The Panama Scandal: How a Canal Broke France's Third Republic

In 1880, Ferdinand de Lesseps—fresh from his triumph at Suez—launched an ambitious project to cut a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. But the jungles of Central America proved far more hostile than the desert. Yellow fever, malaria, and catastrophic engineering mistakes brought the company to ruin. When the scandal broke in 1892, it exposed a web of bribery that reached into the French parliament, toppled governments, and nearly destroyed the Third Republic. This episode unpacks the financial chicanery, the human cost of 'Panama fever', and how the affair reshaped French politics for decades. Lucas and Luna explore the role of Jews in the scandal—and the wave of anti-Semitism it unleashed—as well as the eventual American takeover that completed the canal. A cautionary tale of imperial hubris, corrupt journalism, and the price of national glory. #PanamaScandal #FerdinandDeLesseps #ThirdRepublic #CanalInteroceanique #YellowFever #Bribery #AntiSemitism #DreyfusAffair #EdouardDrumont #LaLibreParole #PanamaCanal #FrenchHistory #GustaveEiffel #FrenchPolitics #Scandal #History #FexingoHistory #Europe Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo