USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -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. In spite of such setbacks, American interest in a canal continued unabated.

Detailed explanation-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.

Detailed explanation-3: -Beset by cost overruns due to the severe underestimation of the difficulties in excavating the rugged terrain, heavy personnel losses to tropical diseases, and political corruption in France surrounding the financing of the massive project, the canal was only partly completed.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1903, the United States supported a bloodless revolution in the Colombian province of Panama after the Colombian government rejected a U.S. treaty to acquire land in Panama to build the canal.

Detailed explanation-5: -Two efforts to build the canal were made: the French effort by Ferdinand de Lesseps. Unfortunately, this attempt failed. The U.S. followed with the engineer John Findley Wallace from 1904 to 1905. He was followed by John Frank Stevens, who led the construction from 1905 to 1907.