BUNAU-VARILLA, PHILIPPE-JEAN

born July 26, 1859, Paris died May 18, 1940, Paris French engineer and early advocate of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Employed by the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocanique (French Panama Canal Company) in 1884, Bunau-Varilla turned to the United States after the French project failed in 1889. He was commissioned by the U.S. government to negotiate a treaty with Colombia, of which Panama was then a part. When these negotiations failed, he helped to instigate the revolution that resulted in Panamanian independence. The provisional government of Panama named him minister plenipotentiary, and he signed a treaty with U.S. Secretary of State John Hay, assuring the construction of a canal under U.S. control (1903).