Volume 4 Number 028

Ferdinand de Lesseps - II

Lead: Run out of a brilliant career in the French diplomatic corps by an ungrateful government, Ferdinand de Lesseps embarked on the great creation of his life: the Canal.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: For centuries the ocean transport of goods between and Eastern Asia had stumbled over the land bridge at Suez. National rulers as well as merchants had dreamed of cutting a waterway through this relatively short stretch of

empty desert. Until such a canal was built, traders would bring merchandise or passengers from East or West and be forced to disembark, carry goods overland, and load them on other ships for the final journey. This bottleneck was irritating, cumbersome and expensive.

Engineers for Emperor had done preliminary designs on a sea- level canal and while posted as a diplomat to the French Consulate in early in his career, Ferdinand de Lesseps had been fascinated by them. He had also met and befriended Sa'id Pasha, the son of the Turkish viceroy and when Sa'id succeeded his father, the young man

invited de Lesseps to return and build the canal.

There were many obstacles facing the Frenchman. He had to raise millions of francs in private subscription and government loans. He had to fend off resistance from the British who were not keen on having a French-controlled canal across one of the vital strategic choke-points in imperial lifeline between Britain and India. Engineers were skeptical because he was not one of their number. Other critics faulted his leadership because he was neither scientist, nor financier nor statesman. He overcame them all, established a French construction company, raised the money from Sa'id Pasha, but

mostly from small investors in , and built the canal in a decade. On November 17, 1869, French Empress Eugenie formally opened the canal and the once-failed diplomat was a national hero. Next time: One canal too many.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Resources

Beatty, Charles Robert Longfield. De Lesseps of Suez: The Man and His Times. New York, NY: Harper, 1956.

McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Canal 1870-1914. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1977.

Pudney, John. Suez: De Lesseps' Canal. Greenwood, CT: Praeger, 1969.

Simon, Maron J. The Panama Affair New York, NY: Scribner Publishing, 1971.

Skinner, James M. "France's Adieu to Panama: La Compagnie Nouvelle on the Isthmus, 1894-1904" Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History 10 (1982): 427-437.

Copyright by Dan Roberts Enterprises, Inc.