After the chatter about the Panama Canal, finally decided to look into the United States' role; here are some bullet points:  

⭕️ 1901: The U.S. and Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, allowing the U.S. to build and control a canal.  

⭕️ 1902: The U.S. Congress passed the Spooner Act, authorizing the purchase of the French company’s holdings for $1.5 billion in today's $.  

⭕️ Panamanian Independence: The U.S. supported Panama's independence movement against Colombia. After Panama declared independence in 1903, the U.S. and Panama signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, granting the U.S. control over the "Canal Zone."  

⭕️ The US built the canal from 1904 - 1914 It took 55,000 Americans to built it, of which over 10% of them died from injury and disease.  

⭕️ The U.S. controlled the Panama Canal Zone for much of the 20th century before Jimmy Carter gave it to Panama for nothing in 1977.  

⭕️ Since then, the US has continued to spend $ on maintenance, upgrades and securing it with military.   

⭕️ Currently it needs quite a bit of renovations and they have hopes to expand construction to built a 3rd set of lochs.