Panama Canal Essay -- American History

In 1885, due to the tremendous problems encountered in trying to excavate a sea-level canal, the plan was changed to include a single, temporary lock and other adjustments in order to speed up the availability of the canal for traffic. Still, it was of no use : in 1889, Lesseps' company was liquidated in order to pay back investors and banks from which the company had borrowed. The appraisal of the company's belongings - including equipment, maps, and the value of the land already excavated - was very high, and in 1894, a new company, the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, was created in France to attempt to finish the canal. All involved thought of this as an impossible feat by the French, and ideas ran strong to sell the canal zone - possibly to the United States. France resented the loss of millions of francs (the estimated cost of the company's pursuit of the canal, including publicity and possibly a little bribery, is almost 1.5 billion francs), and subsequent trials of the heads of Lesseps' company, including Lesseps himself, began in 1893. Lesseps was condemned by the court, but never fined nor jailed. Charles de Lesseps, Ferdinand's son, and others were eventually charged with bribery, only one being sent to prison. Charles was forced to pay the fine of another defendant, but could not raise the money so fled to London until his government accepted a partial payment, nearly 5 years later. France had determined that she could not possibly complete the canal. With a lease on land in Colombia until 1903, the search was on for a buyer. Eventually, France found a friend in the United States of America. At the time, a canal in the Latin American isthmus was not a new idea to America, either. In 1887, the government sent ... ...he Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty - which was ratified by the new Panamanian Government in 1903, and by the American Senate in early 1904. Before any work could begin, the most deadly of the problems on the isthmus had to be overcome - disease. The government wasn't going to allow mortality rates like had been seen during the French reign - somewhere between ten and twenty thousand were estimated to have died at the canal zone between 1882 and 1888. For this purpose, American doctor William Gorgas was called to examine the area. The most troublesome diseases were the mosquito-carried malaria and yellow fever - the same diseases that had kept Napoleon Bonaparte from putting down the uprising in Hati in 1801 - but almost all diseases known to man were endemic. Tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, smallpox, bubonic plague - all were cases on file at Panama hospitals in 1904. Panama Canal Essay -- American History In 1885, due to the tremendous problems encountered in trying to excavate a sea-level canal, the plan was changed to include a single, temporary lock and other adjustments in order to speed up the availability of the canal for traffic. Still, it was of no use : in 1889, Lesseps' company was liquidated in order to pay back investors and banks from which the company had borrowed. The appraisal of the company's belongings - including equipment, maps, and the value of the land already excavated - was very high, and in 1894, a new company, the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, was created in France to attempt to finish the canal. All involved thought of this as an impossible feat by the French, and ideas ran strong to sell the canal zone - possibly to the United States. France resented the loss of millions of francs (the estimated cost of the company's pursuit of the canal, including publicity and possibly a little bribery, is almost 1.5 billion francs), and subsequent trials of the heads of Lesseps' company, including Lesseps himself, began in 1893. Lesseps was condemned by the court, but never fined nor jailed. Charles de Lesseps, Ferdinand's son, and others were eventually charged with bribery, only one being sent to prison. Charles was forced to pay the fine of another defendant, but could not raise the money so fled to London until his government accepted a partial payment, nearly 5 years later. France had determined that she could not possibly complete the canal. With a lease on land in Colombia until 1903, the search was on for a buyer. Eventually, France found a friend in the United States of America. At the time, a canal in the Latin American isthmus was not a new idea to America, either. In 1887, the government sent ... ...he Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty - which was ratified by the new Panamanian Government in 1903, and by the American Senate in early 1904. Before any work could begin, the most deadly of the problems on the isthmus had to be overcome - disease. The government wasn't going to allow mortality rates like had been seen during the French reign - somewhere between ten and twenty thousand were estimated to have died at the canal zone between 1882 and 1888. For this purpose, American doctor William Gorgas was called to examine the area. The most troublesome diseases were the mosquito-carried malaria and yellow fever - the same diseases that had kept Napoleon Bonaparte from putting down the uprising in Hati in 1801 - but almost all diseases known to man were endemic. Tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, smallpox, bubonic plague - all were cases on file at Panama hospitals in 1904.