Panama Canal in the context of "Panama"

Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps (French: [də lesɛps]; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French Orientalist diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869, joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times between Europe and East Asia.

He attempted to repeat this success with an effort to build a Panama Canal at sea level during the 1880s, but the project was devastated by epidemics of malaria and yellow fever in the area, as well as by financial problems, and the planned Lesseps Panama Canal was never completed. Eventually, the project was bought out by the United States, which solved the medical problems and changed the design to a non-sea- level canal with locks. It was completed in 1914.

The San Blas Islands of Panama is an archipelago comprising approximately 365 islands and cays, of which 49 are inhabited. They lie off the north coast of the Isthmus of Panama, east of the Panama Canal. A part of the comarca (district) Guna Yala along the Caribbean coast of Panama, it is home to the Kuna people.

San Blas and its surrounding area is a haven for ecotourism because of its pristine environs. The area is also popular for sailing, as it is known for its beauty and lack of hurricanes. Notable locations in the Archipelago are the main capital Gaigirgordub, the densely crowded island village of Carti Sugtupu, and the two keys, Cayos Limones, and Cayos Holandeses, both renowned for their clear waters.

The Isthmus of Panama, historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. The country of Panama is located on the isthmus, along with the Panama Canal. Like several isthmuses on Earth, as a relatively narrow land bridge between close seas, it is a location of great geopolitical and strategic importance.

The isthmus is thought to have finally formed around 3 million years ago (Ma), separating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and causing the creation of the Gulf Stream, as first suggested in 1910 by Henry Fairfield Osborn. Osborn based the proposal on the fossil record of mammals in Central America, a conclusion that would provide a foundation for Alfred Wegener when he proposed the theory of continental drift in 1912. Some recent studies suggest an earlier formation of the isthmus than the recognized age of 3 Ma, potentially stretching as far back as 19 Ma.

The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: Islas Galápagos) are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, 900 km (560 mi) west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of slightly over 33,000 (2020). The province is divided into the cantons of San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, and Isabela, the three most populated islands in the chain. The Galápagos are famous for their large number of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin in the 1830s and inspired his theory of evolution by means of natural selection. All of these islands are protected as part of Ecuador's Galápagos National Park and Marine Reserve.

There is no firm evidence that Polynesians or the Indigenous peoples of South America reached the islands before their accidental discovery by Bishop Tomás de Berlanga in 1535. If some visitors did arrive, poor access to fresh water on the islands seems to have limited settlement. The Spanish Empire similarly ignored the islands, although during the Golden Age of Piracy various pirates used the Galápagos as a base for raiding Spanish shipping along the Peruvian coast. The goats and black and brown rats introduced during this period greatly damaged the existing ecosystems of several islands. British sailors were chiefly responsible for exploring and mapping the area. Darwin's voyage on HMS Beagle was part of an extensive British survey of the coasts of South America. Ecuador, which won its independence from Spain in 1822 and left Gran Colombia in 1830, formally occupied and claimed the islands on 12 February 1832 while the voyage was ongoing. José de Villamil, the founder of the Ecuadorian Navy, led the push to colonize and settle the islands, gradually supplanting the English names of the major islands with Spanish ones. The United States built the islands' first airport as a base to protect the western approaches of the Panama Canal in the 1930s. After World War II, its facilities were transferred to Ecuador. With the growing importance of ecotourism to the local economy, the airport modernized in the 2010s, using recycled materials for any expansion and shifting entirely to renewable energy sources to handle its roughly 300,000 visitors each year.

The Mona Passage (Spanish: Canal de la Mona) is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean region. Along with the Windward Passage between Hispaniola and Cuba, the approximately 80 miles (130 km) wide Mona Passage connects the North Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, operating as an important shipping route between the North Atlantic and the Panama Canal. The passage is fraught with variable tidal currents created by the islands on either side of it, and by sand banks that extend out from both coasts.

A ship canal is a canal especially intended to accommodate ships used on the oceans, seas, or lakes to which it is connected.

Attempts to build a canal across Nicaragua to connect the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean stretch back to the early colonial era. Construction of such a shipping route—using the San Juan River as an access route to Lake Nicaragua—was first proposed then. Napoleon III wrote an article about its feasibility in the middle of the 19th century. The United States abandoned plans to construct a waterway in Nicaragua in the early 20th century after it purchased the French interests in the Panama Canal, which has served as the main connecting route across Central America since its completion.

Because the steady increase in global shipping may eventually make the project economically feasible, speculation on a new shipping route has continued. In June 2013, Nicaragua's National Assembly approved a bill to grant a 50-year concession to the HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment (HKND) to manage the Nicaraguan Canal and Development Project to build the canal, but little development took place, and the concession to HKND was cancelled in May 2024.

Barro Colorado Island is located in the man-made Gatun Lake in the middle of the Panama Canal. The island was formed when the waters of the Chagres River were dammed to form the lake in 1913. When the waters rose, they covered a significant part of the existing tropical forest, but certain hilltops remained as islands in the middle of the lake. It has an area of 15.6 km (6.0 sq mi).