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

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. Both Napoleonic types, Philippe Banau-Varilla and William Nelson Cromwell are the "Panama Lobby" spokesmen, the latter a corporate lawyer with a mystery reputation who pulls strings, what is his motto?

4. Gustave Eiffel eventually is able to clear his name, but what does he do afterward?

5. While dredging predominates in the lowlands, steam shovels, picks, shovels, and what else are key in the uplands?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Ferdinand de Lesseps accomplish between the 1879 Congris International d'Ytudes du Canal Interocyanique in Paris and sailing for Panama in December that year?

3. What are the essential elements, pros and cons, to A.G. Menocal's canal proposal?

4. In mid-November 1887, what sort of new locks does Ferdinand de Lesseps state Alexandre Gustava Eiffel will be designing and building?

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

6. Why is it yellow fever causes instant panic in comparison to other tropical diseases?

7. 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?

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

9. Who is Rear Adm. John Grimes Walker?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Ferdinand de Lesseps begins publishing his "Bullet in du Canal Interocyanique" and George W. Goethals his "Canal Record. How are they alike? How do they differ? Are they merely propaganda organs, or is there some legitimacy to them? How effective is each?

Essay Topic 3

Dr. William Crawford Gorgas is the U.S. Army's foremost expert on tropical diseases when he is assigned to Panama. Where does he receive his training and his experience? From whom does he gain cooperation at Panama, and from whom does he encounter opposition? What are his biggest medical battles? What sorts of problems and why? What successes does he achieve in Panama? How long is he assigned to Panama?

(see the answer keys)

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