One spectacular illustration of the American sense of destiny was occasioned by a border dispute which arose between Venezuela and the colony of British Guiana. The dispute was a long-standing one, but it came to a head when gold was discovered in the area. Britain repeatedly refused to submit the dispute to arbitration. In 1895 Secretary of State Olney wrote a note to the British Prime Minister in which he reasserted the Monroe Doctrine and claimed that no European power had the right to interfere in "American" affairs. Olney denounced European imperialism and pr

There had been several attempts to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama in the 19th century, the most famous by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal. All of them had failed because of jungle diseases and engineering difficulties.

At its peak in 1913, the workforce consisted of 44,000 persons. West Indian workers were the canal's unsung heroes. Each day, 200 trainloads of dirt had to be hauled away. More than 25,000 worked as canal diggers--three times the number of American who worked on the canal. Between 1904 and 1915, 5,600 lives were lost to disease and accidents. Most of those who died were from Barbados. The quinine used to treat malaria left many workers deaf. In December 1908, 22 tons of dynamite exploded prematurely, killing 23 workers. Black workers' children attended segregated schools that only went up to the eighth grade.

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