Ferdinand de Lesseps

Ferdinand, count de Lesseps , born with Versailles the November 19th 1805 and died with the Oak grove close to Guilly (Indre) the December 7th 1894, is a French diplomat and contractor.

Called “the Large French”, Ferdinand de Lesseps was the principal promoter of the two projects of the most ambitious channels of its time, the Suez Canal then the Canal of Panamá. This last project made lose as well money to the shareholders as the promoter was condemned to five years of prison, pains that it did not purge because of his precarious health condition.

Its origins

The origin of its family would go back to the end of the 14th century. Its ancestors, come, seems it, of Scotland, settled with Bayonne whereas the area was occupied by the England. One of its great-grandfathers is the secretary of the queen Marie-Anne de Neubourg, widow of Charles II of Spain, exiled in Bayonne after the accession with the throne of Philippe V.

Since the middle of the 18th century, the ancestors of Ferdinand de Lesseps follow the diplomatic career, in which itself occupies several functions of 1825 with 1849. His/her uncle is anobli by the king Louis XVI, and his/her father, Mathieu de Lesseps (1771 - 1832), is made count by Napoleon i. His/her mother, Catherine (of) Grivegnée, is Spanish, and aunt of the countess of Montijo, mother of the empress Eugenie.

It spends its first years in Italy, where his/her father is in station. It follows its studies to the Lycée Henri-Iv to Paris. Its intellectual awakening would have occurred, according to the testimony of the interested party, in a cycle of conferences given by the abbot of Mennais and his friends ultramontanes. Graduate with Amiens, the future driller of isthmus is registered with the courses of commercial law for quay of Orsay, but he prefers the meetings of horsemanship by far. He will become a remarkable rider, of an address which will give him great credit near its Arab partners. Of 1825 with 1827, he is auxiliary vice-consul with Lisbon, where his/her uncle, Barthélemy de Lesseps, is person in charge. This uncle was an old companion of Perugia and survivor of the forwarding in which this one perishes.

Its career

In 1828, Ferdinand de Lesseps is sent as an auxiliary vice-consul to Tunis, where his/her father is consul-general. It courageously facilitates the escape from certain Yusuf, continued by the soldiers of the Bey of which it is one of the officers. Yusuf will be shown recognizing this French protection while being distinguished in the rows from the French Army per hour from the conquest from the Algérie. Ferdinand is then seen entrusting by his/her father a mission near the count Clauzel, general-in-chief of the occupying army in Algeria. In a letter of December 18th 1830 with Mathieu de Lesseps, the written general: “I was pleased to meet your son, who promises to support with great credit the name that it carries. ”

In 1832, Ferdinand de Lesseps is named vice-consul with Alexandria. In order to make it have patience during forty the ship which led it in Egypt, Mr Mimaut, consul-general from France to Alexandria, send several books to him, among which the report written, according to the instructions of Bonaparte, by engineer Père, member of the scientific exhibition of Egypt, charged with studying the digging of a channel through the Isthme of Suez. There from these readings and its meeting with the Saint-Simonians come to marry the East and the Occident, is born the project from the Channel in imagination from Ferdinand.

Quite particular circumstances facilitated the realization of the project. Mehemet Ali, which was the viceroy of Egypt, had, at least to a certain extent, its position with the recommendations made at the French government by Mathieu de Lesseps, consul-general in Egypt when Mehemet Ali was only one simple colonel. Ferdinand was thus accommodated in a friendly way and affectionately by the viceroy. Later, it is Saïd Pasha (wire of Mehemet Ali), which will grant to him the concession for the construction of Suez Canal.

In 1833, Ferdinand de Lesseps is named consul with the Cairo, and shortly after general consul with Alexandria, station which it holds until in 1837. For this period, a terrible epidemic of plague prevails during two years, costing the life of more than one third of the inhabitants of Cairo and Alexandria. Showing a heat impertubable, Ferdinand continues its mission, energy from one city to another according to the presence of the danger.

Towards the end of the year 1837, it returns to France and, on December 21st, marries Agathe Delamalle, who will give him five wire.

In 1839, it is named consul with Rotterdam, and the following year, transferred to Málaga, in the country of origin of the family of its mother. In 1842, it is sent to Barcelona, and promoted soon with the rank of general consul. During a bloody insurrection in Catalonia, which finishes by the bombardment of Barcelona, Ferdinand de Lesseps is proof of the most persistent courage by saving death, without distinction, of the men belonging to the rival factions, and by protecting not only the French in danger but also from abroad of all nationalities. Of 1848 with 1849, he is Minister of France with Madrid.

During this year the government of IIe République names it near the young person Roman République. The advent of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte upsets the foreign politics of France. A task force ordered by the Oudinot general imposes the return of the pope on the Vatican. Repudiated, Ferdinand de Lesseps “enters in dissidence” according to its expression and resigns.

In 1853, it loses in the interval of a few days his wife and one of her sons of an epidemic of Scarlatine. In 1854, the accession with the throne of viceroy of Egypt of his old friend, Said Pasha, gives fresh impulse to the ideas which had haunted it during the twenty-two last years about Suez Canal. Ferdinand de Lesseps is invited by Said Pasha, and on November 7th, 1854 unloads in Alexandria. The 30 of the same month, Said Pasha signs the concession authorizing Ferdinand de Lesseps to bore the isthmus of Suez.

On its indications, a foreground is immediately drawn by two French engineers, Linant de Bellefonds and Mougel. After being slightly modified, the plan is adopted in 1856 by an international commission to which it was subjected. Encouraged by this verdict, not more the opposition of Lord Palmerston, which fears then for the trading position of the the United Kingdom, that the amused opinions predicting the filling of the channel by sands of the desert, do not stop Lesseps.

Pushed by its convictions, supported by the emperor Napoleon III and the Eugenie empress, it joins together by subscription more half of the capital of two hundred franc million necessary to found a company. The Egyptian government subscribed for eighty million.

The company of Ferdinand de Lesseps builds Suez Canal between 1859 and 1869. In the business, Lesseps was surrounded by a vast network of competences, if not complicities, in particular in the press, which will be to him always of the greatest utility. Informed by the precedent of the Bitter lakes, it is the first to be applauded the project Roudaire. It will support it into same as other large companies such as the digging of a Channel tunnel, the establishment of rail links through Asia, Panama Canal, or the Trans-Saharan one. Headlight of All-Paris, key man of the relations of the Occident with the East, pope of the geography and the European expansion in Africa, president of the Company of geography in 1881, member of the protective Company of the natives… the driller of isthmus leaves behind him remote regions favourable with the worship as with suspicion. In 1893, continued for and embezzlement trading of favors, Ferdinand de Lesseps is condemned to five years of prison that it will not carry out. He dies at the 89 years age.

Distinctions and rewards

Grand Cross of the Legion of honor (1869)
Academy of Science (1873)
French Academy (1884)

Sources

Ferdinand de Lesseps , by Ghislain de Diesbach, Perrin, 1998,455 p.
Memories forty years, dedicated to my children , by Ferdinand de Lesseps, Paris, Re-examined News 1887,2 vol.

Stanislas d' Escayrac Lauture, exploring French of the XIXe century

External bond

Ferdinand de Lesseps on Channel Academy