Question

How would the Suez and Panama Canal lead to power and wealth?

Answer 1

The Suez and Panama canals are two of the most important canals in the world. They are crucial for the trade and travel through the sea, as they cut the sea routes by thousands of kilometers, which makes it much more easy and cheaper to use them. The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean, thus avoiding to circle around Africa, while the Panama Canal connects the Atlantic and the Pacific, thus avoiding to circle around South America. The one that controls these canals will manage to always get very large wealth because everyone will opt to use them as it much easier, cheaper, safer, and quicker, but in order to use it, everyone needs to pay certain tax. Those taxes are bringing in constant profit from doing pretty much nothing for the countries that control these canals. Also, it brings in a lot of power, as they can block the access of any country to it if they want, thus giving them big power on the global economic scene.