SH Archive Pre-1587: Nicaragua Canal Existed?

[KD Archive]

There is a long history of attempts to build a canal across Nicaragua to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Construction of such a shipping route - using the San Juan River as an access route to Lake Nicaragua - was first proposed in the early colonial era. 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. The Panama Canal was built and that is now the main connecting route across Central America.

• Nicaragua Canal
• History of the Nicaragua Canal

1587 Urbano Monte Map

Map Source
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Noticed this Nicaragua Canal a long while ago, but never got to actually looking for any additional pertaining info. Obviously, officially it did not exist. For those who run into whatever, or deliberately look for stuff, please share in this thread.

• The canal was previously mentioned by @Timeshifter in this thread, but I figured a dedicated thread was needed due to the historical importance of such a canal.

I think this 1587 Urbano Monte Map which magically appeared in 2017 due to David Rumsey Map Collection's digitizing efforts, could be considered a suspicious miracle. Imho, if the map is real, the contents are most like antediluvian. Hence the Higueras-city is currently occupied by Lake Nicaragua. Some forces could be a bit more powerful then the others.

• We don't think that so many cities were established in the "New World" between 1492 and 1587, don't we?

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[JimDuyer]

Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.
Username: Jim Duyer
Date: 2019-12-21 17:02:25
Reaction Score: 2

There is a long history of attempts to build a canal across Nicaragua to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Construction of such a shipping route - using the San Juan River as an access route to Lake Nicaragua - was first proposed in the early colonial era. 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. The Panama Canal was built and that is now the main connecting route across Central America.

• Nicaragua Canal
• History of the Nicaragua Canal

1587 Urbano Monte Map
View attachment 35963
Map Source

Noticed this Nicaragua Canal a long while ago, but never got to actually looking for any additional pertaining info. Obviously, officially it did not exist. For those who run into whatever, or deliberately look for stuff, please share in this thread.

• The canal was previously mentioned by @Timeshifter in this thread, but I figured a dedicated thread was needed due to the historical importance of such a canal.

I think this 1587 Urbano Monte Map which magically appeared in 2017 due to David Rumsey Map Collection's digitizing efforts, could be considered a suspicious miracle. Imho, if the map is real, the contents are most like antediluvian. Hence the Higueras-city is currently occupied by Lake Nicaragua. Some forces could be a bit more powerful then the others.

• We don't think that so many cities were established in the "New World" between 1492 and 1587, don't we?

If you begin at the top of the "canal" you will see a river that runs north to south. This is the San Juan, and it separates Costa Rica from Nicaragua. It is never more than about 5-8 feet deep, and it is very narrow in comparison with those in the US, but it does flow south. It empties into Lake Nicaragua, which is shown on his map at the southern portion. This is a salt-water lake, and proof of this is that sharks live in it. The native Nicaraguans occupy all of the islands in the lake itself, and are very protective of their lands. The part that he drew from the lake south to the Pacific, does not, and has never existed. I've driven that area more than a few times, recently. Many have thought to build a canal in Nicaragua, rather than Panama, but it never got off the ground for a few reasons - the lands surrounding the proposed location would not have supported anything other than a complete fill of concrete - whereas in Panama they had rock to work with, in order to form the sides of the canal. And another reason is control - the entire nation of Panama is a creation of the US Government, taking lands originally belonging to Columbia, but that they no longer had any desires upon. Therefore the canal could be US controlled with no problems, whereas the Nicaraguans would have wanted a lot more for the use of their lands. The first to propose this was the Chinese, who were very intent on building it, and then gave up. Then William Walker, a disgraced US ex-Congressman and ex-soldier of the Confederates, entered Nicaragua, became a General and then President, and was finally shot. He was financed by money from Carnegie and others, who also wanted the canal built there. But, overall a nice find and I thank you for the topic.