Ferdinand de Lesseps
1805 – 1894 · aged 89
French diplomat and entrepreneur, developer of the Suez Canal (1805–1894)
- Born
- 19 Nov 1805 · Versailles
- Died
- 7 Dec 1894 · Guilly
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 19 Nov 1805BornBorn in Versailles
- 1835 – 1837RoleConsul General of France in Alexandria
- 1842 – 1848RoleConsul General of France in Barcelona
- 1848 – 1849RoleAmbassador of France to Spain
- 1870AwardAlbert Medal
- 1870AwardKnight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India
- 1876AwardMarcelin Guérin Prize
- 1881RolePresident
- 1884 – 1894RoleMember of the Académie française
- 7 Dec 1894DiedDied in Guilly
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1805 – 1894).
- 1812 – 1815War of 1812
- 1814 – 1815Congress of Vienna
- 1853 – 1856Crimean War
- 1857 – 1858Indian Rebellion of 1857
- 1870 – 1871Franco-Prussian War
Biography
Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps (French: [lesɛps]; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French Orientalist diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869, joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times between Europe and East Asia.
He attempted to repeat this success with an effort to build a Panama Canal at sea level during the 1880s, but the project was devastated by epidemics of malaria and yellow fever in the area, as well as by financial problems, and the planned Lesseps Panama Canal was never completed. Eventually, the project was bought out by the United States, which solved the medical problems and changed the design to a non-sea- level canal with locks. It was completed in 1914.
Text from the Wikipedia article Ferdinand de Lesseps, CC BY-SA 4.0
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