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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Theodore Roosevelt state in his first message to Congress is the reason the U.S. must construct a canal in Central America for?
(a) It is key to U.S. naval supremacy.
(b) For humanitarian reasons.
(c) To rival Suez.
(d) For commercial purposes.

2. Which investigative group of the Panama Affair holds 63 sessions, receives 158 depositions, complies over 1,000 dossiers, but issues a report that embarrasses no colleagues?
(a) Committee of Thirty-Three.
(b) De Lesseps Investigative Committee.
(c) Panama Investigative Committee.
(d) Compagnie Universelle Investigatie Committee.

3. When is the sanitation problem remedied at Colon when the town burns to the ground?
(a) March 30, 1885.
(b) April 1, 1885.
(c) March 29, 1885.
(d) March 31, 1885.

4. What results from the six-month expedition led by Lieutenant Lucien Napoleon-Bonaparte Wyse that leaves France in early November of 1876?
(a) All had malaria, three died, and he calls for a nine-mile tunnel.
(b) All had yellow fever, one died, and two remained to pan for gold in the Bogotá River.
(c) All had heat stroke, one was temporarily insane, and two died.
(d) All had cholera, six died in the jungle, and two died on the return trip at sea.

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

6. Phillippe Banau-Varilla's Cincinnati civic speech of building a shorter, cheaper alternate to Nicaragua, glosses over mudslides, disease, his stock holdings, and adds what new theme to the debate?
(a) Panama's lack of volcanoes.
(b) Nicaragua's recurring forest fires.
(c) Nicaragua's political uneasiness.
(d) Panama's lack of pending revolution.

7. Jaques de Reinach is the "Micros" article's inside source, but Ydouard Drumont denies testifying, unless he is pardoned for what type of conviction keeping him in prison?
(a) Libel.
(b) Burglary.
(c) Manslaughter.
(d) Theft.

8. Who offers a solution letting Ferdinand de Lesseps extract himself honorably and gain income from tolls coming in?
(a) Charles de Lesseps.
(b) H. B. Slaven.
(c) Philippe Banau-Varilla.
(d) Pierre Tirard.

9. Which steamship company, established just prior to news of the discovery of gold in California reaches the East, receives a federal subsidy to carry the mail?
(a) The Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
(b) The Atlantic-Pacific Steamship Company.
(c) The Intercontinental Steamship Company.
(d) The Union Pacific Steamship Corporation.

10. Beyond maps and plans, what is Lieutenant Lucien Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse refused access to in 1878?
(a) A forum with Vice Admiral T. J. Miller.
(b) An interview with Commandant Harold O. McDonald.
(c) A conference with Dr. Christian Francis Stephenson.
(d) A meeting with Admiral Daniel Ammen.

11. 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, Rio Obispo dam, and Pacific tidal lock and breakwater.
(b) Sea-level canal, Chagres River dam, and Gulf of Mexico tidal lock and breakwater.
(c) Sea-level canal, Rio Grande dam, and Pacific tidal lock and breakwater.
(d) Sea-level canal, Chagres River dam, and Pacific tidal lock and breakwater.

12. The United States is granted exclusive right of transit across the Isthmus of Panama upon the signing of what document with Colombia in 1846?
(a) The Panamanian Isthmus Pact.
(b) The Atlantic and Pacific Accord.
(c) The Panama Canal Charter.
(d) The Bidlack Treaty.

13. 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) All in cash.
(b) 1/4 in cash, and 3/4 in new company stock.
(c) All in new company stock.
(d) 1/2 in cash and 1/2 in new company stock.

14. 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?
(a) The relief of the terrain.
(b) The full impact of the Chagres River.
(c) The engineering complexities of a sea-level canal through Panama.
(d) The time it would take to complete a sea-level canal in Panama as it would elsewhere.

15. In what way does author David McCullough find all early 19th-century canal plans preposterous?
(a) Every survey is flawed by incorrect geographic surveys or lack of geological specimens.
(b) Every survey is flawed by failure to consider realistic astrological and geological considerations.
(c) Every survey is flawed by lack of effort to gain accurate, applicable data.
(d) Every survey is flawed by inaccurate data and bad assumptions.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. A huge dam taming the Chagres changes the slope, increasing the "cube" excavation by how much?

3. Due to continuing slides, the "total cube" of the cut steadily increases, until it appears necessary for the top of the cut to be how far wide to achieve a mathematically stable 1:4 ratio?

4. After leaving the bottom lands of Panama in late 1879, while en route to Panama City, the Ferdinand de Lesseps entourage follow what river toward the summit at Culebra?

5. "The Hero" is a reference to the esteem surrounding Ferdinand de Lesseps at what point in history?

(see the answer keys)

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