Egypt. Suez Canal. Vessel entering Salt Lake. Red Sea. In 1854 and 1856, Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained a concession from Sa'id Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, to create a company to construct a canal open to ships of all nations. The excavation took some 10 years using forced labour of Egyptian workers during the first years. Some sources estimate that over 30, 000 people were working on the canal at any given period, that more than 1.5 million people from various countries were employed, and that thousands of laborers died, many of them from cholera and similar epidemics. The canal opened under French control on 17 November 1869. The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade and it played an important role in increasing European colonization of Africa. Photoglob Company, Detroit Publishing Company, 1905. | |
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