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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Book 1, Chapter 6.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Which delegate, so eager not to miss the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique opening remarks, leaves his bags behind and has to purchase appropriate attire and call a barber in?
(a) Colombian delegate Pedro Sosa.
(b) British delegate Sir John Stokes.
(c) Mexican delegate Francisco de Garay.
(d) Dutch delegate Jacob Dirks.

3. After forming his private investment syndicate, Ferdinand de Lesseps next obtains the Wyse Concession when he purchases the Turr Syndicate for $2 million to be paid how?
(a) 1/4 in cash, and 3/4 in new company stock.
(b) All in cash.
(c) All in new company stock.
(d) 1/2 in cash and 1/2 in new company stock.

4. "The Incredible Task" is the subtitle for Chapter 5 which chronicles the initial years of the Compagnie Universelle, marked by what?
(a) Cautious hopes, honest promotion, real but costly progress, and massive logistical and natural challenges.
(b) Soaring hopes, misleading propaganda, minimal but economical progress, and reasonable logistical and natural challenges.
(c) Soaring hopes, misleading propaganda, real but costly progress, and massive logistical and natural challenges.
(d) Low hopes, misleading propaganda, minimal and costly progress, and massive logistical and natural challenges.

5. 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. Theodore F. Kane moves the gunboat Galena and takes control.
(c) Cmdr. William Connor moves the gunboat Tennessee and takes control.
(d) Cmdr. Joseph L. Dow moves the gunboat Wachusett and takes control.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. Which delegate to the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique in Paris takes into consideration the deadly climate of Panama?

3. The results of Commander Selfridge's initial orders for exploration in Central America in 1870, together with those of an additional six expeditions, were to be submitted for appraisal to which agency?

4. Based on various exploratory expeditions through 1875, at least how many points in Central America are determined to be sufficiently narrow to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans?

5. 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?

(see the answer key)

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