b) FranceInvestors from France had been attempting to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Panama Ferdinand de Lesseps, designer of the Suez Canal in Egypt, led the efforts in Panama, that was actually province of Colombia. By 1893, though, the project proved too costly both in money and lives: roughly 20,000 people died during construction to that point. Within 10 years, though the United States had purchased the rights to the project and construction resumed.