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The Suez Canal in Egypt, opened in 1869, links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, so ships between Europe and Asia no longer have to sail around Africa. Dug partly by forced labour and later fought over by empires, it still carries a large share of world trade.

Suez Canal

TradeEngineeringHistoryBusinessOcean

The story behind the card

The French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps led the company that dug the canal. In its early years tens of thousands of Egyptian peasants were made to work on it under the corvée, a system of compulsory unpaid labour, until the practice was stopped in 1864. Egypt's debts later forced it to sell its 44 per cent stake to Britain in 1875, and British troops stayed in the canal zone until 1956. That year President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the canal, and Britain, France and Israel invaded. International pressure, above all from the United States, forced them to withdraw, a turning point in the end of European empire in the Middle East. In March 2021 the container ship Ever Given ran aground and blocked the canal for six days.

Türkçe oku
Mısır'daki Süveyş Kanalı 1869'da açıldı ve Akdeniz'i Kızıldeniz'e bağladı; böylece Avrupa ile Asya arasında sefer yapan gemiler Afrika'nın çevresini dolaşmak zorunda kalmadı. Kısmen zorla çalıştırılan işçilerce kazılan ve sonra imparatorlukların üzerinde çekiştiği kanal, bugün de dünya ticaretinin önemli bir bölümünü taşıyor.

Kanalı kazan şirketin başında Fransız diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps vardı. İlk yıllarda on binlerce Mısırlı köylü, angarya denen ücretsiz ve zorunlu çalışma düzeniyle kanalda çalıştırıldı; bu uygulamaya 1864'te son verildi. Borç batağına düşen Mısır, 1875'te kanaldaki yüzde 44'lük hissesini Britanya'ya satmak zorunda kaldı; İngiliz askerleri kanal bölgesinde 1956'ya kadar kaldı. Aynı yıl Cumhurbaşkanı Cemal Abdünnasır kanalı millîleştirdi; Britanya, Fransa ve İsrail de Mısır'a saldırdı. Başta ABD olmak üzere uluslararası baskı onları geri çekilmeye zorladı; bu kriz, Avrupa'nın Orta Doğu'daki sömürge çağının sona ermesinde bir dönüm noktası oldu. Mart 2021'de Ever Given adlı konteyner gemisi karaya oturdu ve kanalı altı gün boyunca kapattı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Suez Canal
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