Answer: A precedent is a legally significant judgment made by a court (or other adjudicative authority).
Explanation: That significance comes from the fact that the court's ruling is considered as having actual, rather than just theoretical, control on the law's meaning.
Expanded the welfare state
The man in question was Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was from France. He had been a developer of the Suez Canal in Egypt. The attempts he led to build a canal through Panama were beset by disease epidemics (like malaria) and financial problems. Eventually the Panama Canal project was taken over by the United States. The first ship sailed through the Panama Canal in 1914.