canal

(noun)

An artificial waterway, often connecting one body of water with another

Related Terms

Examples of canal in the following topics:

  • Transportation: Roads, Canals, and Railroads

    • In 1808, a government-sponsored Report on the Subject of Public Roads and Canals suggested that the federal government should fund the construction of interstate turnpikes and canals.
    • Among the most important of these canals was the Erie Canal.
    • The success of the Erie Canal led to a proliferation of smaller canal routes in the region.
    • Most of the canal work was done by Irish immigrants who had previously worked on the Erie Canal.
    • The Illinois and Michigan Canal was an important canal in the 19th century, but was rendered obsolete when new railroads replaced it.

  • The Big Stick

    • Both Nicaragua and Panama experienced Roosevelt's signature diplomacy in canal-related incidents.
    • In 1901, Secretary of State John Hay pressed the Nicaraguan Government for approval of a canal.
    • The U.S. accepted the deal, but after Congress approved the contract, the problem of court jurisdiction came up, as many anti-canal advocates argued that, since the U.S. did not have legal jurisdiction in Nicaragua, it could not sponsor a canal project.
    • After Nicaragua was ruled out, Panama was the obvious choice for United States leaders determined to build a Central American canal.
    • The United States, on the other hand, gained the rights to the canal strip "in perpetuity " Roosevelt later said that he "took the Canal, and let Congress debate" the matter after the event.

  • The Banana Wars

    • The US was also advancing its political interests, maintaining a sphere of influence and controlling the Panama Canal which it had recently built, critically important to global trade and naval power.
    • From 1882, Ferdinand de Lesseps started work on a canal.
    • The Roosevelt administration proposed to Colombia that the US should control the canal, but by mid-1903 the Colombian government refused.
    • The treaty allowed for the construction of a canal and US sovereignty over a strip of land 10 miles wide and 50 miles long, on either side of the Panama Canal Zone.
    • In that zone, the US would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity."

  • The Adams Presidency

    • Adams supported internal improvements (such as roads, ports, and canals), a national university, and federal support for the arts and sciences.
    • In his first annual message to Congress, Adams presented an ambitious program for modernization that included roads, canals, a national university, an astronomical observatory, and other initiatives.
    • The Chesapeake and Delaware Canals and the Louisville and Portland Canals around the falls of the Ohio were constructed, as well as the connection of the Great Lakes to the Ohio River system in Ohio and Indiana.
    • In addition, the Dismal Swamp Canal in North Carolina was enlarged and rebuilt.

  • The Market Revolution

    • Federal and local governments, as well as private individuals, invested in roads, canals, and railroads.
    • The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal was a tremendous engineering feat and opened the West for trade with markets on the east coast.
    • Turnpikes, canals, and rail lines drastically changed America's landscape, beginning in the 1800s.

  • The Battle of New Orleans

    • Preparations for the attack had floundered early, as a canal being dug by Admiral Alexander Cochrane's sailors collapsed and the dam made to divert the flow of the river into the canal failed, leaving the sailors to drag the boats of Col.
    • Thomas Mullins, the British commander of the 44th Regiment of Foot, had forgotten the ladders and fascines needed to cross a canal and scale the earthworks, and confusion evolved in the dark and fog as the British tried to close the gap.
    • In the main attack on the right, the British infantrymen either flung themselves to the ground, huddled in the canal, or were mowed down by a combination of musket fire and grapeshot from the Americans.

  • The Carter Administration

    • In foreign affairs, Carter initiated the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II).
    • He returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama amidst criticism at home for his decision, which was seen by many as yet another signal of U.S. weakness and of his own habit of backing down when faced with confrontation.

  • The Rise of the West

    • Steamboat technology and the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 gave these farmers access to eastern markets.
    • The railroad boom that began in the 1830s soon replaced canals as the primary mode of transportation and further opened up the West.

  • Immigrant Labor

    • The Irish provided mostly unskilled labor in factories, textile mills, and large infrastructure projects such as canals and railroads.
    • The Irish provided a ready source of unskilled labor needed to lay railroad track and dig canals.

  • War, Empire, and an Emerging American World Power

    • That never happened; after 1903 American attention turned to the Panama Canal as the key to opening new trade routes.
    • Attention increasingly focused on the Caribbean as the rapid growth of the Pacific states, especially California, revealed the need for a canal across to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
    • Plans for one in Nicaragua fell through, but under Roosevelt's leadership the US completed the Panama Canal in 1914.