Between Two Seas - The Creation of the Suez Canal

This book marks the centenary of the Suez Canal. The creation of Ferdinand de Lesseps, this gigantic undertaking was a product of individual enterprise, achieved without international support and in defiance of strong opposition from Britain, weighing fears of a French predominance in Egypt against the obvious advantages of a shorter British route to India. Lord Kinross tells the story of the resulting political conflict, largely between Lord Palmerston on the one hand and de Lesseps himself on the other, which failed to prevent the Canal's construction, but delayed its completion by more than a decade. The Canal was completed and opened by the Empress Eugenie in 1869. Now that the two seas were irrevocably joined there was an abrupt reversal in Britain's policy towards it. Thanks to the vision and resource of Disraeli, Britain acquired the Khedive's shareholding in the Canal, thus obtaining a voice in its management. Britain then ensured the protection of the Canal by occupying Egypt, as she had feared that France would do, changing the history of the Middle East and causing a sequence of momentous events over the next hundred years...