The Spooner Act gave the President $40 million to purchase the New Panama
Canal Company, and the power to negotiate a treaty with Colombia. The former
was easy, the latter impossible. The first treaty, the Hay-Herran treaty,
gave Colombia $10 million and $250,000 annually for the duration of a
100-year lease on a six-mile wide strip of the isthmus, and was rejected by
the ever-changing Colombian government. What happened next is described by
Theodore Roosevelt in History of the Panama Canal by Ira Bennett as : Panama
wanted to sell the land to America, but Colombia refused. Panama planned a
revolution, and Roosevelt sent a battleship, the Nashville to protect
"American lives in Panama", which meant that no other country was going to
land on the isthmus (invasion by land was impossible because of the
impenetrable Panamanian jungle). Panama declared its independence from
Colombia, and America recognized their declaration, else Colombia would have
reconquered the area, endangering American interests. Philippe Bunau-Varilla
was made American ambassador for Panama by telegram after the independence,
and consequently wrote up a treaty between Panama and America with Senator
John Hay - the Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty - which was ratified by the new
Panamanian Government in 1903, and by the American Senate in early 1904.

"Skipper" wrote in message
...
Well worth the read:

http://MondeDiplo.com/1999/08/06panama

--
Skipper