The Suez Canal – 1869

This is a summary of the major points from a history course on the middle east (source at the bottom)

Background

• After Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798, members of the scientific team uncovered traces of ancient canals
• Napoleon thought to dig a canal more or less where the Suez Canal is today.
  • This never happened because one of the French surveyors concluded erroneously that the Red Sea was 33 feet higher than the Mediterranean
• The later French withdrawal in 1801 left a power vacuum in Egypt
• In 1811, Muhammad Ali took full control of Egypt from the Mamluk and Ottomans and established his dynastic line
• French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps won concession in 1854 to create a company to build the Suez Canal.
  • Born in Versailles in 1805, de Lesseps was a diplomat.
  • In this role, he spent much of the 1830s based in Egypt
  • de Lesseps’s subsequent friendship with the Egyptian leader, Muhammad Ali, and son Sa’id Pasha helped him won the concession
  • de Lesseps obtained a 99-year concession to build and operate the canal,
  • In 1858, he formed Universal Suez Ship Canal Company
  • Sa’id Pasha held 22% in the company.  Remainder made available to investors (mostly French initially)
• The British initial complaints and objections were not due to failure to grasp the importance of the Canal, but rather because it benefits other countries’ interests, as well (e.g. rivals France and Russia)

Building The Canal

• Groundbreaking took place at Port Sa’id on 25 April 1859. The city was built and named after Sa’id Pasha.
• Work was completed exactly a decade later.
  • 1,500,000 people worked on the canal during the 10 years.
  • During the first four years, the manual toil was performed by forced labor—mainly Egyptian peasants
  • Concerns about European public opinion, brought forced labor to an end.  This contributed to costs rising steeply.
  • There were never fewer than 30,000 men employed on the project
  • The death toll stood as high as 100,000. 
• Town of Isma’ilia was built to house Suez Canal Company workers. Isma’ilia takes its name from Sa’id Pasha’s nephew and successor, Isma’il
• After Sa’id death, Isma’il became the 5th   khedive.  He supported the Canal project and was a keen modernizer
• Canal cut the sea voyage from India to Britain almost by half, slicing 4,500 miles from a single trip.
• Cost was twice as much as the original estimate.  This became a major cause of Egypt’s growing debt 

Opening The Canal

• November 17, 1869, Isma’il – sparing no expense – invited royalty, aristocracy, government officials, cultural icons, and the biggest celebrities of the day for three weeks of festivities, all paid by him.
• Isma’il  commissioned the construction of an opera house in Cairo to celebrate the canal’s opening.
• Isma’il also commissioned Verdi to write Opera Aida to celebrate the occasion
• Statue of Liberty was designed by Bartholdi  to represent progress in the form of Egyptian womanhood.
  • Initially intended to be put at the north entrance of the Canal, but funding could not be secured
  • Funding was later secured from the United State and the statue was dedicated to New York during Grover Cleveland presidency

Egypt’s Debt

• By 1875, Egypt’s financial crisis had come to a head.
• One asset  that could readily be converted to cash was Egypt’s shares in the Suez Canal.
• British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli saw an opportunity and bought the shares
  • Britain now owns 44% of the Canal.
  • The money was not enough to clear Egypt’s state debt.
  • Isma’il was forced to accept joint Anglo-French control over Egypt’s finances and government.

Revolt

• In 1878, Isma’il was forced to hand over his personal estates to Anglo-French control. He had to accept a reduced and humiliating status of a constitutional monarch.
• In 1879, a revolt ensued.  It was led by the disaffected Egyptian Army colonel Urabi Pasha.
• Military intervention by Britain followed.
• Isma’il was replaced by his son and Egypt would go on to be fully occupied and ruled by Britain until the 1950s.

Canal Impact

• It took many many years before the Egyptian economy could realize any benefits. If there is any winner in the meantime, it was the British Empire.
• In 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.
  • He viewed the canal as an economic lifeline.
  • This led to yet another British invasion, accompanied by French and Israeli forces.
• Britain and France withdrew on the orders of the United States and Soviet Union marking their dwindling power in the Middle East.
  • Nasser became a hero in the Arab World
• In 1962, the Egyptian government finally paid off its debt for the canal’s construction to the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company
• In 2014, the Egyptian government embarked on a grand building project to widen parts of the Suez Canal,
  • Plan is to add a new, 45-mile lane to run parallel with a stretch of the existing canal.
  • This $4 billion investment aims to to double the canal’s shipping capacity, and boost the economy.  

Source: Lecture 33 from “Turning Points in Middle Eastern History” by professor Eamonn Gearon of Johns Hopkins University (TheGreatCourses.com)