- A French Engineer -
( 1859 - 1940 )
* List of the stories
he appears in :
- F PM 01201 C : "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" (Lo$#10b), from 2001, by Don Rosa (by name only). |
* His biography :
French engineer
born in 1959, graduate from the school of engineering of the famed Ecoles
des Ponts et Chaussees, Philippe Bunau-Varilla was a prominent
character in the Panama Canal controversy. An engineer after 1884
in the original French company for building the canal, he was chief engineer
before the company went bankrupt in 1889 and was the organizer (1894) of
the new company that took over the rights of the old one. Unable to develop
his plans in France, he undertook to sell the company to the United States,
converting (1901) Mark Hanna and President McKinley, who had been interested
in the Nicaragua route, to the Panama project. After new opposition developed,
he persuaded the French directors to reduce the price of the company, and
President Theodore Roosevelt was won over
to the Panama plan. When difficulties arose with the Colombian government,
Bunau-Varilla conspired with insurrectionists in Panama and touched off
(1903) a successful revolution. As First Minister Plenipotentiary and
Envoy Extraordinary of the Republic of Panama to Washington, he negotiated
the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty, which gave the United States control of the
Panama Canal. In World War I a water chlorination process that he had developed
was used at the battle of Verdun.
* His place in the Barks/Rosa stories universe
:
In "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut", he appears
by name when Scrooge tells Roosevelt he has
been sold the right of his mountain by the French agent of the treaty,
Philippe Bunau-Varilla. It is said that the French, who have been
first to build the Panama Canal, wanting to renew the success they had
with the Suez canal, wanted to dig this mountain (they used to call it
the "Golden Mountain") because there was a rumour of some gold hidden in
it, and that they wanted to use this gold to finance the operation...
>>>Back to the real life's characters page
>>> Back to the main page