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{{Short description|1892 French corruption affair}}
{{Distinguish|Panama Papers scandal}}
[[File:Panama Scandal caricature.jpg|thumb|A caricature on the scandal. It reads: "Few new toys this year: we're liquidating everything that remains of the stock of marionnettes that say: Papa, -Nana, -Mama, -Panama."]]
The '''Panama scandals''' (also known as the '''Panama Canal Scandal''' or '''Panama Affair''') was a corruption affair that broke out in the [[French Third Republic]] in 1892, linked to a French company's failed
== Bankruptcy ==
On 4 February 1889, the ''Tribunal Civil de la Seine'' ordered the winding up of the Panama Canal Company in [[Paris]]. Work on the [[isthmus of Panama|isthmus]] was stopped in the meantime, while the court-appointed liquidator arranged to maintain the existing buildings, tools and machinery. Within a few years, however, high losses were incurred due to the damp, warm climate. The French government repeatedly delayed the [[liquidation]]
The dimensions of the [[bankruptcy]] were clear by 1892. Some 800,000 French people, including 15,000 single women, had lost their investments in the [[stock]]s, [[Bond (finance)|bonds]] and founder shares of the Panama Canal Company, to the considerable sum of approximately 1.8 billion gold Francs. From the nine stock issues, the Panama Canal Company received 1.2 billion gold Francs, 960 million of which were invested in Panama, a large amount having been pocketed by financiers and politicians.<ref name="panama"/><ref name="Arendt_1973">{{Cite book
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== Aftermath ==
Georges Clemenceau was defeated in the 1893 election because of his association with [[Cornelius Herz]]. Although three governments collapsed, this crisis differed from the [[Georges Boulanger#The rise of Boulangisme|Boulanger affair]] in that the Republic was never really
[[Hannah Arendt]] argues that the affair had an immense importance in the development of French [[antisemitism]], due to the involvement of two [[Jew]]s of German origin, [[Jacques de Reinach|Baron Jacques Reinach]] and [[Cornelius Herz]]. Although they were not among the bribed Parliament members
However, before his death Reinach gave a list of the suborned members of Parliament to the ''[[La Libre Parole|Libre Parole]]'', [[Edouard Drumont]]'s antisemitic daily, in exchange for the paper covering up Reinach's own role. Overnight, the story transformed ''La Libre Parole'' from an obscure sheet into one of the most influential papers in the country. The list of culprits was published morning by morning in small installments, so that hundreds of politicians had to live on tenterhooks for months. The scandal showed, in Arendt's view, that the middlemen between the business sector and the state were almost exclusively Jews, thus helping to pave the road for the [[Dreyfus Affair]].<ref name="Arendt_1973"/>
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== See also ==
{{Commonscatinline}}
* [[French political scandals]]
* [[Eric Zencey]] author of the novel ''Panama'' dealing with the Panama scandals
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[[Category:Panama Canal]]
[[Category:19th-century scandals]]
[[Category:1890s in Panama]]
[[Category:Corruption in France]]
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