience He would take them away. "I will break the pride of your power" (Leviticus 26:19). The consequences of this will be just as great as the rewards were-the rise to international greatness will be followed, in time, by a decline into oblivion. Oblivion, that is, until divine intervention in world affairs re-launches the good fortunes of America, the British family of nations and ultimately all nations in a much happier world with sea gates open for all in the Millennium of the Bible. Sidebar: Who Benefits? It is interesting to note that the company chosen to operate the Panama Canal is a Hong Kong based company. It is, therefore, like all companies operating from the Peoples' Republic of China, subject to the influence and control of the Chinese leadership in Beijing. In a conflict, this could bode ill for the U.S. and its allies. The last few years have seen China make considerable gains at U.S. and British expense. The withdrawal from the Philippine bases of American forces early in the 1990s left China a more powerful nation in the region. The hand over of Hong Kong by Britain to China in 1997 elevated China to the status of second-richest country in the world in terms of its gold and foreign currency reserves. This frees China to spend much more of its wealth on military projects. Macao's return to China on the same day as the hand over of the Panama Canal frees China to concentrate its efforts on taking back Taiwan, a move which, if successful, would make China the richest nation on earth in terms of its reserves. The possible dismemberment of Indonesia would also leave China stronger. Any decline in the power of Indonesia would naturally result in a comparative strengthening of Chinese power and influence. India is a potential rival, but is too preoccupied with its rival Pakistan to get too involved in any struggle with China. China benefits, too, from the commercial domination of many nations in the region by its Chinese diaspora, Chinese people who have settled throughout the area. Ironically, the former British sea base of Singapore is populated mostly by Chinese people whose ancestors moved there during colonial times. Their nation is now a thriving city—state whose people are richer than many in the Western democracies. Any perceived threat from Beijing is likely to cause Japan and Russia to build up the size of their military forces. Now, with the hand over of the Panama Canal, Chinese influence may extend into Central and South America. The recent trade agreement admitting China to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will likely give another boost to the nation's rapidly growing economy. However, there is also concern that the agreement opening up China to more foreign competition could lead to internal unrest as hundreds of thousands of Chinese people lose their jobs during the restructuring that will take place. China is an awakening giant. An unstable giant could spread instability throughout the region. One hundred years ago, at the dawn of the 20th century, Britain's period of domination was drawing to a close, with the United States already on the horizon as the new superpower. We now see history repeating itself, this time with the United States currently dealing with the realities of "imperial overreach" while China and others seek to expand their influence. WNP |
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