The Suez Canal
A hundred and sixty kilometres of ditch removes a voyage round Africa.
- When
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Opened in 1869 after a decade of construction using large-scale Egyptian corvée labour with heavy mortality, the canal cuts the London to Bombay route by around 7,000 kilometres. It shifts world shipping decisively toward steam, since sailing ships handle the Red Sea badly. Britain buys Egypt's shares in 1875 and occupies the country in 1882 largely to protect it — infrastructure driving empire rather than the other way round.