Editing Panama Canal (section)

===French construction attempts, 1881–1899===
[[File:Ferdinand de Lesseps by Nadar.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Ferdinand de Lesseps]], the French originator of the [[Suez Canal]] and the Panama Canal]]

The French diplomat and entrepreneur [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]] was the driving force behind French attempts to construct the Panama canal (1881–1889). De Lesseps had made his reputation by successfully constructing the [[Suez Canal]] (1859–1869), a route which had soon proved its value in international commerce.{{sfn |McCullough|1977|pp=49–55, 57}} After this success, he actively sought new projects. In 1875, de Lesseps was approached by the ''Societe Civile Internationale du Canal Interoceanique de Darien'' (also known as the "Türr Syndicate"), a syndicate formed to promote the building of an interoceanic canal across [[Panama]]. Its directors were Hungarian freedom fighter [[István Türr]], financier [[Jacques de Reinach]] and Türr's brother-in-law Lt [[Lucien Bonaparte-Wyse]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CSQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA252|title=Popular Science|first=Bonnier|last=Corporation|date=5 July 1902|publisher=Bonnier Corporation|via=Google Books}}</ref>{{sfn|McCullough|1977|pp=60–61}} Between 1876 and 1878, Bonaparte-Wyse and [[Armand Reclus]] investigated several potential routes across the Isthmus of Panama. Bonaparte-Wyse rode by horseback to [[Bogotá]], where he obtained a concession from the Colombian government to build a canal across Panama (20 March 1878). The agreement, known as the "Wyse Concession" was valid 99 years and allowed the company to dig a canal and exploit it.{{sfn|McCullough|1977|pp=61–63}}

[[File:Panama-Canal 1880.JPG|thumb|right|Part de Fondateur of the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama, issued 29 November 1880]] In May 1879, de Lesseps convened an international congress in Paris to examine the possibilities of a ship canal across Central America. Among the 136 delegates of 26 countries, only 42 were engineers, with the remainder being speculators, politicians, and friends of de Lesseps. De Lesseps used the congress to promote fundraising for his preferred scheme, which was to build a sea-level canal across Panama, along similar lines to Suez. De Lesseps was able to gain approval of a majority of the delegates for his plan, despite reservations expressed by some who preferred a canal in Nicaragua or who emphasized the likely engineering difficulties and health risks. Following the congress, de Lesseps organized a company to construct the canal (the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama). The company bought the Wyse Concession from the Türr Syndicate, and was able to raise considerable funds from small [[French Third Republic|French]] investors, on the basis of the huge profits generated by the [[Suez Canal]].{{sfn|McCullough|1977 |p=125}}

Construction of the canal began on 1 January 1881, with digging at [[Culebra Cut|Culebra]] beginning on 22 January.<ref name=earthinfo2>[http://www.cet.edu/earthinfo/camerica/panama/PCtopic2.html ''Pre-Canal History''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219092527/http://www.cet.edu/earthinfo/camerica/panama/PCtopic2.html |date=19 December 2007 }}, from Global Perspectives</ref> A large labor force was assembled, numbering about 40,000 in 1888 (nine-tenths of whom were [[French Caribbean|afro-Caribbean]] workers from the [[West Indies]]). Although the project attracted good, well-paid French engineers, retaining them was difficult due to disease. The death toll from 1881 to 1889 was estimated at over 22,000, of whom as many as 5,000 were French citizens.{{sfn|McCullough|1977|pp=131–180}}

[[File:1886 bas obispo.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Excavator at work in Bas Obispo, 1886]] From the beginning, the French canal project faced difficulties. Although the Panama Canal needed to be only 40 percent as long as the Suez Canal, it was much more of an engineering challenge because of the combination of tropical rain forests, debilitating climate, the need for canal locks, and the lack of any ancient route to follow. Beginning with [[Armand Reclus]] in 1882, a series of principal engineers resigned in discouragement. The workers were unprepared for the conditions of the rainy season, during which the [[Chagres River]], where the canal started, became a raging torrent, rising up to {{cvt|10|m|ft}}. Workers had to continually widen the main cut through the mountain at Culebra and reduce the angles of the slopes to minimize landslides into the canal.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rocco |first=Fiammetta |title=The Miraculous Fever-Tree |year=2003 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=0-00-653235-7 |page=192 }}</ref> The dense jungle was alive with venomous snakes, insects, and spiders, but the worst challenges were [[yellow fever]], [[malaria]], and other tropical diseases, which killed thousands of workers; by 1884, the death rate was over 200 per month.{{sfn|Cadbury|2003|pages=201–204}} Public health measures were ineffective because the role of the mosquito as a [[Vector (epidemiology)|disease vector]] was then unknown. Conditions were downplayed in France to avoid recruitment problems, but the high mortality rate made it difficult to maintain an experienced workforce.

In France, de Lesseps kept the investment and supply of workers flowing long after it was obvious that the targets were not being met, but eventually, the money ran out. The French effort went bankrupt in 1889 after reportedly spending US$287,000,000 {{USDCY|287000000|1889}}; an estimated 22,000 men died from disease and accidents, and the savings of 800,000 investors were lost.<ref name="French">{{Cite book |chapter-url=http://www.czbrats.com/Builders/FRCanal/failure.htm |chapter=The French Failure |title=America's Triumph in Panama |first=Ralph E. |last=Avery |publisher=L.W. Walter Company |location=Chicago, IL |year=1913 |access-date=10 January 2022 |archive-date=28 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728050134/http://www.czbrats.com/Builders/FRCanal/failure.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Cadbury|2003|p=262}} Work was suspended on 15 May, and in the ensuing scandal, known as the [[Panama scandals|Panama affair]], some of those deemed responsible were prosecuted, including [[Gustave Eiffel]].{{sfn |McCullough |1977 |p=224}} De Lesseps and his son Charles were found guilty of misappropriation of funds and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. This sentence was later overturned, and the father, at age 88, was never imprisoned.<ref name="French" />

In 1894, a second French company, the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, was created to take over the project. A minimal workforce of a few thousand people was employed primarily to comply with the terms of the Colombian Panama Canal concession, to run the [[Panama Railroad]], and to maintain the existing excavation and equipment in salable condition. The company sought a buyer for these assets, with an asking price of US$109,000,000 {{USDCY|109000000|1894}}. In the meantime, they continued with enough activity to maintain their franchise. Two lobbyists would become particularly active in later negotiations to sell the interests of the Compagnie Nouvelle. The American lawyer [[William Nelson Cromwell]] began looking after the interests of the company in 1894, after first acting for the related [[Panama Railroad]]. He would become deeply involved as a lobbyist in the American decisions to continue the canal in Panama, and to support Panamanian independence.{{sfn|McCullough|1977|pp=272–276}} The other was [[Philippe Bunau-Varilla]], who, as one of the major subcontractors to the first French company, had been compelled by the receivers to take shares in the Compagnie Nouvelle, and was then named director of engineering in the Compagnie Nouvelle.{{sfn|McCullough|1977|pp=276–282}}