Yellow fever and disease halt the French Panama Canal effort
- When
- 1889
- Where
- Panama (construction halt and deaths); Paris, France (winding-up order)
- Episodes
- 1
France's effort to build the Panama Canal stopped in 1889 because of engineering problems, a high worker death toll, and lost investor confidence. The French undertaking went bankrupt that year after spending roughly US$287,000,000, with an estimated 22,000 deaths and the savings of 800,000 investors lost. On 4 February 1889 the Tribunal Civil de la Seine ordered the Panama Canal Company wound up in Paris.
Episodes
Background and detail
Financial Collapse. The French effort went bankrupt in 1889 after spending approximately US$287,000,000. An estimated 22,000 men died from disease and accidents, and the savings of 800,000 investors were lost. On 4 February 1889, the Tribunal Civil de la Seine ordered the winding up of the Panama Canal Company in Paris. A liquidator appointed a commission of inquiry, whose 1890 report recommended continuing the sluice canal.
People involved
- Philippe Bunau-Varilla · Engineer and driving force
- Jean Jaurès · Commissioned to conduct enquiry
Sources
- Panama Canal Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-07
- Panama scandals Wikipedia
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.