Review of The Golden Isthmus – David Howarth

The Golden Isthmus describes the tantalizing geographical challenge that faced explorers, adventurers, treasurehunters, scientists, engineers, armies, colonists , company promoters for over 500 years in an unforgiving part of the world. The “other” ocean seemed so close yet was impossibly far. Through the centuries many intrepid heroes and anti heroes were ready to meet, parley with and sometimes attack indigenous Central American Indian tribes in this narrow isthmus that promised so much but always seemed to elude the ambitious. They came in search of gold and silver, conquest and establishing new colonies. Some came to trade and others, such as Humboldt to explore and to document in the name of enlightenment science. Many saw the economic value of shortening the sea route from West to East and sought a magic bullet route through an almost impenetrable dense jungle.

How and where could the Isthmus best be crossed? The dream was one of linking the Caribbean Sea (and hence the Atlantic Ocean) and the Pacific ocean via a trail, a river canoe route, a railway or best of all a ship canal . One scheme even proposed a railway for ships. Today the Panama Canal, is a reality ( stretching through 77 kms) and remarkable in that it is a Canal that joins two oceans and . It was finally opened in 1914 was one of the great engineering endeavors of all time, ranked alongside the Corinth Canal, the Suez Canal and the Kiel Canal. The canal follows a route through the Gatun Lake , the river and the line of the railway and the ill fated French canal of De Lesseps of the later 19th century. The engineering challenges of moving mountains, digging deep trenches, managing water flows and ultimately building complicated locks required planning and problem solving .

This book was published in 1966 is by David Howarth a well known writer in his time of popular war histories. Howarth has carefully researched and traced the history of 500 years of effort and adventure, failure and success by treacherous Spanish explorers, greedy Elizabethan pirates, cruel Buccaneers, misguided Scottish colonists, railway engineers, put upon indigenous tribes, corrupt French capitalists, Nicaraguan revolutionaries and efficient American government organization to finally triumph over geography and nature in the early 20th century. It is a sorry story of the high costs paid in human life by thousands in pursuit of wealth by some and survival for others. Malaria, yellow fever and cholera were the great killers in a torpid insect invested very unhealthy tropical climate. Quarrels, skirmishes and warfare added to the death toll. Human life was cheap and human rights non existent. Darien was a romantic reference point in Keat’s poem, “on First looking into Chapman’s Homer” though he attributed the initial exploits to Cortez when his man should have been Vasco Balboa. But romance , imagination and ambition could not carry through even tough men who knew little about the source and spread of diseases, massive landslides or the lives of others.

Success required capital, heavy investment, great engineering skills, and meticulous organization. Completed in 1914, for half a century thereafter the Americans operated the Canal zone but it was politics and interpreting a weak treaty that bedeviled relationships between Panama and the USA . The Canal zone effectively became an American colony for many decades. It is fascinating that an Isthmus that seemingly held the key to wealth and transcontinental trade should have ended locking people into overcrowded dense existence in Panama city and that the divide between a privileged American enclave and poverty stricken Panamanian life was marked by hostility and ongoing enmity. In 1964 Panama erupted into a political explosion that showed that the Americans were regarded as interlopers and invaders. In a sense the project was a success for by the 1960-s the Canal was too small for ocean going ships, but in handling issues of human settlement and social organization the scheme was a failure. Between 12000 and 15 000 ships pass through the canal today each year. This is where Howarth leaves the story with the prospect of further engineering and a widening of the Canal with a Nuclear plan. In fact a widened canal is only due to open in 2014 so doubling the size of the maximum size of cargo ship that can traverse the canal.

Howarth has read widely on his subject and based his book on first-hand accounts listed in a helpful section of sources. Howarth himself traveled the area with the help of the government of Panama, the US Air Force tropical survival school and others , so that his observations of what the Canal, the journey across the Isthmus and Panama were like when he under took his research rings true. He gives a good account of the atmosphere and feel of the tropics even modern times. He is sympathetic to his many heroes and attempts a balanced account. His writing is accessible and easily read at the popular level. He includes fascinating, often quaint detail of ships supplies and trade goods and handles first hand first person quotes effectively. This is not an academic history but aims to appeal to the average person interested in the history of the area and the many nationalities who tried their hand at fortune hunting . There are a number of useful black and white photographs , three rather limited maps ( these could be better) and an index. In summary a good read, but perhaps if you have the time and the inclination go back into the source material and memoirs of men who travelled, explored and changed the landscape of Darien.

I would rate this book at 4 stars. ( )

[2021-11-19]