Panama Canal
Books
- The Canal That Broke a Nation: The French Panama Company, 1879–1893 The French Panama Company, 1879–1893 · Liszt Think
Ferdinand de Lesseps conquered the Suez, but the Panamanian jungle consumed his ambition.
- A Republic Divided by a Canal…bled. The vote on 29 May 1879 confirmed what the structure of the proceedings had ensured. The congress voted in favor of the creation of a Panama Canal, which was to be without locks, like the Suez Canal. The vote was not unanimous. A minority of delegates supported the lock canal or expres…
- The Lottery Loan That Bought Time…leveraged the myth of the Suez Canal, completed in 1869, and the hero-cult that had formed around Lesseps as its builder. It presented the Panama Canal as a national endeavor on the verge of a breakthrough. Eiffel’s involvement was cited as evidence that the engineering had turned a corner.…
- The Trial That Reached the Chamber…eight hundred million francs in lost capital and several thousand dead workers. The failure of the project is sometimes referred to as the Panama Canal Scandal, after rumors circulated that French politicians and journalists had received bribes. The Republic that absorbed this transfer was…