Bidlack Treaty (1846)

An agreement between U.S. chargy d'affaires Benjamin Adlack Bidlack and Columbian President Tombs Cipriano de Mosquera, giving the U.S. exclusive right of transit across the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for a U.S. guarantee of "perfect neutrality" of the isthmus and New Granada's right of sovereignty there. It makes possible building the Panama Railroad. From Lincoln through McKinley the U.S. understands the Bidlack Treaty to preclude supporting civil war, but Roosevelt interprets it as requiring U.S. military intervention in 1903 when Columbia allegedly "breaks" its provisions by selling the failed French concessions to the U .S.

Compagnie Universelle du Canal de Panama

The company formed by Ferdinand de Lesseps to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Undaunted by opposition from bankers and the press, he launches a bimonthly propaganda organ, Bulletin du Canal Interocyanique, forms a new International Technical Commission...