panama canal and the spanish-american war

[27007866]

1. how did the u.s. come to build a canal in panama?

2. what actions did the u.s. take to "control" cuba and puerto rico following the spanish-american war?

[stewey]

1. digging
2. force

[sddsddean]

1 (Very very basically) Ferdinand de Lesseps and the French attempted a sea level canal in the 1880's after his success with the Suez Canal. This was privately funded and due to the whole construction project being the wrong design and the local fevers in the area which wiped out about 20% of the workforce, turned into a disaster. About 10 years later, the US decided to build the canal as a means of deploying their navy from East to West coast without having to sail round S. America. They 'rented' the canal zone from the Panamanians and built the canal with a 99 year (I think) lease on land, with the agreement to hand the canal back to the Panamanians at the end of that time (which they did). If you ever get the chance to go through it, do. It is still awe inspiring nearly 100 years on.

Loads of info here.
http://www.eclipse.co.uk/~sl5763/panama.htm

[vehelpfulguy]

It is extimnated nearly 30,000 people died during the building of the Panama Canal (both French and American projects).

Deaths were caused by land slips, maleria, and many other problems. Exact figure of deaths is hard to come by for all sorts of reasons.

More here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal

[vehelpfulguy]

As sddsddean says, the French project was badly designed as they did not want to have any locks to raise the boats up and down over the central land, but wanted to go from sea level to sea level on both sides.

This meant digging a very deep cutting that was liable to land slips that caused many deaths, When the rainy season came it also washed much of the sides of the canal away.

When the USA took over the dig much later they decided to have locks both ends to raise the boats up and down so they could sail over the central lake.

I believe the man made lake in the middle is the largest man made lake in the world.