The History Book

232

T

he ceremonial opening, on

November 17, 1869, of the

Suez Canal, linking the

Mediterranean and the Red seas,

was an emphatic declaration of

European—specifically, French –

technological and financial

means. It was also a significant

illustration of a rapidly emerging

and increasingly interdependent

global economy, featuring goods

from all parts of the world being

traded on an ever-larger scale.

This was a process dominated by

Europe’s colonial powers and the

United States, overwhelmingly its

principal beneficiaries. It was

simultaneously a further boost

to Europe’s imperial ambitions.

The Suez Canal reduced the

sailing route between London and

Bombay by 41 percent, and the

route between London and Hong

Kong by 26 percent. The impact

on trade was plain to see. However,

reduced sailing times also greatly

simplified the defense of India and

its crucial markets, Britain’s key

imperial goal. By the end of the

19th century, trade in the Indian

Ocean, protected by no fewer than

21 Royal Navy bases, had become

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SUEZ CANAL

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Imperial economies

BEFORE

1838 The first Atlantic

crossing under steam power

alone is made.

1858 The first transatlantic

telegraph cable is laid.

AFTER

1869 The Suez Canal opens,

slashing sailing times

between Europe and the East.

1878 The Gold Standard is

adopted in Europe; the US

follows suit in 1900.

1891 The Trans-Siberian

railway is begun. It is

completed in 1905.

1899 –1902 Britain aims to

secure control of South Africa

in the Second Boer War.

1914 The Panama Canal,

linking the Atlantic and

Pacific oceans, opens.

The Suez Canal is constructed,

facilitating global trade by shortening

shipping routes substantially.

The Industrial Revolution allows the rapid

development of Western economies.

Developed countries build empires and use their

colonial muscle to feed their industries.

Technology and transport develop

to support this new global economy.

almost a British monopoly, a point

further underlined when Britain

gained control of the Suez Canal

in 1888 after having invaded and

occupied Egypt six years earlier.

This “gunboat diplomacy” proved

a remarkably effective means of

protecting British interests.

The Panama Canal

The Suez Canal was just one

of a number of similar massive

engineering undertakings in the

interests of imperial trade. An

even more challenging project

was the construction, begun in

New classes of

workers hanker for

consumer goods.

New industries

are hungry for

more resources.

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233

The Suez Canal opened in 1869 and

dramatically cut sailing times between

Europe and Asia. This provided a

massive boost for trade, which, in turn,

spurred technological advances.

1881, of the Panama Canal in

Central America, linking the

Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It

too was a French initiative, but

one dogged by controversy and a

consistently hostile climate that

cost the lives of 22,000 laborers.

The United States eventually

completed the Panama Canal in

August 1914, stepping in when the

French finally admitted defeat. It

was the largest and most expensive

engineering project in the world. It,

too, dramatically reduced sailing

times, shortening the Liverpool to

San Francisco route by 42 percent,

and the New York to San Francisco

route by 60 percent.

US involvement

The fact that the United States

took over the construction of the

Panama Canal underlines a crucial

shift in US attitudes: they were

committing not just to expanding

trade but also to advancing US

overseas interests. This had begun

in 1898, when the US itself became

a colonial power, taking over the

Philippines from Spain.

The process began to accelerate

under the presidency of Theodore

Roosevelt (1901–09). He actively

advocated US military involvement,

above all, in Latin America, to

ensure stability as a means of

advancing American interests.

One consequence of this was his

strengthening of the US Navy,

the Great White Fleet.

Roosevelt’s successor, William Taft,

pursued a more legalistic variant

of the policy—Dollar Diplomacy –

by which American commercial

interests, chiefly in Latin America

and East Asia, were to be secured

by the full backing of the US

government, and huge overseas

investments encouraged.

Trains and telegraphs

At the same time, major new

railways were constructed in

both the US and Europe. The east

and west coasts of the US were

first linked by rail in 1869, with

the opening of the 1,907-mile

(3,070-km) Central Pacific Railroad.

By 1905, there were eight more

transcontinental rail lines across the

United States and one in Canada.

The building of the Trans-

Siberian Railway in Russia, between

1891 and 1905, was undertaken in ❯❯

See also: Marco Polo reaches Shangdu 104–105 ■ The opening of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange 180–83 ■

Stephenson’s Rocket enters service 220–25 ■ The California Gold Rush 248–49 ■ The Meiji Restoration 252–53 ■

The opening of the Eiffel Tower 256–57

CHANGING SOCIETIES

The scheme in question

is the cutting of

a canal through the

Isthmus of Suez.

Ferdinand de Lesseps

French diplomat on his proposals

for the Suez Canal (1852)

May the Atlantic telegraph,

under the blessing of Heaven,

prove to be a bond of perpetual

peace and friendship between

the kindred nations.

President Buchanan

Telegram to Queen Victoria (1858)

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