when did france try to build the panama canal
History of the Panama Canal After the 1869 completion of the Suez Canal, France thought that an apparently-similar project to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans could be carried out with little difficulty. In 1876 an international company, La Société internationale du Canal interocéanique, was created to undertake its construction; two years later, it obtained a concession from the Colombian government (since Panama was a Colombian province) to dig a canal across the isthmus.
Panama Canal Zone The Spanish–American War of 1898 added new life to the canal debate. During the war, American warships in the Atlantic seeking to reach battle zones in the Pacific had been forced to round Cape Horn. Influential naval pundits, such as Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, urged the construction of a Central American canal. In 1902, with the French efforts moribund, US President Theodore Roosevelt backed the Panama route, and Congress passed legislation authorizing him to purchase the French assets[11] on the condition that an agreement was reached with Colombia.[12] In March 1902, Colombia set its terms for such a treaty: Colombia was to be sovereign over the canal, which would be policed by Colombians paid for by the United States. The host nation would receive a larger percentage of the tolls than provided for in earlier draft treaties. The draft terms were quickly rejected by American officials. Roosevelt was in a hurry to secure the treaty; the Colombians, to whom the French property would revert in 1904, were not. Negotiations dragged on into 1903, during which time there was unrest in Panama City and Colón; the United States sent in Marines to guard the trains. Nevertheless, in early 1903, the United States and Colombia signed a treaty which, despite Colombia's previous objections, gave the United States a 6 miles (9.7 km) wide zone in which it could deploy troops with Colombian consent. On August 12, 1903, the Colombian Senate voted down the treaty 24–0.[13]