Suez Canal Opens
The Suez Canal, a significant engineering feat, connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, facilitating maritime trade by significantly shortening travel distances between Europe and the East. Originally, an ancient water link existed, but it fell into disrepair over centuries. The modern canal's construction was driven by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps in the mid-19th century, overcoming significant political resistance, particularly from British interests concerned about colonial control. The canal was officially inaugurated on November 17, 1869, attracting international attention and marking a transformative moment in global trade routes.
Throughout its history, the Suez Canal has been embroiled in political conflicts, notably during the Suez Crisis of 1956, which underscored its geopolitical significance. Its control shifted from British to Egyptian hands, with ongoing expansions to accommodate modern shipping needs. Today, the canal remains a crucial artery for global commerce, with an estimated 300 million tons of goods passing through annually. However, it has also faced challenges, such as environmental concerns and incidents like the blockage caused by the Ever Given in March 2021, which highlighted its importance in international supply chains.
Suez Canal Opens
Date November 17, 1869
The opening of the Suez Canal reduced seafaring travel distances between Europe and the Indian Ocean and Far East by several thousand miles, enhancing world trade while easing global military operations and enhancing the strategic importance of Northeast Africa and the Red Sea.
Locale Isthmus of Suez, Egypt
Key Figures
Louis-Maurice-Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds (1800-1883), French explorer and Egyptian government officialIsmāՙīl Pasha (1830-1895), viceroy of Egypt, 1863-1879Jean-Baptiste Lepère (1761-1844), French architectFerdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894), French engineer and diplomat in Egypt who organized and supervised canal constructionSaՙīd Paṣa (1822-1863), viceroy of Egypt, r. 1854-1863Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte; 1808-1873), emperor of France, r. 1852-1871Eugénie (Eugénia Maria de Montijo de Guzmán; 1826-1920), empress of France, r. 1853-1871Alois Negrelli (1799-1858), Austrian engineerLord Palmerston (1784-1865), British foreign minister, 1831-1851, and prime minister, 1855-1865
Summary of Event
By means of an indirect route, a water link existed during ancient times between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, about one hundred miles south in Egypt. Over the millennia, however, this connection deteriorated and became inoperable. Interest in restoring this link was revived beginning in 1798, during French general Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt. The idea was relinquished at that time because of the mistaken belief that the differential between the two sea levels made the plan impractical. Nevertheless, speculation about the possibility of a waterway continued.
Surveys by the French architect Jean-Baptiste Lepère, French explorer Louis-Maurice-Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds (1840), and Austrian engineer Alois Negrelli showed that it would be possible to dig a waterway across the Isthmus of Suez. Scientific computations indicated that the water-level differential between the two seas would not present an obstacle to the project. Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French engineer and diplomat familiar with these precedents, arrived in Egypt in 1854 and dedicated himself to linking the two seas. Using his friendship with Saՙīd Paṣa, the new Egyptian khedive (viceroy), de Lesseps obtained a concession to form a company to construct the canal.
A number of problems plagued the project, particularly the strong British opposition to the canal’s construction, expressed most forcefully by Lord Palmerston , the British prime minister. Great Britain objected to the canal, fearing that it would facilitate and shorten the route to the Indian Ocean and jeopardize British colonial control of India—a threat posed earlier by Napoleon and not yet excluded in the age of imperial expansion. At the same time, any weakening of the Ottoman Empire, under whose sovereignty Egypt fell, would encourage Russia’s expansionist aims in the areas controlled by the Ottomans. Britain also feared that construction of the canal would encourage the separatist tendencies of local Egyptian centers of political power.
Accordingly, although the British themselves would have benefited enormously from a shorter sea route to their eastern possessions, they believed that their national interest would be better served by preventing any developments that might upset the delicate balance of power existing among the competing European states. Palmerston and his subordinates in the British foreign office and abroad exerted maximum pressure on the Ottoman sultans in Constantinople, on Emperor Napoleon III of France, and on the Egyptian khedive to veto de Lesseps’s canal project.
Not willing to be dissuaded, de Lesseps used his friendship with Saՙīd Paṣa to obtain broad licenses in 1854 and 1856 to build the waterway. Despite the lack of approval by Saՙīd’s overlord in Constantinople and the fear of offending any of the great powers (including France), de Lesseps created a corporate entity called the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez (Universal Suez Ship Canal Company; now known as SUEZ), which, beginning on December 15, 1858, operated the waterway until its nationalization on July 26, 1956. The company raised capital through its stock issues and began actual construction in April, 1859. Progress was slow, largely because of mounting British diplomatic pressure.
Eventually, the terms of the concessions granted by Khedive Saՙīd Paṣa were confirmed by the Turkish sultan, and the digging of the “world ditch” resumed at full throttle after its interruption from 1863 to 1866.
In the meantime, Ismāՙīl Pasha, Saՙīd Paṣa’s successor, had reneged on his obligation to provide Egyptian forced labor on the corvée system for the project in 1863. Napoleon III’s arbitration award made Ismāՙīl Pasha indemnify the Suez Canal Company with eighty million francs in exchange for his release from such obligation. Despite numerous technical and other difficulties and the necessity of building a freshwater canal from the Nile River to supply the Suez Canal Zone, the world-famous waterway was inaugurated with great fanfare. A galaxy of international guests, led by Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie of France, witnessed the opening of the canal on November 17, 1869. The distance of sea voyages was reduced by an average of two-thirds between Europe and the East, representing several thousand miles.
By a twist of irony, British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli took advantage of the extravagance of Khedive Ismāՙīl Pasha and his consequent need to raise funds by purchasing a controlling 44 percent share of stock in the Suez Canal Company for the British government in 1875. In 1882, the British took physical control of the canal zone when they defeated a native Egyptian force. The British did not evacuate the canal zone until 1956. By that time, the waterway’s original depth of twenty-six feet and bottom width of seventy-two feet had been sharply increased, a process that continued under Egyptian control of the canal in order to meet the demands of contemporary ship traffic.
To do justice to one of the engineering feats of modern times, several other aspects of the canal project must be mentioned, particularly its political and social dimensions. With regard to its impact on diplomacy, it is important to consider the varying attitudes of the other great powers, especially Prussia and Austria, toward the canal project. As to the canal’s impact on personal relations, the friendship of Saՙīd Paṣa and de Lesseps stands in marked contrast to the antipathy of Saՙīd Paṣa’s successor Ismāՙīl Pasha toward de Lesseps and his Suez Canal Company. Also critical was Napoleon III’s own shift from a position of neutrality to one of active support of de Lesseps and the pressure employed by British envoys to persuade the Ottoman sultan and members of his cabinet to oppose the project.
The social dimensions of the project, however, are most often overlooked. The human cost of the project was borne primarily by unskilled Egyptian workers, many of them peasants, who were seized from their villages and transported to the construction site. There, they worked under extreme conditions and lived in miserably unsanitary camps. Many of these workers never returned home. It was to them that President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt referred in his speech announcing the nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, when he declared that the waterway had been built on the skulls of 100,000 of his countrymen and that Egypt had benefited very little from the project since that time. De Lesseps died a few years after the liquidation of the company that was backing his failed Panama Canal project. His statue, which had stood at the northern entrance of the canal in Port Saՙīd, was toppled by the Egyptian populace on the occasion of Nasser’s speech.
Significance
The Suez Canal engineering project, along with other projects such as the transcontinental railroad in the United States, opened the door for increased world trade, allowing for the transportation of goods across and through vast landscapes. The canal also allowed colonial powers to reach farther into Africa to establish colonies throughout the continent.
After proving itself a key link in international shipping, the Suez Canal also became a political flashpoint on several occasions in the twentieth century. Both world wars interrupted trade on the waterway, for example. Most notably, Nasser's move to nationalize the canal touched off the Suez Crisis, in which Israel, the United Kingdom, and France invaded Egypt to regain control of the canal. Under heavy pressure from other countries, including the United States, the three invading nations withdrew in 1957. The incident was widely seen as a major setback for the UK and France as world powers, though Israel gained some navigation rights. Then, in 1967, the canal was closed by Egypt during the Six-Day War with Israel and remained shut until 1975. It subsequently resumed its role as a major trade route.
Suez Canal Today
In the twenty-first century the Suez Canal remains one of the most important waterways for global shipping. A major expansion project was begun in 2014, with most work concluding the following year. The so-called New Suez Canal project resulted in a second lane for part of the canal's length, allowing separated two-way traffic. Other parts of the existing canal were also expanded and deepened. The project was touted to greatly decrease the wait time for many ships passing through the canal and increase trade revenues. However, some ecologists expressed concern over potential environmental impacts.
By the early 2020s it was estimated that approximately 300 million tons of goods were shipped through the Suez Canal every year. The canal made headlines in March 2021 when a massive container ship, the Ever Given, became stuck in the canal after running aground in high winds. The obstruction blocked all traffic in the canal, interrupting cargo shipments around the world for about a week before the ship was finally refloated. Experts suggested the cost of the incident might reach $1 billion, indicating the great economic importance of the waterway.
Bibliography
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