THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 71 



political principles so recently enunciated in the celebrated 

 " Monroe Doctrine." 



. Following the failure of the Dutch_ company, which was 

 immediate and complete, a number of less pretentious efforts 

 on the part of American, English, and French companies ap- 

 pear and disappear in rapid succession in both Nicaragua and 

 Panama. The interest of Louis Napoleon, then a prisoner at 

 Ham, seems to have been keenly aroused to the importance 

 of the question. He organized a company known as kt La 

 Canal Napoleone de Nicaragua," and in 1846 published a pam- 

 phlet advocating the Nicaragua route, which remains to-day 

 as a sort of exclamation mark in the history of the canal. Its 

 publication aroused new interest in Europe, and at the time 

 brought to its author much reputation for practical states- 

 manship. Napoleon was forced, however, to bide his time ; 

 but his opportunity he supposed had come at. last, when from 

 his imperial throne in Paris he watched with satisfaction the 

 gathering of the war clouds in the United States. When 

 the storm of civil strife had threatened the disruption 

 of the Union, he undertook the task of overthrowing the re- 

 publican institutions of Mexico and establishing in their place 

 a government dependent on France, which would be at the 

 same time an ally, offensive and defensive, of the Confederate 

 States of America. In this delusive dream his fancy had 

 sketched the dismemberment of the American Republic, the 

 aggrandizement of imperial France, and a final subjection of 

 Western interests to the domination and control of Europe. 

 The overthrow of the Southern revolt prevented the possibil- 

 ity of success, and his splendid revery was forever dispelled 

 by the fortunes of war at Sedan. The building of a French 

 canal through Nicaragua was probably but a small part of 

 Napoleon's great Western project. 



About the year 1850 considerable enthusiasm was aroused 

 in Europe, and especially in France, over the report of certain 

 explorers in the lower isthmus. At one time there were 

 .three parties of engineers (American, English, and French) 

 struggling in the pestilential jungles and morasses below 

 Panama in search of reported but imaginary depressions in 



