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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Ferdinand de Lesseps briefly speaks at the Technical Commission's initial business session on January 6, 1880, then leaves it to rubber stamp what he wants in a 300-page report calling for what?
(a) Sea-level canal, Chagres River dam, and Gulf of Mexico tidal lock and breakwater.
(b) Sea-level canal, Chagres River dam, and Pacific tidal lock and breakwater.
(c) Sea-level canal, Rio Grande dam, and Pacific tidal lock and breakwater.
(d) Sea-level canal, Rio Obispo dam, and Pacific tidal lock and breakwater.

2. Which organization is later described as representing the world's first "transcontinental" railroad?
(a) The Panama Railroad Company.
(b) The Union Pacific Railroad Company.
(c) The San Francisco-Boston Railway.
(d) The Panama Steam Line Corporation.

3. What is U.S. delegate Admiral Ammen's view of the American canal plan, given at the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique, with a 1,900 foot viaduct over the Chagres River, 12 locks at each end, and costing $94.6 million?
(a) States it requires only minor modifications.
(b) Supports the proposal wholeheartedly.
(c) Declares the whole thing impractical.
(d) Believes the cost estimate could be lowered somewhat.

4. Some mortality estimates go up to 75% among French immigrants and beds are reported to be at such a premium that the dying have been placed where?
(a) On the floor in the basement.
(b) Outside the hospital on the ground.
(c) On the railway platform to await a train to the cemetary when they die.
(d) In coffins to await their end.

5. What do closed subcommittees at the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique in Paris establish that the Nicaragua canal route is?
(a) Impractical, costing $209 million, including locks, and taking 12 years.
(b) Practical, costing $140 million, and taking six years.
(c) Impractical, unable to estimate cost, and an earthquake area.
(d) Practical, costing $140 million, and taking 12 years.

Short Answer Questions

1. On his 1879 trip to New York, Lieutenant Lucien Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse travels to Washington and sees whom?

2. Lieutenant Lucien Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse negotiates a contract with Colombian President Aquileo Parra on March 23, 1878, including what conditions?

3. Who rebuilds Colon after it goes up in flames, killing 18 and leaving some 8,000 homeless?

4. What 100+ edition, 1,000+ page book holding Jews responsible for all woes appears in 1886, and when the Compagnie Universelle fails, whose "history" of the firm is a best seller in 1890?

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the press report the situation three weeks subsequent to the fire destroying Colon?

2. How can the early years of the Companie Universele be described?

3. What does Ferdinand de Lesseps accomplish between the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique in Paris and sailing for Panama in December that year?

4. What is notable about the date of October 20, 1893?

5. What role does Chicago Times-Herald reporter Walter Wellman play in the Central American canal scenario?

6. What critical things transpire in regard to the French canal project in July 1886?

7. How is the work organized under the French?

8. What increases the impetus to build a canal, and why?

9. What is Colon like, where Ferdinant de Lesseps' entourage begins their journey in Panama?

10. Why does Ferdinand de Lesseps lose interest in the Suez Canal?

(see the answer keys)

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