1911. Dr. Harmodio Arias, considered one of the greatest Panamanian statesmen, established his reputation at the age of 25 with the publication of The Panama Canal, which was his doctoral thesis. The skill he demonstrated in shaping this book succeeded in placing him at the highest echelons of international legal sciences as a Panamanian of vision, of the highest cultural integrity and as a man of firm convictions. The study became a definitive work of unparalleled scientific mastery which includes, moreover, presentiments of the legal, diplomatic and political vicissitudes that the Hay-Buneau Varilla treaty would later provoke.