Security· Banana Wars
Panama Independence Intervention 1903
One of the most consequential single Marine operations of the era, the deployment that made the Panama Canal possible.
In early November 1903, when Panama revolted against Colombia to win its independence, Marines from the USS Nashville and the Panama battalion went ashore and occupied the railroad and key positions across the isthmus, blocking Colombian troops from moving to suppress the revolt. With Colombian forces prevented from reaching the rebellious province, the revolution succeeded, and the United States at once recognized the new republic and concluded the treaty that granted it the Canal Zone. Marines remained on the isthmus in growing numbers as construction of the canal began. The intervention was brief and nearly bloodless, but its consequences were vast: by ensuring Panama's separation from Colombia, it cleared the way for the canal that opened in 1914 and reshaped American strategy in two oceans.
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Record no. 515