The surprising object lesson: hard-headed Scotland, which in the 17th century attempted to build an overland trading route across the isthmus of Panama starting in an area known as Darien.

FORBES: When Scotland Lost Its Mind

This reinforced the Americans' desire to build and control a canal across the isthmus of Panama, so that their ships could move between the Atlantic and the Pacific without going all the way round Cape Horn (as the American battleship Oregon had to do during the war).

ECONOMIST: THE WAR OF 1898

Ortega's forces are dredging the river as part of an Iranian-sponsored project to build a canal along the Isthmus of Nicaragua that will rival the Panama Canal.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Why Latin America turned