Panama Canal Zone: US State

I wonder what would happen if the US annexed the Canal Zone and made it a US state.

We've got Alaska and Hawaii, which are well away from the US mainland, and they're states. The CZ had a lot of Americans living there, although I don't know if it would be enough for full-blown statehood.

The POD would have to be before the treaties with Panama that ensured we'd return the CZ to them.
 

Xen

Banned
I wonder what would happen if the US annexed the Canal Zone and made it a US state.

We've got Alaska and Hawaii, which are well away from the US mainland, and they're states. The CZ had a lot of Americans living there, although I don't know if it would be enough for full-blown statehood.

The POD would have to be before the treaties with Panama that ensured we'd return the CZ to them.

Probably the best thing to do is have the US annex Panama outright from Colombia. The population was only a couple million at the time, if that, with the right incentives the population of US born patriots could dwarf the native Panama population within 20 years.

The only other way for this to work is have the US agree to divide the country into Southern Panama, while northern Panama becomes its own state (Darien).
 
It would be a state in a less stable part of the world which would be interesting in itself. And imagine during the war on drugs...
 
This would make Panama the place for Latin Americans to go, sorta like how the Hispanic population of America in the Southern US from Texas to California.

Notably, if the economic status of the countries around doesn't change, Panama would be a very propserous place, both from the Canal's traffic and tourism. Next door Costa Rica would benefit, too. Colombia might as well, as Colombia and Venezuela now have an easy way to get oil to the US.
 
Probably the best thing to do is have the US annex Panama outright from Colombia. The population was only a couple million at the time, if that, with the right incentives the population of US born patriots could dwarf the native Panama population within 20 years.

The only other way for this to work is have the US agree to divide the country into Southern Panama, while northern Panama becomes its own state (Darien).

Wait... Isn't Darien south of the Canal (well, east, anyway...)?
 

Susano

Banned
Well, theoretically 60k people are necessary to form a state, wasnt it? Though even Wyoming has over 500k these days. I dont think there were that many people in the Zone ever. So at best it would become a proper territory.
 

Xen

Banned
Wait... Isn't Darien south of the Canal (well, east, anyway...)?

It is. That was my mistake, I was thinking it was in the northwest. The northern state could be called Colon instead of Darien, but I believe you need to split Panama in half in order for the US to keep the Canal without pissing off alot of Panamanian's
 
Imagine the illegal immigration...

This would make Panama the place for Latin Americans to go, sorta like how the Hispanic population of America in the Southern US from Texas to California.

Notably, if the economic status of the countries around doesn't change, Panama would be a very propserous place, both from the Canal's traffic and tourism. Next door Costa Rica would benefit, too. Colombia might as well, as Colombia and Venezuela now have an easy way to get oil to the US.

Well it if simply remains a territory, then one solution could be that the Canal Zone remains outside of the US Customs Zone and remains a separate customs area. Puerto Rico is the only US territory in the US Customs Zone and earlier this century, while it wasn't required for persons to have US passports to travel to other territories (e.g. USVI), a passport or some proof of citizenship was required to re-enter the US mainland/US Customs Zone. I think at one point other US territories could actually have different entry requirements (in terms of visas) than the US mainland (not 100% sure on that though). Something similar could happen with the Canal Zone territory whereby it remains a separate customs area and so any illegals would basically get stuck in the territory and have no way to get to the US mainland. That might make the Canal Zone unattractive as a destination for illegal migrants.
 
Ouch, would it make sense if the CZ had as much say in the US Senate as California and New York?

giving the Canal Zone two seats in the Senate wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, but from the standpoint of the early-to-mid 20th century, the US annexing Panama and making it a state would make more sense. Alaska and Hawaii are non-contiguous states, so why not Panama?
 
giving the Canal Zone two seats in the Senate wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, but from the standpoint of the early-to-mid 20th century, the US annexing Panama and making it a state would make more sense. Alaska and Hawaii are non-contiguous states, so why not Panama?

But the Senate was never meant to be representative of the populations, only the states as individual entities.
 
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