1859
Ground Broken for Suez Canal
At Port Said, Egypt, ground is broken for the
Suez Canal, an artificial waterway intended to stretch 101 miles across the
isthmus of Suez and connect the Mediterranean and the Red seas. Ferdinand de
Lesseps, the French diplomat who organized the colossal undertaking, delivered
the pickax blow that inaugurated construction.
Artificial canals have been built on the Suez
region, which connects the continents of Asia and Africa, since ancient times.
Under the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, a channel connected the Bitter Lakes to
the Red Sea, and a canal reached northward from Lake Timsah as far as the Nile
River. These canals fell into disrepair or were intentionally destroyed for
military reasons. As early as the 15th century, Europeans speculated about
building a canal across the Suez, which would allow traders to sail from the
Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea, rather than having to sail
the great distance around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
The first serious survey of the isthmus
occurred during the French occupation of Egypt at the end of the 18th century,
and General Napoleon Bonaparte personally inspected the remains of an ancient
canal. France made further studies for a canal, and 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, and in 1856 the Suez Canal Company was formed and
granted the right to operate the canal for 99 years after completion of the
work.
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. Ferdinand de Lesseps would later
attempt, unsuccessfully, to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. He died
in 1894.
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. In 1875,
Great Britain became the largest shareholder in the Suez Canal Company when it
bought up the stock of the new Ottoman governor of Egypt. Seven years later, in
1882, Britain invaded Egypt, beginning a long occupation of the country. The
Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 made Egypt virtually independent, but Britain
reserved rights for the protection of the canal.
After World War II, Egypt pressed for
evacuation of British troops from the Suez Canal Zone, and in July 1956
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal, hoping to charge
tolls that would pay for construction of a massive dam on the Nile River. In
response, Israel invaded in late October, and British and French troops landed
in early November, occupying the canal zone. Under pressure from the United
Nations, Britain and France withdrew in December, and Israeli forces departed
in March 1957. That month, Egypt took control of the canal and reopened it to commercial
shipping.
Ten years later, Egypt shut down the canal
again following the Six Day War and Israel’s occupation of the Sinai peninsula.
For the next eight years, the Suez Canal, which separates the Sinai from the
rest of Egypt, existed as the front line between the Egyptian and Israeli
armies. In 1975, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat reopened the Suez Canal as a
gesture of peace after talks with Israel. Today, an average of 50 ships
navigate the canal daily, carrying more than 300 million tons of goods a year.
