One hundred and fifty-five years ago years ago, on this day, November 17th, 1869, the Suez Canal opens.
The water of the two seas met on August 18th, 1869, and the Suez Canal was born; “the artery of prosperity for Egypt and the world”. That Canal was described by the late renowned geographer, Dr. Gamal Hemdan, as “the pulse of Egypt”. Six thousand guests attended the Canal’s legendary inauguration ceremony on November 17th, 1869; most importantly Empress Eugenie of France – wife of Emperor Napoleon the Third – as well as the Emperor of Austria, the King of Hungary, the Crown Prince of Prussia, the brother of the King of the Netherlands, the British Ambassador in Istanbul, Emir Abdelkader El-Djazairi, Prince Tawfiq – Crown Prince of Egypt -, the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, Prince Toson – son of the late Said Pasha -, Nubar Pasha, and many others. A procession of ships entered the canal that day (November 17th, 1869), headed by the L’Aigle; carrying the most important figures attending the inauguration ceremony on board, and followed by 77 ships; 50 of which were warships. The inauguration extravaganza cost Khedive Ismail approximately one and a half million Egyptian Pounds.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 288ppm. As of 2024 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was British imperialism, and the desire to be able to get to places they wanted to get to, without having to schlep all the way around. Cape of Good Hope, which has a long way and occasionally dangerous. And also, of course, to be able to get things from those places. This was before railways had made it that far.
What I think we can learn from this is that money makes the world go round and go round.
What happened next? So much! The British invasion of Egypt in 1883. The Suez crisis of 1956. And on and on…
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
References
Fred Jameson’s stuff in “Postmodernism” about this…
Also on this day:
November 17, 1968 – UK national newspaper flags carbon dioxide danger…
November 17, 1980 – International meeting about carbon dioxide build up.
