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Stock# 101985
Description

A Panama Canal Fantasy

This book and accompanying maps and plans, by Athanase Airiau and published in Paris in 1860, represent a pivotal moment in the conceptualization of an interoceanic canal through the Isthmus of Darien, now known as the Isthmus of Panama. The work comprises five chapters and six detailed maps and plans, aiming to support the feasibility and benefits of constructing an interoceanic canal to shorten sea journeys between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans more than 50 years before the eventual completion of the Panama Canal in 1914. The maps are noteworthy for their somewhat fantastical, fractal-like urban geography, bringing to mind similar geometrically complex colonial plans from previous centuries, such as Sir Robert Montgomery's 1717 plan for the Margravate of Azilia.

Airiau aimed his proposal at the authorities of the Granadine Confederation, present-day Colombia. His vision was centered around the canalization and colonization of the Isthmus of Panama. Airiau's ambitious plan included founding 150 farms and a city to be populated by European settlers, who would engage in agricultural activities as well as contribute to the construction and maintenance of the proposed canal. The project envisioned by Airiau was not merely an infrastructural endeavor but also a utopian plan for colonization, featuring pre-defined sections for diverse crops such as vanilla, nopal, indigo, tobacco, cereals, cocoa, cotton, vineyards, sugar, sorghum, fruits, and vegetables, along with various types of livestock. 

Many of the maps here are dedicated to notable political figures of the time, including Pedro Alcántara Herrán and Mariano Ospina Pérez.

Airiau published this work during a period of significant interest in and debate over the potential construction of a canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and thereby revolutionize global trade routes and maritime navigation. The text underscores the urgency of establishing such a canal, as recognized by the European community, reflecting the geopolitical and economic ambitions of the time.

Airiau's advocacy for the Darien route over others is grounded in a comprehensive analysis of the region's geography, climate, and natural resources, positing it as the most favorable location for the canal's construction and for the establishment of a European colony. The narrative elaborates on the envisioned benefits of this dual project, which includes the creation of a maritime and commercial city, envisaging the canal not only as a feat of engineering but also as a catalyst for agricultural and industrial colonization.

Airiau's city plans are certainly engaging and include many noteworthy elements beyond their unusual shape. The Industrial City has quays and neighborhoods split between France, Russia, Great Britain, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Prussia, and the United States. The Agricultural City has roads the zig and zag without any particular purpose beyond top-down aesthetics, with some roads changing course in the middle of open fields where a straight line would have sufficed. Had they ever been completed the cities would have been something to behold, post-Hausmann grand European urban architecture carved out of the jungles of Central America.

Despite the innovative nature of Airiau's proposal, it did not come to fruition, attributed to its utopian character. Nonetheless, this historical episode illustrates the early and ambitious endeavors to improve global maritime routes and the development of the Panama region long before the successful completion of the Panama Canal in the 20th century.

Maps and Views

  1. Carte Géographique de la République de la Nouvelle Grenade (Amérique du Sud) pour servir à la création d'Écoles Industrielles d'Agriculture, d'Arts et Métiers dans les Huit États de la Confédération.
  2. Carte Planimétrique Indiquant l'abréviation des Parcours Maritimes par les coupures des Isthmes du Darien et de Suez.
  3. Carte Géographique pour servir à l'étude du canal interocéanique par l'isthme du Darién (Nouvelle-Grenade, Amérique du Sud).
  4. Plan Geograpque a vol d'oiseau de la ville, des fermes et du canal interoceanique par l'Isthme du Darien (Nouvelle Grenade Amérique du Sud)
  5. Plan de la ville projete sur la parcours du canal de jonction de l'Atlantique au Pacifique par l'Isthme du Darien (Nouvelle Grenade Amérique du Sud)
  6. Plan-Porjet. Ferme Coloniale et Stratégique de Canalisation Agricole, Industrielle, Commerciale et Maritime Propre à Recevoir 1,500 colons, sur le parcours du canal du Darien. (Nouvlle Grenade, Amérique du Sud.)

Chapters

  1. La Nouvelle Grenade.
  2. Considérations générales sur l'opportunité de l'établissement d'un canal interocéanique.
  3. Projet d'un canal interocéanique par l'Isthme du Darien.
  4. Calcul du nombre probable de mètres cubes dans la tranchée du canal.
  5. Exposition sommaire des moyens de réalisation pratique de l'entreprise projetée, principalement en ce qui regarde la colonisation du Darien.
Condition Description
Octavo. Contemporary half-calf over speckled paper boards. Six lithographed folding maps, views, and plans all in original hand-color. Excellent copy.
Reference
See Julie Velásquez Runk, "Creating Wild Darién: Centuries of Darién's Imaginative Geography and its Lasting Effects", in Journal of Latin American Geography , October 2015.
Athanase Airiau Biography

Athanase Airiau, a member of the Paris "Society for a Canal Interocéanique," made a fascinating contribution in the mid-19th century towards the conceptualization of a canal through the Panamanian isthmus.

In 1860, Airiau articulated a vision for France's leadership in this monumental engineering endeavor, asserting, "It is to France that belongs the initiative to establish a canal." He further justified this claim by appealing to the national character of France, suggesting that such an exploration would align with "the aptitudes and penchants of our nation, to the allure of our generous policies, our humanitarian tendencies around which one can rally, yet which are no less eminently honorable."

Airiau also addressed the geopolitical implications of the canal in a letter to the French government, emphasizing the need to counteract American expansionism as articulated through the Monroe Doctrine. He argued for a French colonial presence in Panama to "preserve South America from the invasion of the Monroe Doctrine which dreams despotically of Latin submission to its profit, to the detriment of our Old Europe."

His book on the French interoceanic canal route, subtitled "canalization for colonization," included detailed maps and diagrams to illustrate the proposed canal route. One main map showed a direct, sea-level canal from Caledonia on the Caribbean coast to just north of the Lara River, indicating a passage through the San Blas Mountains of the continental divide. The publication included profile diagrams comparing this route favorably against other proposed routes in Panama, Nicaragua, and Mexico, highlighting its feasibility and advantages.

Airiau's maps also featured a new city, marked by a maroon octagon along the canal route, indicating plans for urban development as part of the canal project. This depiction, alongside views of sailing vessels navigating the proposed canal, underscored the comprehensive nature of Airiau's vision for the canal's role in global commerce and regional development.

Airiau's concepts have drawn relatively little note in modern times, although in one case, the author's opinions were quite colorful.  Omar Jaén Suárez comments:

In 1860, French merchant Athanase Airiau published a book with an absolutely delusional drawing. A geometrical utopia laid out as a large octagonal city in the center of the Chucunaque basin, transformed into an immense French-style garden with livestock and cut in two, exactly in its center, by a canal at sea level that would join the Atlantic and the Pacific in a straight line, crossing the San Blas mountain range to the north. 

While the project never came to fruition, its grand illustrations are indeed remarkable.