Suez Canal Opens

The 193-kilometer artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said to the Red Sea at Suez opened to maritime traffic after ten years of construction. French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps organized the project under a concession from Egyptian ruler Said Pasha. Tens of thousands of Egyptian laborers, many conscripted through corvee, excavated the sea-level channel across the Isthmus of Suez. The canal reduced the London-to-Bombay shipping route by approximately 7,000 kilometers and intensified European strategic competition over Egypt.