Page 11 - BP1Z 015 Panama Canal history and purpose
P. 11
Under Lesseps’ leadership,
and with financial backing
from the United States,
the canal was completed in 1914.
The United States and Panama
signed the Hy-Bunau-Varilla
treaty which guaranteed
Panama’s independence
and provided a perpetual lease
on a ten-mile strip,
known as ‘The Canal Zone’.
