Suez Canal Construction
Suez Canal Company
Suez Canal Crisis
Importance of Suez Canal in the current world trade
lunes, 1 de junio de 2015
INTRODUCTION...
Egypt is located in the extreme North-East of Africa. It is crossed from south to north by the river Nile, which flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The desert covers more than 90 % of Egypt. The Egyptians have lived on the banks of the river Nile or close to the canals. Each year the Nile overflowed and flooded the fields to its banks fertilizing them, generating food surpluses.
The Suez Canal located in Egypt is a long canal that connects the Nile River in Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Due to its unique geographic location, the Suez Canal is considered as an important international navigation canal and maritime transport of special importance to the world trade and to Egypt as well.
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This is one of the most important waterways in the world. Arabia, Egypt and some European countries were benefited from this canal with its help over irrigation and strategic military advantages. Because of the privileged location of the Suez Canal there have been diplomatic crises and sometimes wars among societies throughout history.
SUEZ CANAL CONSTRUCTION
Although the construction of the Suez Canal did not finish until 1869, there is a history that relates what happened at the beginning of its foundation. Egyptians used excavation to establish an artificial canal and create a connection between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea throughout the River Nile.The Egypt Pharaoh Senausert III was the first who initiated with these excavations.
The Canal Suez was opened by Empress Eugenie who was the wife of Napoleon III. When it opened was only 25 feet deep, 72 feet wide at the bottom, and 200 to 300 feet wide at the surface. For this, very few ships navigated in this year. Improvements began in 1876, the Canal quickly grew and became one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes. Afterwards, this canal was abandoned because of sedimentation and reopened in many occasions.
After World War II, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Canal with the idea to charge tolls that would pay the construction of a massive dam on the Nile River. For this reason,Israel was invaded and British and French troops occupied the Canal zone. Later, the troops left this place because of the pressure of the United Nations and Egypt reopened the Canal for commercial shipping.
SUEZ CANAL COMPANY...
The Suez Canal Company was a corporation formed in 1858 by Ferdinand de Lesseps a French diplomat; this corporation constructed and operated the Suez Canal between 1859 and 1869. In the beginning the company was principally operated by French investors but Egypt also had a significant stake. Different organizations were part of this company and between their associates had an Egyptian nationality that was responsible for navigations and a head office located in France. Its workforce was made up of workers from the Mediterranean basin and its main shareholder was the British State.
Before 1945, this was a colonial company that only focused on the operation of the canal but after the Second World War, it evolved into a multinational organization with a head office in Paris and some offices in London and New York and services in Egypt.
In the first year of the existence of the canal, some three-quarters of the vessels used were British. By the mid-1870s, Ismail viceroy of Egypt 1863-79 incurred massive debts, offered for sale the shares of his country in the canal. To have the influence of Britain, British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli bought Egypt's shareholding for £4 million.
After the crisis of the Suez Canal , Egypt created the Suez Canal Authority with the intention to replace the Suez Canal Company that operated in the 1950s; this authority is responsible for operating and maintaining the Canal and it is led by 14 persons.
SUEZ CANAL CRISIS...
The Suez Canal Crisis is a war on Egyptian territory started after the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Great Britain, France and Israel against Egypt in 1956. Two years earlier, the Egyptian military had begun pressuring the British to end their military presence in the Canal Zone. There were many attacks on British troops because they were invading the territory of the Egyptians. It is accepted that violence was not planned, it was something spontaneous by people who had been treated as second class citizens within their own country.
In 1954 an agreement was reached.This stated that British troops would leave Egypt within twenty months of the signing of the agreement. The signing of this agreement ended the attacks on British troops.
The United States threatened all three nations with economic sanctions if they persisted in their attack. In December of that year, the British and French forces withdrew and finally in March 1957 Israel bowed to pressure from the United States.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy_yl2pU0u4
IMPORTANCE OF SUEZ CANAL IN WORLD TRADE...
Because the Suez Canal has a privileged geographic location, this is a very important element for maritime transport being this one of the cheapest means of transportation and considering that over 80% of world trade is operated through waterways. Ships transiting the canal can save time, distance and operating costs. Suez Canal can be expanded and deepened when necessary and thus it adapts to the evolution of the sizes and weights of ships.
In Europe Suez Canal is very important for the oil and trade with Asia, because it reduces its distance from this country, therefore, companies reduce fuel payments, spend fewer days in the transport of their products and as a result growing the world economies. The majority of developing countries are located in the Middle East and Asia, accordingly the developed countries of Europe establish factories in these borders because these countries have cheap labor. On the other hand United States needs the Suez Canal for transporting troops and military equipment to Afghanistan.
Egypt produces little oil but occupies a strategic position on the international sea shipping route of oil barrels between the Arabian Peninsula and Western countries. It controls the Suez Canal and Suez-Mediterranean oil pipeline, which daily pass 3,000 million barrels through these two infrastructures. Egypt through this canal has power in the world economy due to taxes it receives from ships transiting there. Because Egypt needs labor force to repair the erosion of the coastlines and to defend them of other countries, it hires the Egyptians society to perform these tasks and thus reduces the unemployment rate in the country.
In conclusion the Suez Canal has been and will remain a strategic point for the development of the world trade, because it allows commercial exchange between developing and developed countries generating employment opportunities, allowing the transport of food and other products indispensable for the progress of a country.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/11426746/The-Suez-Canal-by-numbers.html
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