Panama scandals: Difference between revisions

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 building attempt at constructing a [[Panama Canal]]. Close to half a billion [[franc]]s were lost and members of the French government had taken bribes to keep quiet about the [[History of the Panama Canal#The French project|Panama Canal Company's financial troubles]] in what is regarded as the largest monetary corruption scandal of the 19th century.<ref name="panama">{{citeCite web |url=http://www.ak190x.de/Bauwerke/panamaen.htm |title=THE PANAMA CANAL 1880-1914: Why panama|website=www.ak190x.de|accessdate=January Lesseps21, failed to build the Panama Canal2024}}</ref>

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]] further and further, because the take-over offers by various [[United States|American]] companies seemed insufficient. An intermediate company could not be started for lack of capital. The liquidator appointed a commission of inquiry, whose 1890 report recommended continuation of the sluice canal and renewal of the 1878 contract with [[Colombia]]. ThisThe renewal was agreed on in 1890 in [[Bogotá]], to run until 1904.

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 inat threatrisk of being overthrown. However, it did raise doubts in the public eye and meant that politicians were no longer trusted. To monarchists it proved that the republic was corrupt.<ref name="republic">{{cite web |url=http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/3rd-rep.htm#panama |title=The Third Republic 1870–1914 |first=Stephen |last=Tonge}}</ref>

[[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 orand not on the company's board, according to Arendt they were in charge of distributing the bribe money, Reinach among the right wing of the bourgeois parties, Herz among the anti-clerical radicals. Reinach was a secret financial advisor to the government and handled its relations with the Panama Company. Herz was Reinach's contact in the radical wing, but Herz's double-dealing blackmail ultimately drove Reinach to suicide.

* [[French political scandals]]