Changes

But their attempt ended after 22,000 of them died, due partly to [[yellow fever]] or dysentery. Mostly, however, it was [[malaria]] that killed the workers. It was a widely accepted fact that jungle disease was caused by a "noxious vapor" in the air. The living conditions of the men were atrociously unsanitary. The initial cost of the canal was 300 million francs.

But their attempt ended after 22,000 of them died, due partly to [[yellow fever]] or dysentery. Mostly, however, it was [[malaria]] that killed the workers. It was a widely accepted fact that jungle disease was caused by a "noxious vapor" in the air. The living conditions of the men were atrociously unsanitary. The initial cost of the canal was 300 million francs.

President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] initially attempted to negotiate with [[Colombia]], when then controlled the region, for the rights to build the canal. But he became frustrated by process and Colombia, which had just suffered through a civil war, was not keen on relinquishing this territory.  Ultimately [[Congress]] ratified the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty on February 25, 1904, by which the [[United States]] paid $10 million plus a $250,000 annuity in order to acquire a ten-mile-wide strip of land in [[Panama]] and a right to intervene in major Panama cities.

President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] initially attempted to [[negotiate]] with [[Colombia]], when then controlled the region, for the rights to build the canal. But he became frustrated by process and Colombia, which had just suffered through a civil war, was not keen on relinquishing this territory.  Ultimately [[Congress]] ratified the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty on February 25, 1904, by which the [[United States]] paid $10 million plus a $250,000 annuity in order to acquire a ten-mile-wide strip of land in [[Panama]] and a right to intervene in major Panama cities.

The contemporaneous [[Dutch]] attempt at building the canal ended quickly and calamitously.  A long narrow tract of the isthmus was purchased from the French in 1888 by the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Netherlands Antilles, Cornelis Jansen Kieft, who saw fit to run the operation remotely, via courier.  Geographical surveys were performed on the area to measure the air and barometric pressure, and a large number of windmills were built along the planned route, the intent being to drain the land, provide fresh drinking water, and enable a rudimentary kind of alternating current, a remarkable insight that foreshadowed the electrical wind-turbines that would appear decades later.[http://www.fi.uu.nl/panama/panamapost/documents/lez-pp-vers1.pdf]  While the project was initially successful, the windmill idea surviving and working to great effect in later water-projects throughout Holland, the structures would soon become safe-havens for local wildlife, notably diurnal Capuchin monkeys who sought shelter from rampant deforestation.  Attempts to dislodge the new residents were difficult and time-consuming, and most workers took to drinking from the swamps and lakes, unintentionally causing a massive malarial outbreak.[http://www.encyclo.nl/zoek.php]  When Kieft finally visited the site in November 1890, rather than seeing the [[Atlantic]] and [[Pacific]] waters gently co-mingling in a lock, he witnessed his excavations brimming with diarrhea, and Capuchins howling from his prided windmills.  Construction halted immediately, though the Dutch retained control of the tract until the entire property of the isthmus was transferred to the United States in 1902.[http://www.gammanieuwsdienst.nl/pages1/week5199/pan.htm]

The contemporaneous [[Dutch]] attempt at building the canal ended quickly and calamitously.  A long narrow tract of the isthmus was purchased from the French in 1888 by the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Netherlands Antilles, Cornelis Jansen Kieft, who saw fit to run the operation remotely, via courier.  Geographical surveys were performed on the area to measure the air and barometric pressure, and a large number of windmills were built along the planned route, the intent being to drain the land, provide fresh drinking water, and enable a rudimentary kind of alternating current, a remarkable insight that foreshadowed the electrical wind-turbines that would appear decades later.[http://www.fi.uu.nl/panama/panamapost/documents/lez-pp-vers1.pdf]  While the project was initially successful, the windmill idea surviving and working to great effect in later water-projects throughout Holland, the structures would soon become safe-havens for local wildlife, notably diurnal Capuchin monkeys who sought shelter from rampant deforestation.  Attempts to dislodge the new residents were difficult and time-consuming, and most workers took to drinking from the swamps and lakes, unintentionally causing a massive malarial outbreak.[http://www.encyclo.nl/zoek.php]  When Kieft finally visited the site in November 1890, rather than seeing the [[Atlantic]] and [[Pacific]] waters gently co-mingling in a lock, he witnessed his excavations brimming with diarrhea, and Capuchins howling from his prided windmills.  Construction halted immediately, though the Dutch retained control of the tract until the entire property of the isthmus was transferred to the United States in 1902.[http://www.gammanieuwsdienst.nl/pages1/week5199/pan.htm]