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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. As the U.S. establishes a naval base at Cuba, annexes Hawaii, and acquires Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, the canal Theodore Roosevelt has been advocating becomes what?

2. French engineers at Panama look on American colleagues as merely adroit at improvisation, but find making do with what is available under pressure difficult and that Suez was too easy, as warned by whom?

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

4. 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?

5. "The Incredible Task" is the subtitle for Chapter 5 which chronicles the initial years of the Compagnie Universelle, marked by what?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the professional path for potential French civil engineers in the 19th-century?

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

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

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

6. What are the two routes U.S. proponents of a Central American canal fight for?

7. What are the reasons Admiral Ammen opposes the official U.S. plan?

8. In Chapter 1 of his book, David McCullough views a number of expeditions that were made in Central America in the early 19th-century looking for the ideal route, but what did he find as common to every canal proposal?

9. Briefly, who is Edouard Drumont?

10. As the Morgan Committee rejects the recommendations of the Walker Commission, what are the rumors that are circulating around Washington?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

David McCullough reports that the second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty is the most important of Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. Why does Roosevelt disapprove of the initial treaty? How does he demonstrate his objections? Why does Roosevelt state he is "delighted" by the November 18, 1901 signing of the revised treaty?

Essay Topic 2

The last chief engineer is George Washington Goethals. He is a model officer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Does he operate under a military regime approach? Does he use the methods of either John Stevens or John Wallace? What are some of the techniques he utilized to achieve success with the project itself? What approaches did he take for success with those on his payroll?

Essay Topic 3

Chapter 3 shows that only Ferdinand de Lesseps's preconceived opinions and views matter at the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique in Paris. Why does de Lesseps not hold a legitimate meeting? Would it still not have come down to Panama or Nicaragua, as it did in the debates years later in Walker vs. Morgan? He is definitely a "take charge" type, but why does he continuously shrug off critical facts presented to him? Why does his success not carry over to Panama?

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