France Completes Panama Canal

Assuming the thing gets done?

We'll say combatting malaria is already developed?

That Panama is already independent (say, political chaos in Colombia) OR a deal is dealt with the Colombians.

Better financing is arranged.

I KNOW there are a zillion reasons why building or paying for a French Panama Canal is Doomed. To. Fail.

I'd like to know the opinions of people wondering what effect a French Panama Canal would have on history between the opening through now.
 
A great deal depends on when exactly it gets done, at least for the Frenchies. As for the Yanks, I suspect that if France has kept the canal zone they've seriously worked at getting a concession in Nicaragua to build a canal through the lakes. They, after all, need a way to move the navy from one side of the country to the other without stealing around terra del fuego.

But could you provide a year for the French canal, just for the sake of discussion?
 
The Lesseps canal was impossible, as he wanted a sealevel canal. So, IF the original plan were for a sane canal, and IF he can get the funding, it might be possible. Malaria wasn't so much the problem (quinine worked fine then), as yellow fever.

Iirc, the mosquitoes that carried yellow fever in the area actually lived in the high canopy, and it was apparently the felling of the trees that brought them to ground level.

IF that's the case, then if phase I involves clearing the land the whole way, and maybe building a railroad, then if deLesseps has his usual financing problems and no work is done for a handful of years, maybe the mosquitoes would retreat back to their native habitat, and when money is available again, the disease problem is less.
 
A great deal depends on when exactly it gets done, at least for the Frenchies. As for the Yanks, I suspect that if France has kept the canal zone they've seriously worked at getting a concession in Nicaragua to build a canal through the lakes. They, after all, need a way to move the navy from one side of the country to the other without stealing around terra del fuego.

But could you provide a year for the French canal, just for the sake of discussion?

Dathi THorfinnsson clearly knows much more about this subject than I. I only brought it up with the basis of the French Panama Canal being presented as a given and where does the world go from there. Doing it without locks would never work. You'd be destroying much of Panama (whether as part of Columbia or not) with all the earth having to be moved, and I can't imagine what happens with all that fresh water lost.

So happens in history with a French Panama Canal built more or less along American OTL guidelines? I've seen the Nicaragua Design, and IIRC it looked very challenging. Is the US forced to come to some sort of accommodation with the French? A deal in a WWI situation? Assuming an OTL WWII, does the US seize the Canal, despite the danger of the Vichy French blowing the locks?

Or could the US buy the canal sometime in the future?
 
Dathi THorfinnsson clearly knows much more about this subject than I. I only brought it up with the basis of the French Panama Canal being presented as a given and where does the world go from there. Doing it without locks would never work. You'd be destroying much of Panama (whether as part of Columbia or not) with all the earth having to be moved, and I can't imagine what happens with all that fresh water lost.

So happens in history with a French Panama Canal built more or less along American OTL guidelines? I've seen the Nicaragua Design, and IIRC it looked very challenging. Is the US forced to come to some sort of accommodation with the French? A deal in a WWI situation? Assuming an OTL WWII, does the US seize the Canal, despite the danger of the Vichy French blowing the locks?

Or could the US buy the canal sometime in the future?

The reason I ask for a year is because that's going to have a huge impact on how attached France is to the canal and just how much the US wants it. The fact of the matter is holding the canal is hardly a strategic nessecity for the French, but the US is going to consider it crucial; otherwise, they essentially have to build two navies if they want to keep their "Ocean Moats" and East-West trade secure if they want to continue to keep the time-honored and treasured policy of non-alignment/ not being tied to European affairs. Having a commitment to a European power, where they'd be obligated to keep a standing army with the capacity to be transported across the ocean to fight and die in wars that have nothing to do with American interests, is a nightmare scenario for any government in Washington. I imagine in such a scenario, France has made itself a power considered... counter to US interests and possibly in violation of the Monroe Doctrine, and would do anything it could to obtain the canal. They'd probably, like with Cuba, start by trying to buy it, and if the French won't sell either back a Panamanian independence movement (If the region is Columbian) or Colombian Revachism (If the region is independent) in exchange for a prefered position/usage of the Canal.
 
Yellow Fever. Also I wonder if Sub Rosa pressure was placed upon the French effort to fail. Pressure applied by the United States? This might make an original post grad thesis subject? Dunno that.
 
Returning to the OP .....
WI the French canal enjoyed steady financing?
WI French doctors were able to curb malaria and yellow fever?
What is the earliest date ships could transit the canal?
 
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