The Panama Canal

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What is the history of the Panama Canal and why does Trump think he can 'take it back'? Dan is joined by Professor Julie Greene to delve into the long backstory of this 50-mile waterway that changed the world. Its journey from concept to completion was fraught as many nations sought to build it over several centuries, with the US eventually taking up the costly task in the 1900s. During the decade-long construction, many workers, mostly from the Caribbean, suffered awful working conditions and were injured or died building it. Total control was handed over to Panama in the 1990s.

Better understand the headlines with this deep dive into history.

You can learn more in Julie's books 'Box 25: Archival Secrets, Caribbean Workers, and the Panama Canal' and 'The Canal Builders.'

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Max Carrey

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Dan Snow, and if you would like Dan Snow's History Hit ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:09.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:19.4	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe.
0:24.6	Hi, everybody. Welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit.
0:28.1	The English privateer or pirate or explorer, insert your preferred noun really,
0:36.0	depending on your politics or nationality, was led to the spot
0:39.5	by Africans. They had escaped from Spanish captivity and they now fought a guerrilla war against
0:46.7	their erstwhile owners from camps deep in the jungles of Central America.
0:59.0	The Englishmen and the formerly enslaved people had made common cause.
1:02.7	They decided to fight the hated Spanish by severing the most important artery in the mighty Spanish Empire.
1:08.6	And that was the mule path that led from the Pacific to the Caribbean,
1:13.5	across the Isthmus of Panama. That Englishman was Francis Drake. The year was 1572.
1:23.4	Drake had realised pretty early on the importance of this overland route. Essentially, the Spanish
1:29.3	Empire worked like this. Ships came north along the Pacific coast of South America from Peru.
1:35.2	Those ships carried the treasure of the Inca, but also enormous amounts of silver, mined from
1:40.9	Mount Pototti in what is now Bolivia.
1:47.0	Those arrived on the Pacific coast of Panama.
1:53.2	Black cargo then got loaded onto mules to make the short journey across to the other side of the Isthmus,
2:03.6	where it was loaded again onto ships and headed off to Spain to enrich his most Catholic majesty in Madrid. The idea of all that cargo going south from Peru, right the way around the bottom of South America, was just impossible.
2:10.2	Savage conditions, very difficult navigation, country winds, vast distances. This was a much
2:16.4	better solution. Now, at one point on this expedition,
2:19.3	one of Drake's Afghan comrades took him to a lookout, they carved into a great tree, and he climbed
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -64 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.