The Canal: In the Beginning

In 1858 the Universal Company of the Suez Maritime Canal was formed by Ferdinand de Lesseps who had in 1854 gained a ninety-nine year concession to dig and operate a sea level canal through the Isthmus of Suez to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas from Mohamed Said, the Viceroy of Egypt. At the time Egypt was ruled by Turkey and nominally ruled by the Turkish Sultan.

In Britain the House of Commons voted by 290 votes to 62 against participation in the scheme and were resolutely opposed to the venture that they saw as speculative and organized by a foreign and historically hostile power. The company was accordingly formed of French shareholders, French capital and French management with Egypt providing unpaid forced labour, substantial land grants and customs exemptions.

In 1866 the Turkish Sultan demanded alterations to the concession but the new Viceroy, Ismail, had to pay financial compensation to the Company. In 1867 the Viceroy faced bankruptcy and sought a purchaser for his shares and in 1869 the Suez Canal opened.

In 1875, the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, ignored both the opposition of his Chancellor and Foreign Secretary and purchased these shares for £4 million. This provoked an outburst of nationalism in Britain. Throughout the rest of the century and into the next the Canal was referred to varyingly as the 'swing door of Empire' or the 'jugular vein of world and Empire shipping'.

By the beginning of the 1880s, Egypt's international debt position had worsened to an extent where Ismail had been deposed by the British and French who had imposed financial controls over the Egyptian government. The response was an upsurge of Egyptian nationalism, which in its turn provoked a joint ultimatum from Britain and France who claimed their property and lives of their nationals were endangered.

Anti-European rioting in Alexandra occurred in June 1822 and the Royal Navy bombarded Alexandria and a British military expedition under Sir Garnet Wolseley used the Canal to invade Egypt, landing at Ismailia and achieving a victory at Tel al-Kebir. Egypt was under British occupation. The vestiges of joint Anglo-French control were quickly dismantled and Turkey remained the sovereign power but the Khedive remained under British control and became part of the British Empire as a protectorate.

A convention was signed in 1888 to ensure the Suez Canal's viability and free passage for all vessels. The First World War ended Turkish sovereignty and Egypt became a formal protectorate of the British Empire. In 1922, Egypt was declared independent but Britain retained a military presence to defend the canal, Egypt, foreign interests and the Government of the Sudan, which were retained as reserved areas of Britain interest. The British proclaimed Sultan Faud as King.

In 1936, the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty on 26th August, which terminated the military occupation of Egypt and established an alliance between Britain and Egypt. This included the provision to deploy military forces if war threatened the Canal or Egypt but the Egyptian government retained control.

The Second World War saw Germany and Italy both try and penetrate Egypt and take control of the Suez Canal, although Egypt had not declared war. If they could have taken the Suez Canal, the time for reinforcement to reach Britain from the Far East would have been much greater. Although the Canal was mined by German aircraft at various points in the war, each time the Canal was swiftly cleared and brought back into use. Once the war in the Mediterranean and North Africa ended, the Canal finally came into its own allowing a much faster rate of transport to the Far East.

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