OLLI0129 - The Panama Canal: Crossroads of the World

Course Description

The grandest public building in Panama is not the president’s residence or the National Assembly. It is the Panama Canal Administration Building, a stately tiled-roofed structure that sits majestically atop a hill near the Pacific end of the canal. It was inaugurated in 1914 as the headquarters for United States canal officials. Since 1999, when control of the canal was transferred to Panama, the building has housed the Panama Canal Authority, a branch of the Panamanian government. This edifice reflects the outsize importance of the canal to Panama. The waterway accounts for 15 percent of the tiny tropical nation’s gross domestic product, and its full import is even greater. Perhaps no country in the world has one thing that has the significance that the canal has to Panama. It has been said that it dominates the hearts and minds of all Panamanians. This course will focus on the Panama Canal, providing a context and a lens through which to examine the following: the history of Spanish America and Central America, United States-Latin American relations, maritime commerce, the engineering marvels of the canal’s excavation and lock design/operation, the medical and scientific struggle against malaria and yellow fever, the migration of Afro-West Indians to Panama for the railroad and canal, life for North Americans in the Canal Zone, and, in a larger context, lessons that speak to the geopolitics between small and powerful nations. It is hoped that this class will show that the construction of the Panama Canal, along with being an unprecedented feat of engineering, was a profoundly important historic event with worldwide repercussions. Recordings will be available to all registrants in order to serve those that prefer not to meet in person. We ask that all attending class in person are vaccinated.