Shadowing-Übung: How The US Stole The Panama Canal, Mapped - Englisch Sprechen Lernen mit Video

There's this one lake in Central America that if you look closely enough, you're gonna see the tops of trees in the lake.

And these are not islands, these are hilltops.

This all used to be a dense jungle, not a lake.

But then they built dams and all sorts of infrastructure to flood this forest, all in the name of solving a centuries-old puzzle,

which was how do we make it faster and easier to travel between here and here,

even in spite of the fact that you have two massive continents blocking any waterway.

But there was hope.

If you look down here at this one thin stretch of land, here it's only 80 kilometers across,

and it looks so easy to just cut a waterway into it.

No. Turns out that puzzle was not easy.

This little 80 kilometer strip of land proved to be really hard to cut through.

But as long as international trade continued to grow, there continued to be great powers looking for new waterways to shorten their routes and to increase their power.

For whoever controls the water has the power.

And these great powers always focused on this narrow stretch of land, from the Spanish in the 14th century to the Scottish in the 15th.

But then the most earnest and serious attempt was in 1880, when this guy, a French engineer,

Ferdinand de Lesseps, shows up and is like, hey, I got this.

He had just completed another big world-changing canal over here.

He was feeling very confident and he's like, yep, I'm your guy.

Let's build another canal.

It'll be easy.

We'll just dig down to sea level

and reroute the river like we did in Egypt for the Suez Canal and it'll be great and I'll be famous.

Listen, de la Sep, Egypt is a flat desert and Panama is not.

These mountains that you want to dig through are well above sea level.

So if you want to dig down to sea level to make a flat canal, it's not going to be easy.

Meanwhile, another French engineer comes to de la Sep and he's like, dude, this isn't going to work.

It's way too much digging.

Instead of bringing the mountains down to sea level, what you need to do is bring the sea up to the mountains.

And in a moment of collaborative creativity, Delicep admits that he was wrong and begins construction based on the new plans.

And then he promotes this guy as the head of engineer and says, great idea.

No, Delicep was like, bring the ocean up to the mountains.

That sounds stupid.

Screw you, I'm the famous one.

The canal is going to be at sea level, just like we did with the Suez Canal.

So the French start digging.

Well, actually it wasn't the French.

It was a ton of poorly paid migrant workers who were doing the digging hacking away at the jungle with machetes, and then digging by hand with pickaxes in sweltering heat,

knee-deep in sitting water, which is heaven for, you guessed it, disease-infested mosquitoes, which is terrible news.

But luckily, de Lesseps, the engineer, was always there in the trenches with his workers, wielding a pickaxe alongside his people.

Yeah, no, of course he wasn't.

He was just hanging out in France, only visiting Panama twice over the course of seven years to just like check in on the project.

And what he realized when he showed up seven years into this digging is that things were going horribly.

People were dying like 40 or 50 a day.

All in all, 20,000 workers died trying to dig this canal.

Thousands died from disease and accidents and we will never know their names.

And it's not just that people are dying, it's that the digging isn't working either.

They would do a bunch of digging one day

and then the next day the rain would bring in all of the mud that they just dug back into the canal.

So Delicep shows up, realizes this is happening, is like, this is not working.

Is there another way to dig this canal?

And then he has a flashback to seven years earlier.

Bring the sea up to the mountains.

And he's like, oh yeah, that was actually a really good idea.

My bad, we actually are gonna do that other plan instead.

But no, it was too late.

The investors were done.

They had lost way too much money.

20,000 people were dead.

Malaria and yellow fever were rampant.

This was a failed project.

So the company that owned all of this work had to abandon it and leave it unfinished in 1889.

Everyone gave up and left, except for one of the top engineers on the project, this guy.

I'm just gonna call him Philippe because after researching him for many days, I now feel like I'm on a first name basis with him.

And by the way, he becomes a giant part of the story starting now.

So Philippe was this French engineer and businessman and he was obsessed with the canal.

He also had a huge financial stake in the project.

And where some investors would say, darn, too bad, we invested in a bad bet, let's move on.

Philippe was like, no, I will do whatever it takes to make sure that this is not a failure.

And what happens next is one of the most insane things I have ever researched in my entire life.

So buckle up.

The wind of change is blowing half a gale in the Panama Canal zone.

Okay, so let's get some context really quick.

It's like 1900 at this point.

The US is really starting to like get a handle on this whole imperialism thing that they've been doing.

They just fabricated a war with Spain, which led them to conquer the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

They had just overthrown Hawaii's government.

They annexed Wake Island and American Samoa.

They're like, dude, this overseas empire thing is kind of working out for us.

The president at the time was Teddy Roosevelt, who we've seen in previous episodes.

And Teddy is looking around this region that the US is increasingly taking over.

And he sees an opportunity to dramatically increase the naval power

of the United States they could just unite the Atlantic and the Pacific.

It's time to build a canal, says Teddy.

So of course they looked somewhere in Central America.

And the original plan that the US wanted to pursue was to build a canal not in Panama, but here in Nicaragua.

It wasn't the shortest stretch of land in this area, but there was a huge lake here which would cut down on the digging, and it just made a lot of sense.

So they started doing surveys and making plans to build a canal in Nicaragua.

Meanwhile, Philippe, the Frenchman, is still down here at his failed project, and he's seeing the U.S become interested in the canal,

and he's like, this is my moment of vindication.

So he goes to the U.S.

Congress, and he's like, hey guys, I know you're looking at Nicaragua, you've been doing all this site planning and surveys and stuff, but guess what?

Right next to this proposed site for your canal, there are volcanoes.

Big, scary, belching volcanoes and one of them just erupted around here, sort of next to your site.

Nicaragua even had a postage stamp that featured one of these nearby volcanoes erupting.

So the Frenchman goes around to the US senators and distributes this postage stamp and says, look, scary volcanoes in Nicaragua,

don't build your canal here or they'll be destroyed by lava or something.

And guess what?

It totally worked.

The US Senate got cold feet about their Nicaragua canal plan, And they're like, we're not gonna do this anymore.

100

Let's find another place to build it.

101

And Philippe is like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that just worked.

102

Stamps with volcanoes.

103

He's like all giddy and he's like, hmm, I wonder where there would be a good place to build a canal.

104

Oh, wait a minute.

105

Why not Panama?

106

We, the French, already did a ton of work to get you started.

107

Why don't you just pick up where we left off?

108

We'll sell you all of our gear, all of our stuff.

109

It'll be a great deal.

110

And the US is like, but isn't Panama a part of Colombia?

111

And yes, indeed, at the time, Panama was actually a part of Colombia, it was not an independent country.

112

So the United States Congress is like, okay, listen, Felipe, we will buy you out of your canal project that you clearly failed on,

113

but we will only do it if we can get approval from Colombia, who literally owns this land.

114

And Felipe is secretly like, ugh, there's no way that Colombia is going to go for this.

115

They're gonna reject the plan, and then the US is gonna back out, and I'm gonna lose all my money, and I have to make this happen.

116

Felipe was very serious about this canal.

117

So this is where Philippe starts to get really conniving to pull out all the stops to get the canal built.

118

So he goes to the people who live in the region of Colombia called Panama.

119

And he says, hey guys, I know you've sort of been wanting to be independent from Colombia for a long time.

120

Bogota is so far away, they don't care about you.

121

You could be your own country.

122

What if I, a French engineer, could guarantee your independence without a bloody war?

123

Just leave the details to me.

124

Make me your ambassador and I will make this happen.

125

And the Panamanians are like, but dude, you're French.

126

And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you're Colombian.

127

So why don't we team up in the name of creating Panama, a new country?

128

And they were like, okay, fine, Philippe.

129

You're our representative, our ambassador now.

130

Just give us the signal when we should rise up for our independence.

131

But you promised to make sure that Colombia is not gonna come in and quell our uprising.

132

And Philippe's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll take care of it.

133

Okay, before we keep going with this story, I wanna tell you about today's sponsor, Policy Genius.

134

About a month ago, I signed up for life insurance, something I knew nothing about for a very long time until I did

135

and looked into it and realized that be a responsible adult, I should probably have life insurance.

136

It's something that's not fun to think about, but is absolutely something that feels good to have once you have it.

137

Policy Genius is very simple.

138

It takes a few minutes to sign up

139

and makes it easy to compare quotes from over a dozen top insurers all in one place.

140

You could save 50% or more on life insurance by comparing quotes with Policy Genius.

141

You could have life insurance in less than a week.

142

That's what happened to me.

143

I didn't even have to go to like a doctor's office.

144

Like one of the options was to just do a medical exam over the phone.

145

And I was like, yes, please.

146

It was a simple phone call.

147

The Policy Genius team, they took care of all the paperwork.

148

They did all the complicated stuff that I would have no time to do.

149

And before you know it, I have a life insurance policy.

150

So go to policygenius.com slash Johnny Harris, where you can learn about different policies and which one fits your need.

151

And then when you're ready to apply, the Policy Genius team handles everything after that for no extra cost.

152

There's no extra fees.

153

Policy Genius doesn't sell your information, which is like, thank you Policy Genius for that.

154

Overall, this is the best way to compare quotes for life insurance and to get the best deal that fits for you.

155

Again, I literally just did this a month ago

156

and it really was smooth and easy and I sleep better at night knowing that I have a policy.

157

So thank you Policy Genius for sponsoring this video, for supporting my work and my channel.

158

That link will be in my description.

159

Now let's get back to the Panama Canal.

160

So Philippe is now the ambassador of the Panamanians who are not a country yet, but he's still hoping that maybe the Colombians will approve the plan.

161

Felipe sort of has this in his back pocket, this deal that he just made with the Panamanians.

162

He doesn't know if he has to use it yet.

163

But back to the Americans having to ask Colombia for approval to build their canal.

164

Sure enough, they show up and Colombia's like, no, go home.

165

You guys are way too aggressive around here lately.

166

We're not interested.

167

No canal.

168

See you later.

169

So the US goes to Felipe and they say, sorry, bro.

170

The deal is off.

171

Colombia said no. We said we'd only do this if Colombia said yes.

172

After all, Panama is a part of Colombia and Philippe is like, wait, hold on.

173

I have a plan for this.

174

I've been talking to the Panamanians and they want to break away from Colombia and they made me their ambassador.

175

I've even written them a new constitution and designed them a new flag.

176

Wait, Philippe, are you a graphic designer?

177

No, but I designed them a flag anyway.

178

We can still make this canal thing happen.

179

All I need you guys to do is show up with your navy to make sure

180

that the Panamanians can rise up for independence without Colombia coming to shut it all down.

181

And the U.S.

182

Congress is like, dude, you're nuts.

183

See you later.

184

But out of nowhere, the president at the time shows up and is like, did somebody say stage a theatrical revolution to take over more land and increase American power?

185

Teddy was back on the scene.

186

Teddy loves this kind of stuff.

187

He loves the sort of like backroom deals.

188

let's like not ask for permission, let's ask for forgiveness.

189

This is like Teddy Roosevelt's like sweet spot.

190

So Philippe has all of his ducks in a row.

191

He's got Teddy Roosevelt on his side.

192

He has Panamanians who just gave him approval to be their ambassador and he's like, let's do this.

193

So in November, 1903, Philippe gives the nod to the Panamanians to rise up, to take over and declare themselves independent.

194

And at the same time, he signals to Teddy Roosevelt to send in their big gunboats, to sit off the coast of Panama,

195

to block Colombia from sending in reinforcements to put down this revolution by the Panamanians.

196

And so Colombia's like, oh, fine, take it.

197

F you, America.

198

You guys played real dirty there, okay?

199

You know that?

200

That was not cool.

201

So just as Felipe orchestrated, Panama declares independence, and Felipe is the ambassador.

202

The US is the first to recognize them as a new country.

203

And Teddy Roosevelt's like, that was thrilling.

204

Now what, Felipe?

205

So Felipe is like, let's make a deal, America.

206

I'm the official representative of Panama now, as per my agreement with the Panamanians, so let's write a treaty on behalf of Panama.

207

So he travels to the United States

208

and starts working on a treaty between the United States

209

and Panama that would give the USA rights and sovereignty over this strip of land to build a canal.

210

I mean, this series of events is insane.

211

France fails to build a canal, so one French dude, an engineer, tries to redeem the whole thing by convincing the US to change the location of their canal

212

and then creates a revolution and convinces the US to help back that revolution so that he,

213

a Frenchman, can be the ambassador of the newly created country of Panama and make a deal with the US.

214

Whoa, Philippe.

215

He was like the one-man band lobbyist who somehow finagled this whole situation.

216

So Philippe and the Secretary of State of the United States draw up this treaty.

217

It gives the US total control over this strip of land for them to build their canal.

218

No Panamanians were in the room when they drafted this treaty.

219

They gave no approval of this.

220

This treaty was between the US and Panama, but really it was between the US and Philippe the French engineer.

221

So now the US military shows up to Panama to like claim this land that they now see as theirs.

222

And the Panamanians are like, dude, WTF, what are you doing here?

223

And the US is like, oh, you signed a treaty with us, giving us all this land.

224

And Panama's like, no, we didn't.

225

And then they're like, oh wait, light bulb, Philippe.

226

That's why he wanted to be our ambassador.

227

I get it, man, we got played by Philippe, and they totally did.

228

So now the US is setting up shop in Panama to start digging their canal.

229

The US picked up right where the French left off, using effectively the same route that the French had dug during their seven years of misery.

230

And speaking of misery, the US was able to learn from the French's mistakes.

231

They started using railways to truck out all the dirt so that the mud wouldn't slide back into the canal.

232

And they learned how to drain the puddles of water so that it wasn't like a haven for disease-infected mosquitoes.

233

And most importantly, they didn't try the crackpot idea of trying to dig a canal all the way down to sea level.

234

They went with the much better idea of digging the canal up high, 26 meters above sea level, and using clever engineering to get ships up to that level.

235

Like I said, said that one French engineer.

236

And de la Cep was like, no one asked you, get out of here.

237

So after 10 years of construction and a visit by Teddy Roosevelt, who staged this amazing photo shoot of him wearing a Panamanian hat, sitting on one of the machines,

238

all to boost morale to get this project done.

239

After all of that, the US completed this dream of slicing a water route through this 80-kilometer stretch of land.

240

Philippe, at this point, is back in France, probably exhausted from all of his scheming, but ultimately very pleased that he was able to pull it off.

241

So the canal is done, and here's how it works.

242

Remember that the land looks like this.

243

You have the Pacific and Atlantic oceans here at sea level, and then the interior of the land being about 26 meters above sea level.

244

So first they built a dam on this river to create this giant lake

245

so that they have loads of water to work with.

246

That's why we see those trees sticking up from the water, or why these hilltops turned into islands.

247

Then they built these brilliant inventions called locks.

248

The boat enters here at sea level.

249

They enter into this chamber where there is a gate that is holding the water from the high up lake back.

250

It's locked.

251

But once the boat is in this holding chamber, they let the water from higher up come down, making the boat flow up.

252

It takes about eight minutes for the boat to rise.

253

Then they move into the next chamber where they do this again and again until by the end of it, the boat has been lifted up 26 meters above sea level.

254

They then traverse the rest of this canal going through the artificial lake

255

and snaking through until they get to the other side, where now they need to get down to sea level.

256

And they go through the same process, but in reverse.

257

They finally make it down to sea level, and they can exit onto, now, a different ocean than when they started.

258

It's honestly an engineering marvel, and it reshaped the global economic landscape, making it easier and safer to move goods and people around the world.

259

And yeah, the US was very serious about controlling this little strip of land, this choke point that they had built.

260

If you look at a map from the early or mid 1900s, you're gonna see that the Panama Canal Zone was always marked as a sovereign part of the US.

261

Controlling a choke point like this gives you a strong strategic advantage, and the US knew that.

262

But the world would finally decide

263

that big powers shouldn't actually be able to swoop in and take over whatever land they want.

264

The wind of change is blowing half a gale in the Panama Canal Zone.

265

Americans had to defend themselves as students

266

and other rioters demanded an end of the 61-year-old Canal Zone Treaty with the United States.

267

And the Panamanians in the 1960s finally had enough.

268

And they're like, yeah, this land is actually ours.

269

So in the 60s and 70s, the Panamanians rose up in protest against this U.S occupation of the canal.

270

And through a series of treaties, they finally got it back.

271

Officially, on the last day of the millennium, December 31st, 1999, they signed the last treaty that returned sovereignty to Panama.

272

And then Jimmy Carter gave a speech in Spanish. In este...

273

Este ocasión.

274

I mean, he tried, like, really hard.

275

And I guess that matters.

276

So today, the Panama Canal belongs to Panamanians.

277

It still uses the innovative technology from 100 years ago that allows this canal to be built 26 meters above sea level.

278

But for all of the engineering innovation that's present here, to me, the more incredible part of this story is how this one Frenchman orchestrated all of this.

279

He played all the geopolitical forces at the time just right.

280

He used Panamanians thirst for independence and the Americans thirst for imperialism

281

and ocean power all to make his dream of this canal happen.

282

Oh, and to secure his financial return on the project.

283

What a wild story.

284

Thanks for watching.

285

Thank you.

📺 Gleicher Kanal

✨ Empfohlenes Video

19 Sätze

🚢 English Listening Practice | The Panama Canal 🇬🇧 | ESL Learn English Through Story #panamacanal

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

291 Sätze

Why did white men conquer the world?

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

33 Sätze

The Ocean Is Deeper Than You Think. We Need Better Maps.

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

93 Sätze

The Gold Nugget That Changed America Forever

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

77 Sätze

The Attack on Pearl Harbor Changed Everything | WWII With Tom Hanks

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

113 Sätze

America’s White Slavery Crisis They Don’t Teach You About

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

89 Sätze

How The CIA Hacked Russia

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

70 Sätze

Thor Heyerdahl very | IELTS LISTENING TEST | SECTION-3

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

552 Sätze

The Professor Who Taught People How To Think (1962)

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

80 Sätze

Everything Wrong With The 2026 World Cup

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

Was ist die Shadowing-Technik?

Shadowing ist eine wissenschaftlich fundierte Sprachlerntechnik, die ursprünglich für die professionelle Dolmetscherausbildung entwickelt und durch den Polyglotten Dr. Alexander Arguelles populär gemacht wurde. Die Methode ist einfach aber wirkungsvoll: Du hörst englisches Audio von Muttersprachlern und wiederholst es sofort laut — wie ein Schatten, der dem Sprecher mit nur 1–2 Sekunden Verzögerung folgt. Anders als passives Hören oder Grammatikübungen zwingt Shadowing dein Gehirn und deine Mundmuskulatur, gleichzeitig echte Sprachmuster zu verarbeiten und zu reproduzieren. Studien zeigen, dass es Aussprachegenauigkeit, Intonation, Rhythmus, verbundene Sprache, Hörverständnis und Sprechflüssigkeit signifikant verbessert — was es zu einer der effektivsten Methoden für die IELTS Speaking-Vorbereitung und reale englische Kommunikation macht.

Shadowing-Technik: die vollständige Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitung lesen →

Shadowing-Übung: How The US Stole The Panama Canal, Mapped - Englisch Sprechen Lernen mit Video

At North Korea’s Border

Your Olive Oil is (probably) a Lie

Why is Russia So DAMN BIG?

1955 vs 2025, who actually had it better?

The Internet Didn't Fail. It Was Taken.

Why This Country Was Erased From History

What’s really happening in the ocean’s “dark zones”

Why you’re so tired

What’s ACTUALLY Happening in North Korea

The Problem With Elon Musk

🚢 English Listening Practice | The Panama Canal 🇬🇧 | ESL Learn English Through Story #panamacanal

Why did white men conquer the world?

The Ocean Is Deeper Than You Think. We Need Better Maps.

The Gold Nugget That Changed America Forever

The Attack on Pearl Harbor Changed Everything | WWII With Tom Hanks

America’s White Slavery Crisis They Don’t Teach You About

How The CIA Hacked Russia

Thor Heyerdahl very | IELTS LISTENING TEST | SECTION-3

The Professor Who Taught People How To Think (1962)

Everything Wrong With The 2026 World Cup

Warum man mit diesem Video das Sprechen übt?

Grammatik & Ausdrücke im Kontext

Übliche Aussprache-Fallen

Was ist die Shadowing-Technik?