Spooner Act
E765391
The Spooner Act was a 1902 U.S. federal law that authorized the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, paving the way for the Panama Canal project.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Spooner Act canonical | 3 |
| Spooner Act of 1902 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8883413 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Spooner Act Context triple: [Isthmian Canal Commission, legalBasis, Spooner Act]
-
A.
Foraker Act
The Foraker Act was a 1900 U.S. federal law that established civilian government in Puerto Rico following the Spanish–American War, defining the island’s political and economic relationship with the United States.
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B.
Cullom Act
The Cullom Act was a late 19th-century U.S. federal law associated with Senator Shelby M. Cullom, best known for addressing issues of interstate commerce regulation.
-
C.
Butler Act
The Butler Act was a Tennessee state law enacted in 1925 that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in public schools, becoming infamous as the focus of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial.
-
D.
Dingley Act
The Dingley Act was an 1897 U.S. tariff law that sharply raised import duties to protect domestic industries, succeeding and strengthening the earlier McKinley Tariff.
-
E.
Webb–Kenyon Act
The Webb–Kenyon Act was a 1913 U.S. federal law that strengthened state alcohol prohibition by banning the interstate shipment of liquor into dry states, playing a key role in the lead-up to national Prohibition.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Spooner Act Target entity description: The Spooner Act was a 1902 U.S. federal law that authorized the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, paving the way for the Panama Canal project.
-
A.
Foraker Act
The Foraker Act was a 1900 U.S. federal law that established civilian government in Puerto Rico following the Spanish–American War, defining the island’s political and economic relationship with the United States.
-
B.
Cullom Act
The Cullom Act was a late 19th-century U.S. federal law associated with Senator Shelby M. Cullom, best known for addressing issues of interstate commerce regulation.
-
C.
Butler Act
The Butler Act was a Tennessee state law enacted in 1925 that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in public schools, becoming infamous as the focus of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial.
-
D.
Dingley Act
The Dingley Act was an 1897 U.S. tariff law that sharply raised import duties to protect domestic industries, succeeding and strengthening the earlier McKinley Tariff.
-
E.
Webb–Kenyon Act
The Webb–Kenyon Act was a 1913 U.S. federal law that strengthened state alcohol prohibition by banning the interstate shipment of liquor into dry states, playing a key role in the lead-up to national Prohibition.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Act of Congress
ⓘ
United States federal law ⓘ |
| appliesTo | construction and operation of an isthmian canal ⓘ |
| appropriatedFundsFor | construction of an isthmian canal ⓘ |
| authorized |
construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama
ⓘ
construction of an interoceanic canal ⓘ |
| authorizedNegotiationWith |
Republic of Colombia
ⓘ
linked to:
Colombia
owners of the New Panama Canal Company ⓘ |
| authorizedPurchaseAmount | $40,000,000 ⓘ |
| authorizedPurchaseOf | New Panama Canal Company assets ⓘ |
| category |
1902 in American law
ⓘ
Panama Canal history ⓘ |
| conditionedOn | successful treaty with Colombia for canal zone ⓘ |
| country | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateEnacted | 1902-06-28 ⓘ |
| effect | shifted U.S. preference from Nicaragua to Panama route ⓘ |
| enabled | U.S. control over Panama Canal Zone ⓘ |
| field |
U.S. foreign policy
ⓘ
infrastructure law ⓘ transportation law ⓘ |
| followedDebateOver | Nicaragua vs. Panama canal routes ⓘ |
| governmentBranch | legislative branch of the United States ⓘ |
| hasLanguage | English ⓘ |
| hasOfficialName |
Spooner Act of 1902
ⓘ
linked to:
Spooner Act
|
| historicalPeriod | Progressive Era ⓘ |
| influenced | U.S. involvement in Panama secession from Colombia ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal ⓘ |
| legalStatus | in force at time of Panama Canal construction ⓘ |
| legislativeBody | United States Congress ⓘ |
| locationConcerned | Isthmus of Panama ⓘ |
| namedAfter | John Coit Spooner ⓘ |
| partOf |
United States canal policy
ⓘ
linked to:
Panama Canal negotiations
|
| pavedWayFor |
Panama Canal project
ⓘ
linked to:
Panama Canal
|
| providedAuthorityTo | President of the United States ⓘ |
| relatedLegislation |
Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty
ⓘ
Hay–Herrán Treaty ⓘ |
| relatedTo | Panama Canal ⓘ |
| repealedOrSuperseded | New Panama Canal Company option for Nicaragua route ⓘ |
| signedBy | Theodore Roosevelt ⓘ |
| specifiedAlternativeRoute | Nicaragua ⓘ |
| sponsoredBy | John Coit Spooner ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
Panama Canal
ⓘ
canal construction ⓘ interoceanic transportation ⓘ |
| timePeriod | early 20th century ⓘ |
| yearEnacted | 1902 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Spooner Act Description of subject: The Spooner Act was a 1902 U.S. federal law that authorized the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, paving the way for the Panama Canal project.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Spooner Act