the panama canal gave the united states a strategic and commercial advantage in the western hemisphere

Question

World war 1 

Answer 1

   The Panama Canal allowed the U.S. to have a true 'two-ocean' navy. It greatly decreased the time that U.S. naval forces could transit between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, thus giving greater strategic mobility to face either European or Asian threats to its interests. In WWI, this was initially important because of the presence of German naval commerce raiders in 1914 off the Pacific coast of South America. But the main task of the U.S. Navy during WWI was Atlantic convoy protection. With the Canal, no other naval power could match the U.S. capability for massing warships in the Western Hemisphere. This was certainly important given German moves in the Caribbean during the early 1900's.

   I will leave it to others the address the favorable commercial aspects of the Canal for the U.S.