Leitura Partilhada
segunda-feira, maio 31, 2004
Canal do Panamá
Mas o facto de Albertine ter jantado no Palácio do membro do Conselho Geral do banco com esta ou aquela senhora, e de essa senhora a ter até convidado para o próximo Inverno, não deixava de, para a mãe de Andrée, atribuir à rapariga uma espécie de consideração especial que se casava muito bem com a piedade e até com o desprezo que o seu infortúnio despertava, desprezo esse aumentado pelo facto de o senhor Bontemps ter traído a sua bandeira e - ao que se dizia, mostrando-se até vagamente panamista – se tivesse aliado ao Governo. (pag. 519)
- Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique incorporated under French law, 1881
- Declared bankrupt and dissolved, 1889
- Assets and property vested in Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, 1894
- Compagnie Nouvelle purchased by the United States, 1904
(http://www.archives.gov/research_room/federal_records_guide/panama_canal_rg185.html#185.3)
On 1881, driven by patriotic fervor and capitalized by over 100,000 mostly small investors, the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique began work on a canal that would cross the Colombian isthmus of Panama and unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, led the project.
Europeans had dreamed of a Central American canal as early as the 16th century. To sail from Atlantic to Pacific, ships navigated around Cape Horn, the treacherous southern extremity of South America. A New York to San Francisco journey measured some 13,000 miles and took months. A canal across Panama would save incalculable miles and man-hours. It would also, Ferdinand de Lesseps believed, make its stockholders rich, just as the Suez had done for its investors.
De Lesseps had disregarded the warnings of men who knew Panama intimately. Now his crew discovered the real Panama-mile upon mile of impassable jungle, day upon day of torrential rain, insects, snakes, swamps, hellish heat, smallpox, malaria, yellow fever and the Chagres River (ignoring the warnings of engineers who deemed the task impossible, de Lesseps decided to dam and divert the river, which he had only seen at low ebb. In the rainy season, the Chagres rose to a monstrous, churning torrent that swept away anything that stood in its way).
Year after year, the digging and the dying continued. French investors grumbled at the lack of progress. "Is M. de Lesseps a Canal Digger or a Grave Digger?"
When the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique failed in December,1888, thousands of French investors lost their money. The word Panama quickly became synonymous with scandal and fraud. About $287,000,000 had been spent. 50,000,000 cubic meters of earth and rock had been moved. 11 miles of canal had been dug. 20,000 men had died. The canal remained unfinished.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tr/panama.html)
(Bond certificate issued by "L'Achevenete du Canal de Panama" for 500 Francs in 1892.)
Em 1885, e devido a enormes problemas, o plano inicial de um canal ao nível do mar foi alterado de modo a incluir uma comporta. Após quatro anos a companhia não conseguia pagar aos seus credores e faliu. Lesseps e os principais colaboradores, onde se incluía um filho seu, foram levados em 1893 a tribunal e condenados.
Uma nova companhia, a Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, foi criada em 1894 pelos franceses para tentar acabar o canal, mas também não teve sucesso. Restava agora encontrar um comprador já que a concessão dos terrenos só terminava em 1903.
(http://www.edinfor.pt/anc/anccanalpanama.html)
J.M.
- Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique incorporated under French law, 1881
- Declared bankrupt and dissolved, 1889
- Assets and property vested in Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, 1894
- Compagnie Nouvelle purchased by the United States, 1904
(http://www.archives.gov/research_room/federal_records_guide/panama_canal_rg185.html#185.3)
On 1881, driven by patriotic fervor and capitalized by over 100,000 mostly small investors, the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique began work on a canal that would cross the Colombian isthmus of Panama and unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, led the project.
Europeans had dreamed of a Central American canal as early as the 16th century. To sail from Atlantic to Pacific, ships navigated around Cape Horn, the treacherous southern extremity of South America. A New York to San Francisco journey measured some 13,000 miles and took months. A canal across Panama would save incalculable miles and man-hours. It would also, Ferdinand de Lesseps believed, make its stockholders rich, just as the Suez had done for its investors.
De Lesseps had disregarded the warnings of men who knew Panama intimately. Now his crew discovered the real Panama-mile upon mile of impassable jungle, day upon day of torrential rain, insects, snakes, swamps, hellish heat, smallpox, malaria, yellow fever and the Chagres River (ignoring the warnings of engineers who deemed the task impossible, de Lesseps decided to dam and divert the river, which he had only seen at low ebb. In the rainy season, the Chagres rose to a monstrous, churning torrent that swept away anything that stood in its way).
Year after year, the digging and the dying continued. French investors grumbled at the lack of progress. "Is M. de Lesseps a Canal Digger or a Grave Digger?"
When the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique failed in December,1888, thousands of French investors lost their money. The word Panama quickly became synonymous with scandal and fraud. About $287,000,000 had been spent. 50,000,000 cubic meters of earth and rock had been moved. 11 miles of canal had been dug. 20,000 men had died. The canal remained unfinished.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tr/panama.html)
(Bond certificate issued by "L'Achevenete du Canal de Panama" for 500 Francs in 1892.)
Em 1885, e devido a enormes problemas, o plano inicial de um canal ao nível do mar foi alterado de modo a incluir uma comporta. Após quatro anos a companhia não conseguia pagar aos seus credores e faliu. Lesseps e os principais colaboradores, onde se incluía um filho seu, foram levados em 1893 a tribunal e condenados.
Uma nova companhia, a Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, foi criada em 1894 pelos franceses para tentar acabar o canal, mas também não teve sucesso. Restava agora encontrar um comprador já que a concessão dos terrenos só terminava em 1903.
(http://www.edinfor.pt/anc/anccanalpanama.html)
J.M.
