November 18, 1903

Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty

Signing of the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty

At about 6:40 in the evening, a French citizen signed away sweeping powers in Panama — before Panama's own commissioners could reach the negotiating table.

Signed at 6:40 in the evening

On 18 November 1903, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and Philippe Bunau-Varilla signed the Isthmian Canal Convention in Washington. Bunau-Varilla was a French citizen and canal promoter serving as Panama's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary; no Panamanian citizen signed.

The reported signing time was 6:40 p.m. President Theodore Roosevelt was notified, and Bunau-Varilla cabled Panama that evening.

The republic whose independence the treaty guaranteed had been recognised by the United States twelve days earlier, on 6 November.

What the wording actually granted

Panama granted perpetual use, occupation and control of a strip ten miles wide — five miles either side of the canal centre line, extending three marine miles beyond the mean low-water mark at each end.

The text did not convey ordinary ownership or expressly transfer sovereignty. It granted powers the United States would exercise as if it were sovereign, to the exclusion of Panamanian authority.

Panama City and Colón were left outside the zone, but the treaty still gave the United States sanitary and public-order powers inside them.

Signed is not in force

Article XXVI required ratification by both governments and an exchange of ratifications, so the signatures put nothing into effect. Panama approved the convention on 2 December 1903; the ratifications were exchanged and the treaty proclaimed on 26 February 1904.

The promised $10,000,000 in U.S. gold coin was payable upon that exchange, not at the signing table, along with a $250,000 annual payment beginning nine years later.

The separately authorised $40 million concerned the New Panama Canal Company's property, in a transaction that occurred in 1904 — it was not a payment to Panama.

Sources

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