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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Rekindling the Flame: How International Conflict Restored Colombia’s Relationship with the United States after the Panama Secession, 1900-1922 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/56b2j76v Author Ruhl, Patrick Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Rekindling the Flame: How International Conflict Restored Colombia’s Relationship with the United States after the Panama Secession, 1900-1922 A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Latin American Studies by Patrick Brooks Ruhl Committee in charge: Professor Christine Hunefeldt, Chair Professor David Mares Professor Matthew Vitz 2018 The Thesis of Patrick Brooks Ruhl is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Chair University of California San Diego 2018 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page........................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents....................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures............................................................................................................................ v Abstract of the Thesis............................................................................................................... vi Introduction................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: Panama’s Legacy in Colombia-United States Relations......................................... 19 Chapter 2: The Taking of Panama............................................................................................ 37 Chapter 3: On to the Talks… ................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 4: The War Years........................................................................................................ 81 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 134 Appendix: Illustrations........................................................................................................... 143 Bibliography........................................................................................................................... 153 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Colombian Political Divisions............................................................................... 20 v ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Rekindling the Flame: How International Conflict Restored Colombia’s Relationship with the United States after the Panama Secession, 1900-1922 by Patrick Brooks Ruhl Master of Arts in Latin American Studies University of California San Diego, 2018 Professor Christine Hunefeldt, Chair In November of 1903, the United States, under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt, helped protect and support a revolutionary movement on the Panama isthmus. As the region seceded from its mother country, Colombia, the world stood in both shock and celebration. The story that is normally explained afterward focuses on the building of the Panama Canal and the U.S. rise as a dominant world power. But what about Colombia’s experience? For the South American country, they lost a priceless territory in a humiliatingly public event. More vi strikingly, before this Colombia and the U.S. had shared a long and cooperative relationship throughout the previous century, and now this close friendship was tarnished in an instant. Instead of moving their separate ways, the governments of each nations unexpectedly went to great efforts to salvage what was left of this broken relationship over the following two decades. For the first decade ordinary circumstances made hope of a settlement a dismal affair, but monumental changes soon took place with the outbreak of World War I in 1914 which inverted the political and economic atmospheres of not only Europe, but the Western Hemisphere as well. Owing to the War’s massive influences, the U.S. and Colombia would finally find motive to rekindle their ties. This essay dives into this tumultuous situation between the two nations and explains why, and how, a relationship fragmented by deceit and aggression was able to be redeemed during the most destructive conflict the world had ever seen. vii Introduction: Upon the arrival of the Colombian President-Elect, Enrique Olaya Herrera, to New York City in April 1930, representatives of the United States State Department, the City of New York, and the Pan American Society all awaited in anticipation to welcome the leader with a banquet in his honor. The American representatives wanted foremost to celebrate “the exceptional importance and significance not only of his visit here but of his election and the effect thereof on the rapidly growing commercial, economic and political relations of the United States with Colombia…” The two nations had recently experienced an extraordinary surge in relations which saw a two-thousand percent growth in total commerce from 1900 to 1929 and even more amazingly, a ten-thousand percent growth in U.S. capital investment into Colombia during the same time.1 The opulent scene of Herrera’s arrival displayed the dramatic transition in ties between the two countries that took place over the previous decade and characterized a partnership of respect and warmth that was a familiar sight over the majority of the nations’ diplomatic history. In 1822, the young United States took a monumental step in diplomacy when the government made their first formal recognition of a newly independent nation, the Republic of Colombia.2 From this initial moment onward, the relationship between the two countries has been viewed as one of deep respect and equal cooperation. Colombia, on many occasions, has been treated as the most loyal and important Latin American ally to the United States and in the 1 Statement released for the Associated Press by Vice-President of the Pan American Society John Barrett regarding the arrival of Dr. Enrique Olaya Herrera, April 30, 1930, John Barrett Papers (henceforth JBP), Box 97, “Latin America-Colombia” Folder, Library of Congress (LC). Commercial rates grew from $7,000,000 in 1900 to $153,000,000 in 1929, and U.S. Capital investments rose from around $3,000,000 to nearly $300,000,000 in the same period. 2 Stephen J. Randall, Colombia and the United States: Hegemony and Interdependence, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992), 15-16. 1 two centuries since relations began, the pair have become heavily intertwined economically, politically and militarily. In 1903, however, with the Republic of Colombia at a critically vulnerable state of disarray following a destructive three-year civil war, the United States double-crossed the Colombian peoples, their government, and their cultural pride by helping revolutionaries in the prized territorial possession, Panama, secede from the republic. This event immediately came as a beneficial development to the U.S., who now controlled its own destiny for the sought-after construction rights for an interoceanic canal through the isthmian region. For Colombia, though, this event displaced the greatest sense of power the country had on the international stage, and further depressed their government during an instant of division and weakness. The Department of Panama’s secession would come to define the relationship between the two countries for the following two decades, as both sides had to decide whether they could continue without their longtime ally. This period marked one of massive distrust and anger on the Colombian side, while arrogance and manifest destiny continued to hold power in the emerging United States. In 1922, the signing of the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty would mark a magnificent reversal in the public and political sentiments of both countries. The support offered to the secessionists by Washington in 1903 under President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration was bold and conflictual, as it directly alienated a longtime political ally who they had worked with for decades to foster a closer relationship with. Their contribution to this movement came as a shock to nearly everyone except those intimately involved in Washington and opened many questions scholars have since tried to answer: Why did Washington aid the Panama revolutionary movement against Colombian forces? How was this interpreted in Colombia, and as well inside of the U.S.? How did this affect overall U.S.- Colombian relations? Finally, as the two governments decided a settlement could be reached, 2 the situation requires an understanding as to what factors persuaded Bogota and Washington to establish a settlement over their dispute and why was it able to happen after nearly 20 years of dwindling relations? This study explains that after Roosevelt’s aggressive reaction to aid Panama’s secessionists in order to rapidly obtain canal-building rights, that he believed were being held up by Bogota officials, relations between the two countries crashed. Immediate responses in the U.S. of celebration would begin to