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Thank you Few things epitomized teddy roosevelt's foreign policy maneuverings

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like the panama canal When it finished this manmade waterway

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finally connected the atlantic and pacific oceans in the middle

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of central america Why was this a big deal Because

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it saved the u s and other interests a lot

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of trouble by not having to sail all the way

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around south america Not only do long sea voyages increase

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the chances of puke ing in your shoes they also

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cost a ton of money Plus it would be mighty

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helpful when it came to international negotiations Like once it

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was complete us could say stuff like you can't use

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my canal unless you come to my birthday party Of

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course getting the job done was about as easy as

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advanced levels of tetris america's first problem was that it

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didn't own panama In fact panama didn't even own panama

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back in nineteen o three this skinny sliver of central

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america was still part of colombia Well columbia i got

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a little freaked out and worried that it was losing

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control of the partly dug canal and a region in

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general to the us So the colombian said no gracias

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Pero no gracias to the cat on treaty which would

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have let us control the panama canal Well this was

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annoying you roosevelt He probably had to go out and

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shoot a moose or something and just get over it

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But luckily enough there was a revolution brewing in panama

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There was an ongoing beef between the colombian central government

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and the panamanian nationalists who wanted their own country Well

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previously the us had told colombia would not interfere which

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it didn't until it became a useful thing to interfere

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Of course we're roosevelt encouraged the panamanian nationalist to go

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through with the rebellion they've been planning he said We've

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got you covered now you guys go out there and

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be total panna maniacs because we're panamanian Of course he

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went further than just given the rebels of pep talk

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He sent the u s navy down there to be

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on standby Well the site of the us military might

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have convinced the colombian navy that maybe it should just

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go home This was known as gunboat diplomacy and was

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an excellent example of roosevelt's big stick outlook on life

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just the threat of military intervention was enough to make

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colombia back down without even starting a traditional war hey

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no violence probably nice for a change Well three days

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later on november six nineteen o three america recognized panama

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as an independent country as a thank you for the

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major assist the panamanians granted the us control over the

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canal forever which turned out to be until nineteen Ninety

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nine huh Well forever must mean ninety six years in

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panamanian won a strange conversion system but a lot of 00:02:34.975 --> [endTime] work Oh boy

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