The surprising life of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the Frenchman who, without being an engineer, created the Suez Canal

This November 17, 1869 will have been the most beautiful birthday present that the viscount ever received, during the inauguration of the Suez Canal. Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps, that he had no training as an engineer but knew the business and had the right contacts, He would celebrate his 64th birthday with the union of two seas, the Mediterranean and the Red, an ancient project that had been encouraged – and failed – by Egyptian kings and pharaohs, passed by the Persians, the Romans and even Napoleon Bonaparte.

Lesseps He was born in Versailles on November 19, 1805 and before devoting himself to major public works he was a diplomat, like his father, and is remembered as a consul in Malaga, Barcelona, ​​Lisbon and Alexandria, among other destinations. .

After his retirement from the world of external relations, he faced different business projects until he learned of the appointment of Said Pachá as viceroy of Egypt. The two were friends, for the new official had been brought up as a European under Lesseps himself when he had been consul in Alexandria. And as the French knew the reformist impulse of the viceroy, he proposed to build the canal. Lesseps had published in 1855 his book Percement de l’Esthme de Suez (“Perforation of the Suez isthmus”), which summarized his project in 300 pages.

Pyramids

It was first the king Sesostris, in 2000 BC who had the idea to build a canal, without much luck. Then the cunning pharaoh Ramses II, who would have been in power for 66 years, tried to continue the work, as did his colleague Necao II, until he decides to stop everything lest his enemies use him to invade his kingdom.

The canal would be navigable by the 30 ships of Darius I, the Persian king who had conquered Egypt in 515 BC and who ruled over half of the then known world. The canal was about 45 meters wide and a towpath had even been built to pull ships from land. It linked the Red Sea to the Bitter Lakes and the Timsah and was only passable in times of flooding.

The Romans also saw the potential, especially the emperor Trajan, who had given the order to rehabilitate him. At that time, the canal was known as the River of Trajan.

But it was Napoleon Bonaparte who saw the strategic value of having a channel and thus tilting the geopolitical balance in favor of France to the detriment of its enemy, Great Britain. But the diagnosis of your engineer Jean Baptiste Lepere It was conclusive: the two seas had a drop of nine meters and the construction of locks would be necessary. He concluded that the work was going on budget and that the conquests had other urgencies.

Lesseps started from the plan and studies of Louis Maurice Adolph Linant de Bellefonds, engineer who was for thirty years in charge of public works in Egypt, and set up – despite the British opposition which did not want to do anything with this project – a partnership, the Universal Company of the Suez Maritime Canal. The company would take 75% of the profits, the Egyptian government 15% and the remaining 10% would go to the founders.

In April 1859, the work began. About 1,500,000 Egyptians, in conditions close to slavery, had the Cyclopean task of initiating the digging of a canal by hand, it would have a length of 163 kilometers. There was never an exact figure, if they were 20 thousand or one hundred thousand deceased workers for illnesses and poor nutrition.

The chance of Lesseps That seemed to change when the Egyptian viceroy passed away and his successor, Ismael Pasha, did all he could to stop the work. But the French managed to interest Napoleon III, and the monarch himself unlocked the negotiations. Machines were incorporated which had to be designed and which alleviated, in part, the work of the workers. And so it was that on August 15, 1869, the two seas were united. At this point, double the budget had been spent.

Throw the house out the window

The opening night took place on November 17, 1869 in the town of Ismailia, located in the middle of the canal, and where the viceroy had his villa of rest. All costs were covered by the Lesseps company and the Egyptian government. Wooden pavilions were built, docks and everything was arranged to make the best party. And it was the viceroy himself who, in the preceding months, handed over the invitations by hand for a long European trip.

The attraction of the festivities – which lasted for weeks – was the wife of Napoleon III, Eugenia de Montijo (her aunt was Lesseps’ mother), who arrived on her yacht crisscrossing the Mediterranean ports and wearing a wardrobe of a hundred dresses from the biggest brands of the time. They were also European monarchs, religious dignitaries and Giuseppe Verdi had even been asked for a special opera for the occasion, but the composer refused. Instead, the 6,000 guests were delighted with the “Egyptian March,” which Johann Strauss Jr. composed that same year and premiered for the occasion.

When the Khedive Ismail Pasha, locked in a serious economic crisis, decided to sell the shares of the company, the English, who had been relegated, saw the opportunity and the British government acquired them and began to control the canal. By the Constantinople Convention signed on October 29, 1888, it was established that the canal would be open to the traffic of ships of all nations, both in times of peace and of war, and that it could not be blocked under any circumstances.

Lesseps he was the star of the moment. He returns to France with other projects under his arm. One of them was to unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He chose Panama, then in the hands of Colombia, as the right place. He did not do well in this company, in which he had embarked with his son Charles. Lack of funds, shady operations, added to deaths from malaria and yellow fever, determined that his business went bankrupt in 1889.

The father and son, accused by shareholders of mismanagement and corruption, were subjected to legal proceedings, after which they had to pay a fine of 3,000 francs, and the son served one year in prison. .

Lesseps was not the same as before. He fell into a deep depression and the newspapers reported that he suffered from senile weakness, which prevented him from getting out of bed. He died on December 7, 1894.

The chain’s history has gone beyond Lesseps. On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it to build, with the Soviet Union, the Aswan Dam to end the flooding in the Lower Nile. The sea crossing was the objective of the various clashes that took place between Arabs and Israelis. . Over the years, the new lesson the world has learned is that the effects of a stranded ship in the wrong place can also turn into global conflict. And big ones.

KEEP READING: