The history of Suez Canal

The history of Suez Canal

The first modern attempts to build a canal came in the late 1700s when Napoleon Bonaparte conducted an expedition to Egypt. He believed that building a French controlled canal on the Isthmus of Suez would cause trade problems for the British as they would either have to pay dues to France or continue sending goods over land or around the southern part of Africa.

Their findings, recorded in the Description de l'Égypte, include detailed maps that depict the discovery of an ancient canal extending northward from the Red Sea and then westward toward the Nile. Napoleon had contemplated the construction of another, modern, north-south canal to join the Mediterranean and Red Sea 

Studies for Napoleon's canal plan began in 1799 but a miscalculation in measurement showed the sea levels between the Mediterranean and the Red Seas as being too different for a canal to be feasible and construction immediately stopped. Their mistake was discovered in the 1840's.

The next attempt to build a canal in the area occurred in the mid-1800s when a French diplomat and engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, convinced the Egyptian viceroy Said Pasha to support the building of a canal.

In 1854 Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor of Egypt to build a canal. An international team of engineers drew up a construction plan.

The British under Lord Palmerston had opposed the construction of the canal. Palmerston told de Lesseps: I must tell you frankly, that what we are afraid of losing is our commercial and maritime pre-eminence, for this Canal will put other nations on an equal footing with us. 

In 1858, the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company was formed and given the right to begin construction of the canal and operate it for 99 years after completion of the work, after which time, the Egyptian government would take over control of the canal. At its founding, the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company was owned by French and Egyptian interests.

Ferdinand de Lesseps , presented his own plan to the viceroy of Egypt, Said Pasha, The viceroy agreed and work started at the Mediterranean end with a port named after the viceroy. The canal was not completed. Said Pasha died in 1863 and was succeeded as viceroy by his nephew, Ismail Pasha.

De Lesseps convened the International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez consisting of thirteen experts from seven countries, among them McClean, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, and again Negrelli, to examine the plans of Linant de Bellefonds and to advise on the feasibility of and on the best route for the canal. After surveys and analyses in Egypt and discussions in Paris on various aspects of the canal, where many of Negrelli's ideas prevailed, the commission produced a final unanimous report in December 1856 containing a detailed description of the canal complete with plans and profiles.

Construction began in April 1859, and at first digging was done by hand with picks and shovels wielded by forced laborers. Later, European workers with dredgers and steam shovels arrived. Labor disputes and a cholera epidemic slowed construction, and the Suez Canal was not completed until 1869, four years behind schedule. On November 17, 1869, the Suez Canal was officially inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.

The excavation took some 10 years using forced labour (corvée) of Egyptian workers during a certain period. Some sources estimate that over 30,000 people were working on the canal at any given period, that altogether more than 1.5 million people from various countries were employed, and that thousands of laborers died on the project.

The British government had opposed the project of the canal from the outset to its completion. As one of the diplomatic moves against the canal, it disapproved the use ofslave labor of forced workers on the canal. The British Empire was the major global naval force and officially condemned the forced work and sent armed Bedouins to start a revolt among workers. 

Involuntary labour on the project ceased, and the viceroy condemned the corvée, halting the project.

Angered by the British opportunism, de Lesseps sent a letter to the British government remarking on the British lack of remorse a few years earlier when forced workers died in similar conditions building the British railway in Egypt. 

Almost immediately after its opening, the Suez Canal had a significant impact on world trade as goods were moved around the world in record time.

Combined with the American transcontinental railroad completed six months earlier, it allowed the entire world to be circled in record time. It played an important role in increasing European colonisation of Africa. The construction of the Suez Canal was one of the reasons of the Panic of 1873, because the goods from the Far East were carried in sailing vessels around the Cape of Good Hope and were stored in British warehouses, but sailing vessels were not adaptable for use through the Suez Canal, because the prevailing winds of the Mediterranean Sea blow from west to east.

The canal opened to shipping on 17 November 1869. The opening was performed by Khedive Ismail of Egypt and Sudan, and at Ismail's invitation French Empress Eugenie in the Imperial yacht Aigle

When it opened, the Suez Canal was only 25 feet deep, 72 feet wide at the bottom, and 200 to 300 feet wide at the surface. Consequently, fewer than 500 ships navigated it in its first full year of operation. Major improvements began in 1876, however, and the canal soon grew into the one of the world's most heavily traveled shipping lanes.

Although numerous technical, political, and financial problems had been overcome, the final cost was more than double the original estimate.

Egypt under Ismail Pasha almost went bankrupt however, and so did Ishmael Pasha in 1875, and Ismail decided to sell his shares for four million pounds sterling.

When the British PM, Benjamin Disraeli. heard that the French were negotiating for purchase of the shares, he decided to purchase Ismail's shares. As he could not wait for parliamentary allocation of funds, he sent his private secretary, Montagu Corry to Lord Rothschild to float a loan. According to Corry, when told that the Prime Minister wanted 4,000,000 pounds tomorrow, Rothschild ate a grape, and asked "What is your security?"  "The British government," said Corry. "You shall have it," said Rothshchild."

Sources:
geography
History.com
en.wikipedia
mideastweb