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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. Ferdinand de Lesseps resells lottery bonds on Nov. 15, 1887, and says Gustave Eiffel will build two huge lock flights, gates, and apparatus to lift ships over the Chagres at flood stage that are what?

2. Completed after ten years of construction in 1869, what is the significant engineering feat that shortens the trek from Europe to India by some 5,800 miles around the Horn of Africa?

3. Who offers a solution letting Ferdinand de Lesseps extract himself honorably and gain income from tolls coming in?

4. 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?

5. What are the three main routes from the East to the West coasts of the U.S. in January of 1848, when gold is discovered in California?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is it that Ferdinand de Lesseps takes on doing the Suez Canal?

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

3. What is the subtitle for Chapter 3, "Consensus of One," a reference to?

4. As hard as they work, what are some of the problems the French engineers encounter?

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

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

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

8. Briefly, who is Edouard Drumont?

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

10. What do Ferdinand de Lesseps and his companions find in Panama City?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sentiment as to where to put an American canal is overwhelmingly one-sided favoring Nicaragua, until Phillippe Banau-Varilla and William Nelson Cromwell emerge on behalf of the "Panama Lobby." Comparing and contrasting the two, how are they similar and how are they different? Do they work well together, or function better separately? Who is the most effective in getting things accomplished? Do they work in a straightforward fashion toward legitimately achieving their goals or not? What is the approach each takes toward accomplishing a task?

Essay Topic 2

In 1884, at age 26, Phillippe Banau-Varilla is put in charge of operations at the Culebra and Pacific end of the Panama Canal. When the director general and his assistant resign, Banau-Varilla becomes acting head of the Panama project until 1886. Why do they place so young an individual in such important leadership positions? What education and experience does he have? How well is he able to perform? What happens when a permanent director general arrives? Where does Banau-Varilla go?

Essay Topic 3

When the seven-headed ICC is replaced with a three-member version, it is chaired by Theodore Perry Shonts. How effective is the ICC's new chairman? What actions does he take to ensure success? Does he abide by the rules? What successes does he achieve? What failures does he encounter?

(see the answer keys)

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