3. Lesseps quotation in Lord Kinross, Between Two Seas, p. 148. For public-health records, see “Report of the Health Service,” L’Isthme de Suez, May 1, 1861, in 1521 CAMT. On treatment of workers, see report of Henry Bulwer, Jan. 1, 1863, in FO 78/1795 PRO; J. Clerk, “Suez Canal,” pp. 206–7.
4. Statements of Darby Griffith in the House of Commons, June 21, 1861, and May 16, 1862, in Hansard’s.
5. Ghislain de Diesbach, Ferdinand de Lesseps, pp. 200–201; J. E. Nourse, The Maritime Canal of Suez, pp. 24–25; statement of the mufti of Cairo, in 1172 CAMT.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE NEW VICEROY AND HIS MINISTER
1. “Ismail: Pacha of Egypt,” Harper’s Magazine, no. 39, 1869, pp. 739–41; Pierre Crabites, Ismail, pp. 31–32; “Mort de S. A. Muhammad-Said Pacha,” L’Isthme de Suez, Feb. 1, 1863, in 1521 CAMT.
2. Bulwer, report, Jan. 4, 1863, in FO 78/1795 PRO. Roger Owen, The Middle East in the World Economy 1800-1914, pp. 122–29; David Landes, Bankers and Pashas, pp. 128ff; Crabites, Ismail, p. 144; F. Robert Hunter, “Egypt Under the Successors of Muhammad Ali,” in The Cambridge History of Egypt, vol. 2, pp. 180–190; Emine Foat Tugay Three Centuries, pp. 125–37; on Ismail’s attitude towards Europe, see P. J. Vatikiotis, The History of Egypt, pp. 70–89. Abdin Palace still sits in Cairo and is still used as the center of government. Various knickknacks and artifacts from Ismail’s palace and from the army of the time can be seen in the Military Museum at the Citadel in Cairo, and at the National Museum at Port Said.
3. Ismail to assembled consuls quoted in G. Douin, Histoire du règne du Khédive Ismail, vol. 1, Les Premières Années du règne (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1933), pp. 2–3. Press reports found in J. E. Nourse, The Maritime Canal of Suez, p. 29. The statement about Ismail’s being more canaliste than Lesseps has been widely quoted, but there are slight variations in the phrasing. This one is taken from Crabites, Ismail, p. 45. See also John Marlowe, World Ditch, p. 155. Ismail’s later statements on the corvée found in Colquhoun to Foreign Office, Jan. 23 and 24, 1863, in FO 78/1795 PRO.
4. Quotation about Napoleon from George Edgar-Bonnet, Ferdinand de Lesseps, p. 371. On the British stance, see K. Bell, “British Policy Towards the Construction of the Suez Canal, 1859–1865,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, pp. 121–43. On Abdul Aziz’s visit, see Vatikiotis, History of Egypt, pp. 74–75; Douin, Histoire, vol. I, pp. 9-17.
5. Nubar Pacha, Mémoires de Nubar Pacha; Mirit Boutros-Ghali, “Les Mémoires de Nubar Pacha,” in Groupe de Recherches et d’Études sur le Proche-Orient, L’Égypte au XIX siècle, pp. 35–47; F. Robert Hunter, Egypt Under the Khedives, 1805-1879, pp. 165–74; Edgar-Bonnet, Lesseps, pp. 371–77.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: FERDINAND FIGHTS BACK
1. Lesseps to General Assembly, July 15, 1863, quoted in George Edgar-Bonnet, Ferdinand de Lesseps, pp. 381–82. Lesseps to Théodore de Lesseps, Aug. 28, 1863, in Ferdinand de Lesseps, Lettres 1863-1864, pp. 326–27.
2. Court papers against Nubar, in 1165 CAMT. Lesseps to the Council, Oct. 13, 1863, in Edgar-Bonnet, Lesseps, p. 388.
3. Nubar on Lesseps and story of the shareholder approaching Nubar in Nubar Pacha, Mémoires de Nubar Pacha, pp. 223–28. For the exchange between Nubar and Lesseps, see also Nubar, letter, Oct. 14, 1863, and Lesseps’s reply, in Lesseps, Lettres 1863-1864, pp. 388–92. This scene is nicely paraphrased in Lord Kinross, Between Two Seas p. 185.
4. Émile Ollivier to Duc de Morny, Jan. 16, 1864, in 1165 CAMT.
5. Lesseps to emperor, Jan. 6, 1864, quoted in Charles Beatty, De Lesseps of Suez, p. 232. Though Lesseps refers to i860, the emperor’s crucial support had actually come at the end of 1859; see page 160.
6. Quoted in Edgar-Bonnet, Lesseps, p. 399.
7. Report, Nubar to Morny, “Question des corvées,” March 1864, in 1165 CAMT. Nubar, letters to Madama Nubar, in Nubar, Mémoires, pp. 233–34. Palmerston to House of Commons, in The Times, April 12, 1864.
8. Used as a piece of propaganda for the company, the meeting was summarized and the speeches were reprinted in L’Isthme de Suez, Feb. 15, 1864; inauguration of Sweet Water Canal reported in ibid., Jan. 15, 1864, both in 1521 CAMT.
9. The voluminous records of the arbitration commission are in 1165 CAMT.
10. Quote from Nubar, Mémoires, p. 239. Text of the arbitration (Sentence Arbi-trale), July 6, 1854, in 0725 CAMT.
11. David Landes, Bankers and Pashas, pp. 189ff; G. Douin, Histoire du règne du Khédive Ismail, vol. 1, p. 141; Crabites, Ismail, pp. 30–40.
12. Maxime Du Camp, Souvenirs littéraires, p. 103, quoted in Ghislain de Diesbach, Ferdinand de Lesseps, p. 148.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: MEN AND MACHINES
1. Digest of negotiations prepared by the company’s Conseil d’Administration, in 0633 CAMT.
2. Nathalie Montel, Le Chantier du Canal de Suez, pp. 72–73, 265–70.
3. Ibid., pp. 231ff; Tom Peters, Building the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1996), pp. 178–201; J. E. Nourse, The Maritime Canal of Suez, pp. 31–38; J. Clerk, “Suez Canal,” pp. 88–95; “Chronique de l’isthme,” L’Isthme de Suez, Sept. 15, 1864, in 1521 CAMT; minutes from the Annual General Assembly of Shareholders, Oct. 5, 1866, L’Isthme de Suez, Oct. 12–15, 1866, in 1520 CAMT. Cost per cubic meter found in various work contracts in the Voisin papers, in 1182 CAMT. Each annual shareholders’ meeting included an extensive report on the status of the work. See also Lavalley, report to Civil Society of Engineers, Sept. 21, 1866, L’Isthme de Suez, Oct. 15, 1866, in 1523 CAMT.
4. Lesseps, report to shareholders, Aug. 1, 1866, in 0022 CAMT.
5. Comments about the fishermen in Lesseps, speech in Lyon, Feb. 12, 1865, L’Isthme de Suez, March 1, 1865, in 1523 CAMT. See also Laroche to Voisin, April 11, 1864; Voisin to Gerardin, April 19, 1864; Lesseps to Girardin, May 1, 1864, all in 3297 CAMT.
6. “Les Délégations commerciales dans L’Isthme de Suez,” L’Isthme de Suez, May 1, 1865, in 1523 CAMT.
7. “Le Bilan du cholera,” L’Isthme de Suez, Aug. 15, 1865, in 1523 CAMT. Press clippings from Journal de travaux -publics and subsequent court papers, also in 1523 CAMT. For the history of cholera, see Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962); Norman Longmate, King Cholera (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1966); Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), p. 497.
8. “Lord Palmerston,” L’Isthme de Suez, Nov. 1, 1865.
9. Quoted in F Robert Hunter, Egypt Under the Khedives, 1805–1879, p. 35.
10. Text of the agreement between the company and the Egyptian government, Feb. 22, 1866, and text of the sultan’s firman, March 19, 1866, in Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald, The Great Canal at Suez, pp. 329–33.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE CANAL GOES TO PARIS
1. “Rapport de M. Ferdinand de Lesseps,” minutes, General Assembly of Shareholders, Aug. 1, 1867, in 0022 CAMT; “Assemblée des actionnaires,” La Presse, Aug. 5, 1867, in 1018 CAMT.
2. Blunt quoted in John Bierman, Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire, p. 259. Other sources for the exposition include, Pierre Miquel, Le Second Empire, pp. 376–404; Annie Cohen-Solal, Painting American: The Rise of American Artists, Paris 1867—New York 1948 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), pp. 3–63; Patricia Mainardi, Arts and Politics of the Second Empire: The Universal Expositions of 1855 and 1867 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987); Victor Hugo quoted in Arthur Chandler, “The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867,” World’s Fair Magazine, no. 3, 1986; Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris (New York: Knopf, 2002), pp. 245–47. On the culture of industrialization in France, see Jean-Pierre Daviet, La Société industrielle en France (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1997).
3. “L’Égypte à l’Exposition Universelle de 1867,” L’Isthme de Suez, April 1, 1866, and “Autour de l’Exposition Universelle,” L’Isthme de Suez, May 1, 1867, both in 1523 CAMT; “Exposition Universelle: L’Isthme de Suez,” Journal des débats, July 22, 1867, in 1018 CAMT; “L’Égypte,�
� Le Monde, Nov. 13, 1867, in 1019 CAMT; Robert Solé, L’Égypte, passion française, pp. 208–15.
4. Description of panorama in Le Figaro, June 8, 1867. Théophile Gautier, in Le Globe artiste et industriel, Oct. 8, 1867, in 1019 CAMT.
5. H. Vrignault, “Cent soixante-dix kilomètres,” La Presse, June 7, 1867; “Inauguration de l’exposition,” Le Soleil, June 6, 1867; “L’Isthme de Suez à l’exposition,” Le Siècle, July 29, 1867, all in 1018 CAMT.
6. Giles Lambert, Auguste Mariette, p. 219.
7. Standard, Sept. 28, 1867; Money Market Review, Sept. 28, 1867, in 1019 CAMT. Critical reactions in the French press found in a variety of clippings dating from late Sept. and early Oct., in 1018 CAMT.
8. The transcripts of the Legislative Corps debates are in 1166 CAMT. Quotation from Journal de Paris, Sept. 25, 1867, in 1018 CAMT.
9. “Les Autres Lesseps,” Paris Magazine, Jan. 13, 1867, in 1017 CAMT; “Ferdinand de Lesseps,” Journal de Nice, Dec. 1, 1867, in 1019 CAMT.
10. Roger Owen, The Middle East in the World Economy, 1800-1914, pp. 15off; David Landes, Bankers and Pashas, pp. 173ff. On Ismail’s reception in France, see Solé, L’Égypte, pp. 216–28; “Ismail en France,” L’Isthme de Suez, June 15, 1867, in 1523 CAMT; Nubar quotation in Nubar Pacha, Mémoires de Nubar Pacha, pp. 311–12.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE FINAL STAGES
1. Each month, a detailed status report was published by the company and then printed in the company’s journal and in many of the leading French papers. Though the company certainly had an interest in presenting its progress in the best light, it could not publish blatantly false data. Too many experts were visiting the canal zone, and they would have been able to tell if there was a significant discrepancy between what the company said and what was actually happening on the ground. See, for instance, “Situation générale des travaux à la fin du mois de décembre 1867,” L’Isthme de Suez, Jan. 15–18, 1868, in 1523 CAMT.
2. Quoted in Ghislain de Diesbach, Ferdinand de Lesseps, p. 238. Population figures from L’Isthme de Suez, May 15, 1868, in 1523 CAMT.
3. For a sample of European press coverage on the judicial disputes, see multiple clippings in 1020 CAMT, such as “La Réforme judiciare en Égypte,” La Presse, Sept. 13, 1868; “La Jurisdiction consulaire en Égypte,” L’Opinion nationale, Oct. 1, 1868; “Des Tribunaux mixtes en Orient,” La Patrie, Oct. 2, 1868.
4. Editorial in La Terre sainte, Jan. 23, 1868, in 1019 CAMT. Article on the courts as a “school” for Egypt, in L’Opinion nationale, Oct. 12, 1868, in 1020 CAMT.
5. The customs-duty dispute is extensively documented in 3599 CAMT.
6. L’Isthme de Suez, May 15, 1867, in 1523 CAMT; estimates of tonnage in Lesseps, report to shareholders, Aug. 1868, in 0023 CAMT.
7. L. Alloury, “Panorama,” Le Courrier français, June 12, 1868, in 1021 CAMT.
8. The Times, Dec. 29, 1868, and Feb. 18, 1869. Riou quoted in Pudney, Suez, p. 139.
9. Quote about Moses in Diesbach, Lesseps, p. 251. The letter from Ismail to Lesseps, April 23, 1869, is widely quoted in a number of books; the version quoted is my translation from a copy of the original, marked “confidentielle,” found in 1172 CAMT.
10. The Times, April 12, 1869. Quotation about Palmerston in Charles Beatty De Lesseps of Suez, p. 249.
11. June Hargrove, “Liberty: Bartholdi’s Quest for a Visual Metaphor,” The World & I, July 1986; Marvin Trachtenberg, The Statue of Liberty (New York: Penguin, 1986); Ahmed Yousseff, La Fascination de l’Égypte, pp. 411–12.
12. Various issues of L’Isthme de Suez in 1523 CAMT.
CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE DESERT IS PARTED
1. Breakdown of the expenses for the festival in 1025 CAMT.
2. Quoted in Christophe Pincemaille, L’Impératrice Eugénie: De Suez à Sedan (Paris: Payot, 2000), p. 107.
3. Lists of invitations in 1734 CAMT. “Rapport: Présénté à l’Assemblée générale du 2 août 1869,” in 1023 CAMT. Assorted French press clippings and publicity about Lesseps and the opening, July and Aug. 1869, also in 1023 CAMT. Advertisements for excursions, in 1024 CAMT. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 26, 1869.
4. L’Isthme de Suez, Aug. 18, 1869, in 1523 CAMT.
5. Pincemaille, L’Impératrice Eugénie, pp. 163ff; Robert Solé, L’Égypte, passion française, pp. 229–36.
6. Jean-Marie Carré, Voyageurs et écrivains français en Égypte, pp. 200–209, 305-8.
7. Quoted in Daniel Boorstin, The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination (New York: Random House, 1992), p. 474.
8. Much of this chapter relies on more than a thousand articles and clippings in 1024 CAMT from Oct. and Nov. 1869. Reports about the preparations can be found in leading French papers such as Le Temps, Le Réveil, Le Figaro, Le Moniteur universel, and Le Siècle, and there is a clippings file dedicated to the opening ceremonies, in 0723 CAMT. Arrow quotation in Sir Frederick Arrow, Fortnight in Egypt at the Opening of the Suez Canal (London, 1869). See also “The Opening of the Suez Canal,” Blackwood’s Magazine (Jan.-Feb.-Mar. 1870); F. A. Eaton, “The Suez Canal,” Macmillan’s Magazine, Dec. 1869, pp. 82–95. Lengthy dispatches were published in The Times, Nov. 20 and Dec. 7, 1869. Nubar Pasha gave his account of the ceremonies, in Nubar Pacha, Mémoires de Nubar Pacha, pp. 359–65. There are also colorful descriptions in Lord Kinross, Between Two Seas, pp. 236ff; John Marlowe, World Ditch, pp. 223–34; and Ghislain de Diesbach, Ferdinand de Lesseps, pp. 262–71; these rely on a smaller set of newspapers or earlier secondary accounts, however.
9. Lesseps, Lettres, 1864-1869. L’Isthme de Suez, Dec. 15, 1869, in 1523 CAMT.
CHAPTER TWENTY: THE LEGACY
1. Roger Owen, The Middle East in the World Economy, 1800-1914, p. 127. Most of the information and quotations in this chapter can be found in a wide variety of secondary sources, all of which have been cited previously.
2. The single best account of the Panama Canal is David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977).
3. Quoted in Derek Hopwood, Egypt: Politics and Society 1945-90 (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 48. See also the encyclopedic account of the Suez crisis in Keith Kyle, Suez (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991); and, for facts about the modern canal, George Lenczowski, The Middle East in World Affairs: Fourth Edition (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1980).
Select Bibliography
A note on the sources: Most of the narrative derives from primary sources. Ferdinand de Lesseps left several volumes of published letters, and major newspapers and journals in France, Great Britain, and throughout Europe reported on the canal, its politics, and its finances throughout this period. In addition, the Suez Canal Company archives are housed in Roubaix, France, at the Centre des Archives du Monde du Travail, and these were vital. Equally important were the records of the British Foreign Office for these years, which can be found at the Public Records Office in Kew, London. An underutilized source are the papers of Prosper Enfantin, which are located in the Arsenal Library in Paris and which cover not only the politics of the Saint-Simonians but the initial stages of the canal as well. There are very few Arabic sources, either in archives in Cairo or in published form, and with a notable exception or two, most of the secondary sources in Arabic rely on French and English accounts of the canal. The following is a list of the more important secondary sources in English and French that were consulted during the course of the research.
Adkins, Lesley and Roy. The Keys of Egypt: The Race to Read the Hieroglyphs (New York: HarperCollins, 2000).
Anderson, M. S. The Eastern Question (London: Macmillan, 1986).
Annesley, George. The Rise of Modern Egypt: A Century and a Half of Egyptian History, 1798-1957 (Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1994).
Ashley, Evelyn. The Life and Correspondences of Viscount Palmerston (London: Richard Bentley & Sons, 1879).
Asprey, Robert. The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte (New York: Basic Books, 2000).
Barzun, Jacques. From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present (Ne
w York: HarperCollins, 2000).
Beatty Charles. De Lesseps of Suez: The Man and His Times (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1956).
Bell, Herbert C. F. Lord Palmerston (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1936).
Bierman, John. Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire (New York: St. Martin’s, 1988).
Bradford, Sarah. Disraeli (Briarcliff Manor: Stein & Day, 1982).
Brent, Peter. Far Arabia: Explorers of the Myth (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977).
Bressler, Fenton. Napoleon III: A Life (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1999).
Brookner, Anita. Romanticism and Its Discontents (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2000).
Brown, Frederick. Zola: A Life (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).
Brown, L. Carl. International Politics and the Middle East (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).
Cannadine, David. Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Cannon, Byron. Politics of Law and the Courts in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988).
Carlisle, Robert. The Proffered Crown: Saint-Simonianism and the Doctrine of Hope (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).
Carré, Jean-Marie. Voyageurs et Écrivains Français en Égypte (Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie du Caire, 1956).
Parting the Desert Page 37