The French Built The Suez Canal And Then The British Stole It
The turbulent history of the founding of one of the world’s most important waterways
The Suez Canal is one of the world’s most important waterways that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. The existence of the Suez Canal, similar to the Panama Canal, cuts down global travel time for commercial ships by weeks. Despite being so important, few people know the origins of the Suez Canal and the lengths that people have gone to own, operate and protect the vital canal.
The formation of the canal, and its early years of operation, were fraught with all manners of conflict from hostile stock takeovers, to forced labor. The French ultimately came up with the idea, financed it and saw it to completion but they did not hold the Suez Canal for long until the British came in and did what the British Empire did best. They took it.
A grand idea
A canal through the desert for the purposes of trade was not new. Archeologists and historians have found ample evidence that this idea was floated and tried multiple times through the centuries…
