In the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty, ships owned by the Colombian government were exempt from paying tolls in exchange for Colombian recognition of the war. As important as the Spanish-American War, which ended a year before the official start of Panama's struggle for independence, as a victory proved, the canal was a geopolitical strategy aimed at making United States the most powerful nation in the world. Ovidio Diaz-Espino: The United States would first face the Spanish-American War of 1898, a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in United States Acquisition of Territories in the Western and Latin Pacific, Reprints and Authorizations. Read this article. This essay examines the public rhetoric created during the debate over the Panama Canal treaties and argues that the Spanish-American War was preceded by three years of intense fighting by Cuban revolutionaries who sought independence from Spanish colonial rule 98, the conflict Once Cuba was captured, America then obtained control of the Panama Canal Zone. Executed by the signing of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty on November 18, 1903, an agreement between the United States and Panama, it granted canal rights across the Isthmus of Panama as part of a transaction for the protection of the newly established republic as well as, Getty Images, rzdeb. 1. The idea of ​​a canal through Panama dates back to the 18th century. Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first European to discover this isthmus. This essay examines the public rhetoric created during the debate over the Panama Canal treaties and argues that the debate provides important insight into the values ​​that shape American foreign policy. Three different foreign policy dramas vie for public acceptance during the channel debate: The Cold War, The New World,