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{{Short description|1892 French corruption affair}}
[[File:Panama Scandal caricature.jpg|400px|thumb|right|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."]] ▼
▲[[File:Panama Scandal caricature.jpg
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 the building of the [[Panama Canal]]. Close to a billion [[franc]]s were lost when the French government took 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">[http://www.ak190x.de/Bauwerke/panamaen.htm Why de Lesseps failed to build the Panama Canal], THE PANAMA CANAL 1880-1914</ref>▼
▲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
== 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 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]]. This was agreed on in 1890 in [[Bogotá]], to run until 1904.▼
▲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 stocks, 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>{{Cite book▼
▲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
| edition = New
| publisher = Harvest Books
| isbn = 0-15-670153-7
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/originsoftotali100aren/page/576 576 pages]
| last = Arendt
| first = Hannah
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}}p. 95-99.</ref>
==
[[File:Panama scandal.jpg|200px|left|thumb|1891 Panama Canal Company Liquidation Court Trial in Paris, France]]
In 1892/1893, a large number of ministers (including [[Georges Clemenceau|Clemenceau]]) were accused by French nationalists of taking bribes from [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]] in 1888 to permit
Lesseps, his son Charles, members of the management as well as the engineer [[Gustave Eiffel]], were at first given long jail sentences, later annulled.
In the bribery trial, the former city development minister, Bethaut, received five years imprisonment, of which he served three years. [[Jacques de Reinach|Baron Reinach]] – the financial adviser of the Canal Company and agent for the various bribes – committed suicide. Other defendants fled to [[England]]. On 7 December 1894, Lesseps died.
Politicians accused of involvement included [[Léon Bourgeois]] and [[Alfred Joseph Naquet]].<ref>{{cite news |title=THE PANAMA SCANDALS; An Exciting Scene in the French Chamber of Deputies
== 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
In 1894, a second French company, the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama (
== References ==
{{
== See also ==
{{Commonscatinline}}
▲{{Commons category|Panama scandal}}
* [[French political scandals]]
* [[Eric Zencey]] author of the novel ''Panama'' dealing with the Panama scandals
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Panama Scandals}}
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[[Category:1893 in France]]
[[Category:Panama Canal]]
[[Category:19th-century scandals]]
[[Category:1890s in Panama]]
[[Category:Corruption in France]]
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