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In March 2021, fierce winds blew a container ship off course.
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In most places, this would have caused a minor incident.
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But in the Suez Canal, it was a global crisis.
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This vessel wasn't just blocking other ships—
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It was obstructing the flow of international trade
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through one of the world's most important waterways.
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The site of the Suez Canal has been of interest to rulers of this region
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as far back as the second millennium BCE.
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To move goods between Asia and the Mediterranean basin,
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traders had to traverse the narrow isthmus separating the Red Sea and the Nile,
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journeying in camel-bound caravans through the unforgiving desert.
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A maritime passage between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea
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would bypass this trip altogether.
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And throughout the 16th century,
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multiple powers attempted to construct such a canal.
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But their plans were obstructed by cost, political strife,
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and the ever-shifting sands.
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In 1798, interest in building a canal was rekindled,
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this time attracting attention from across Europe.
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Over the following decades, individuals from Austria, Italy, Britain, and France
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pitched their plans to Egypt's rulers.
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At the time, Egypt was a territory of the Ottoman Empire,
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which was resistant to these proposals.
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But Egypt's political and economic autonomy was gradually increasing,
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and its government was eager to pursue the project.
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When Sa'id Pasha came into power in 1854, he approved a plan
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from the enterprising and manipulative French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps.
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Signed in 1854 and 1856, a pair of concessions gave de Lesseps
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authority to establish the Suez Canal Company
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and finance it by selling shares to “capitalists of all nations.”
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The contracts between Sa'id Pasha and the Canal Company
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also promised a workforce of hundreds of thousands of Egyptian workers.
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Beginning in 1862, about 20,000 laborers were forcibly recruited every month,
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digging the canal in harsh desert conditions
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without easy access to food or water.
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Diseases like cholera ran rampant and workers toiled under the threat of whips.
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The estimates of those who died during construction range into the thousands.
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In 1864, the new Egyptian ruler, Isma'il Pasha,
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put an end to the coerced Egyptian labor,
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but he still pressed forward with construction.
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Foreign workers from all over Europe and the Middle East
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labored alongside dredgers and bucket excavators
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to remove 74 million cubic meters of dirt.
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This massive population of workers required infrastructure
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to deliver drinking water and other supplies,
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giving rise to a flourishing economy of restaurants, brothels, and smuggled goods.
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Amidst the bustle were born three new cities with multi-ethnic populations:
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Port Said on the northern Mediterranean shore,
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Ismailia on the canal's middle tract,
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and Port Tewfiq, at the southern edge of the canal.
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The construction site bypassed the Nile and ran directly from Port Said to Suez.
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And after years of work, the streams of the two seas finally began merging
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in the mid-1860s.
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The finished canal was 164 kilometers long,
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with a width of 56 meters at the surface,
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and it was officially inaugurated on November 17th, 1869.
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While it struggled financially during its first few years,
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the canal ended up dramatically accelerating global trade.
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It also facilitated the migration of numerous marine species,
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dramatically changing local ecosystems and cuisine.
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Over the decades, traffic through the canal grew.
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But in 1875,
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financial issues forced Egypt to sell much of its stock in the Canal Company,
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allowing Britain to take over.
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It was only in 1956 that control of the canal fully reverted to Egypt
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when it was nationalized by President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
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This move sparked a military standoff
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between Egypt and Britain, France, and Israel.
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But once resolved,
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it transformed the canal into a major source of Egypt's national revenue
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and helped redeem the canal's imperialist legacy.
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Today, nearly 30% of all global ship traffic passes through the Suez Canal,
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totaling over 20,000 ships in 2021.
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However, the incident of the Ever Given is a stark reminder
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of just how fragile our manmade systems can be.