USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM

[SOURCES]
Why did the French have a hard time building the canal?

(A) ** Malaria and Yellow Fever

(B) Ebola and the Black Death

(C) Pride and Prejudice

(D) Sickness and Sadness

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -“There is too much water, the rocks are exceedingly hard, the soil is very hilly and the climate is deadly. The country is literally poisoned, ” complained senior French engineer Adolphe Godin de Lépinay. Outbreaks of dysentery and epidemics of yellow fever and malaria decimated the workforce.

Concept note-2: -The dangerous, difficult work and insurmountable financial problems ultimately doomed the French effort to build a sea-level canal and the investors were financially devastated when the company liquidated in 1889. Workers lost even more with an estimated 20, 000 dead.

Concept note-3: -The deadly endemic diseases of yellow fever and malaria were dangerous obstacles that had already defeated French efforts to construct a Panama Canal in the 1880s. The crippling effects of these diseases, which incapacitated many workers and caused at least 20, 000 to die, led the French to abandon their goal in 1889.

Concept note-4: -Led by Ferdinand de Lesseps-the builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt-the French began excavating in 1880. Malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical diseases conspired against the de Lesseps campaign and after 9 years and a loss of approximately 20, 000 lives, the French attempt went bankrupt.

Concept note-5: -The control of malaria was vital for the construction of the Panama Canal. The discovery by Major Ronald Ross that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes had tremendous impact on development programs in the tropics.