Under New Management: U.S. Administration of the Panama Canal Zone, 1904-14

This thesis studies the institutional structure of the civil government and leadership at the Panama Canal during the American construction period between 1904 and 1914. As the signal piece of global infrastructure of the Progressive Era, the canal substantially amplified the United States’ diplomatic, trade, and martial presence in the Western Hemisphere. The organization of the Canal Zone marked a considerable shift in the role that the federal government played, as it began to take a much more active position than the mixed enterprise that characterized infrastructural projects of the nineteenth century. French failure and scandal played a crucial role in developing this administrative structure and marked an obsession with rapid construction of the canal to avoid similar failures. Preoccupation with efficiency created an autocratic civil administration in the Canal Zone that sacrificed individual rights and private profit.