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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Lieutenant Lucien Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse negotiates a contract with Colombian President Aquileo Parra on March 23, 1878, including what conditions?
(a) Colombia receives 3% of gross revenue for 15 years and 2% increases at 25, 50, and 75 years.
(b) Colombia is guaranteed varying percentages of the gross revenue for initial 150 years.
(c) One million francs down, surveys in two years, canal company in 3 years, and construction complete 15 years after that.
(d) 750,000 francs down, surveys in three years, canal company in five years, and building within 12 years after that.

2. Who rebuilds Colon after it goes up in flames, killing 18 and leaving some 8,000 homeless?
(a) "Seabees" (construction battalions of the Civil Engineer Corps of the U.S. Navy).
(b) French engineer officials.
(c) Railroad officials.
(d) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

3. A. G. Menocal tells the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique he had been in Panama in 1875 planning a sea-level canal, but abandoned that idea when he grasped what?
(a) The relief of the terrain.
(b) The full impact of the Chagres River.
(c) The engineering complexities of a sea-level canal through Panama.
(d) The time it would take to complete a sea-level canal in Panama as it would elsewhere.

4. On March 10, 1902, the Morgan Committee reports out the Hepburn Bill favorably, recommending what?
(a) 7-4 a Nicaragua canal.
(b) 6-5 a Panama canal.
(c) 10-1 a Nicaragua canal.
(d) 9-2 a Panama canal.

5. Lieutenants Lucien Napoleon-Bonaparte Wyse and Armand Reclus plan a sea-level canal for Central America between Wyse's 1878 and 1879 visits to Washington, while Ferdinand de Lesseps does what?
(a) Accompanies Wyse to Washington and New York in early 1879.
(b) Returns to the Suez Canal after ten years to examine it for stability and engineering techniques.
(c) Organizes the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique.
(d) Sails for the Isthmus of Panama.

6. The Chamber of Deputies is lobbied by stockholders to grant a Suez-style lottery bond issue proposed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, and he announces what?
(a) He will accompany noted engineer, Armand Rousseau, to independently inspect.
(b) He will inspect Panama personally.
(c) A new director general will accompany noted engineer, Armand Rousseau, to independently inspect.
(d) He will send noted engineer, Armand Rousseau, to independently inspect.

7. Phillippe Banau-Varilla goes to the "Lion's Cage," the home of John T. Morgan, and it almost comes to blows when Morgan terms Panama as what?
(a) A "rotten project."
(b) "Panama paranoia."
(c) "The French Connection."
(d) The "endless mudslide."

8. What does Theodore Roosevelt state in his first message to Congress is the reason the U.S. must construct a canal in Central America for?
(a) To rival Suez.
(b) It is key to U.S. naval supremacy.
(c) For humanitarian reasons.
(d) For commercial purposes.

9. While dredging predominates in the lowlands, steam shovels, picks, shovels, and what else are key in the uplands?
(a) Railway cars.
(b) Horses and wagons.
(c) Dump trucks.
(d) Wheelbarrows.

10. The cream of the crop of 19th-century French engineers are trained at what two institutions (the most brilliant at the former, and only its top graduates at the latter)?
(a) Universite Polytechnique et Paris and Ycole des Ponts et Chausyes.
(b) Ycole des Ponts et Chausyes and Ycole Polytechnique.
(c) Ycole Polytechnique and Ycole des Ponts et Chausyes.
(d) Ycole des Ponts et Paris and Ycole Polytechnic et Chausyes.

11. When, on March 29, 1885, Haitian-born, xenophobic Pedro Prestan and a handful of barefoot followers take six U.S. hostages and demand guns, an American consul orders compliance; what happens next?
(a) Cmdr. George Burt moves the gunboat Shenandoah and takes control.
(b) Cmdr. William Connor moves the gunboat Tennessee and takes control.
(c) Cmdr. Joseph L. Dow moves the gunboat Wachusett and takes control.
(d) Cmdr. Theodore F. Kane moves the gunboat Galena and takes control.

12. A huge dam taming the Chagres changes the slope, increasing the "cube" excavation by how much?
(a) 60%.
(b) 100%.
(c) 75%.
(d) 30%.

13. For what purpose does Navy Secretary George M. Robeson direct Commander Thomas O. Selfridge to the Isthmus of Darien at Caledonia Bay, some 150 miles to the east of the Panama Canal Railroad on January 10, 1870?
(a) To gather geological and botanical specimens, report on the natives and climate, and to take astrological observations.
(b) To gather geological and botanical specimens, report on the naratives and climate, and to take astronomical observations.
(c) To gather geological and botanical specimens, report on the natives and climate, and to take astronomical observations.
(d) To gather germanic and botswanic specimens, report on the natives and climate, and to take astronomical observations.

14. What 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique delegation drew attention by the maps and plans they brought that had never been seen in Europe before?
(a) The Hawaiians.
(b) The Nicaraguans.
(c) The Americans.
(d) The Colombians.

15. Sea supremacy has always been key to national and commercial greatness, and Theodore Roosevelt publishes The Naval War of 1812 while?
(a) A graduate student.
(b) An undergraduate student.
(c) A high school student.
(d) President.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who ensures the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique opens in May, the best time to be in Paris, has final say as to the agenda, rules, committee make-up, and entertainment?

2. What firm tows its first massive, steam-powered dredges to Colon in April of 1883?

3. An initial stock offering after the1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique goes poorly, so Ferdinand de Lesseps gives back investors' funds, has another issue offered, and declares what?

4. Lieutenant Lucien Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse sails back to New York in early 1879 to buy the Panama Railroad Company, but its president is the major stockholder with the leverage to demand what price?

5. Three weeks following the arrival of news of the Colon fire in Paris, Ferdinand de Lesseps achieves the ultimate honor, induction where?

(see the answer keys)

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