Ferdinand de Lesseps, a diplomat, creator of Suez and the pioneer behind
the building of the Panama Canal
Ferdinand de Lesseps was born in Versailles on 19 November
1805. His father, Mathieu de Lesseps, was a career diplomat and was on
leave at the time.
On his father's side, Ferdinand's roots lay firmly in
the Basque Country where many generations of his family had been highly
respected soldiers and men of the law in the town of Bayonne. In the 18th
century, though, somewhat more adventurous tastes became apparent within
the Lesseps family.
Barthélemy de Lesseps, Ferdinand's uncle and still
young himself, got to know the French explorer La Pérouse and set sail
aboard the Astrobale. After a two-year voyage, La Pérouse appointed
Lesseps to return to France to tell king Louis XV all about the
expedition. Barthélémy then embarked on a 14-month odyssey across the icy
wastes of Siberia before returning to the king with the last news received
from La Pérouse's expedition before his disappearance.
Mathieu, Ferdinand's father and Barthélemy's younger brother, launched his
diplomatic career at a young age and was posted to the Mediterranean -
Morocco, Libya and Spain. In 1803 or 1804, Bonaparte appointed him
Commissioner General in Egypt. With considerable foresight, Mathieu at
once realised the important role that the genius explorer Mehemet-Ali
could play in Egypt's government and indeed Mehemet-Ali went on to become
the true founder of the modern Egyptian state. Lesseps supported
Mehemet-Ali throughout his rise to power and when Ali became viceroy, he
guaranteed him France's support. The friendship forged then was to be
extremely important 50 years later for Ferdinand.
His mother was born Catherine de Grivegnée and came from a family with Flemish origins but which had settled in Spain. Ferdinand often travelled to Madrid to visit his cousin the Countess of Montijo; there he met the young Eugénie, who would later become the Empress of France. Ferdinand and Eugénie struck up a close friendship and on several occasions Ferdinand turned to his niece to win the Emperor's favour.
At the age of 20 and at the request of his uncle Barthélemy, Ferdinand de
Lesseps embarked on his diplomatic career. Alongside his uncle, he was
attached to the embassy in Lisbon for two years. He then spent several
years with his father, who was chargé d'affaires in Tunis.
In 1832,
Ferdinand was sent to Alexandria in Egypt as Vice-Consul. By then, Mehemet
Ali had already completely transformed Egypt; his ambitious policies had
given the country modern institutions and Egypt was involved in major
building projects with the help of European engineers and administrators.
Naturally, France was held in high esteem.
In 1835, Ferdinand de Lesseps was appointed Consul General in Alexandria where he stayed for a further two years. Mehemet Ali appointed de Lesseps to educate one of his youngest sons, Mohammed Said, with whom he got on particularly well.
In 1837, Ferdinand married Agathe Delamalle. The couple had five children but Agathe later died in 1853.
Ferdinand continued in consular functions in The Netherlands and Spain. In 1849, he was appointed to lead negotiations during the French campaign in Rome. He became the scapegoat for the failure of the Rome mission and his diplomatic career was over.
For several years, Lesseps became a farmer. His mother-in-law, Mrs Delamalle, had purchased a large property in the Indre region. The manor house, La Chesnaye, was the former home of Agnès Sorel and needed renovating and developing. Lesseps threw himself into the project. In his spare time, Lesseps continued working on projects he had started during his first posting to Egypt between 1832 and 1837. Among them was work he had done in the Suez Isthmus, in particular a study by Le Père during the Napoleonic campaign and further investigations by a French engineer, Linant de Bellefonds. Lesseps became obsessed with a project which, at the time, was called the Canal des Deux Mers (Two Seas Canal). In 1852, he even wrote an essay on the project which he had translated into Arabic and submitted to the then viceroy Abbas. But this initial attempt came to nothing.
Two years later, Lesseps learned than Abbas had died and that one of Mehemet Ali's youngest sons had succeeded him - Mohammed Said, whom he had got to know during his first stay in Egypt. He wrote to Said, offering his congratulations. Lesseps immediately received from Said an invitation to visit Egypt. On 7 November 1854, he disembarked in Alexandria, where he discussed his pet project with the viceroy.
On 30 November 1854, Mohamed Said granted "his friend Ferdinand de Lesseps exclusive powers to create and lead a universal company to carry out an excavation across the Suez isthmus and operate a canal between the two seas,"
After three years of constant work, on 15 December 1858 Lesseps finally
set up Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez. Work began on
25 April 1859. Despite numerous technical and diplomatic difficulties, the
canal was finalised and inaugurated from 17-20 November 1869.
Following the inauguration, Ferdinand married his second wife Louise Hélène Autard de
Bragard in Ismailia. The couple had 12 children.
Lesseps is inducted into the Academy of Sciences, 1873.
At a geographical conference in 1879 Lesseps, then aged 74, became chairman of the French committee in charge of building an interoceanic canal in Central America. But this project was not the glowing success its predecessor had been; it came to a halt and failed temporarily against a backdrop of heated political debate and scandal.
The foundations laid by Lesseps in Panama, though, proved solid enough to enable the United States to complete the project in the early 20th century. Even today, the name Lesseps commands much respect in Panama.
Lesseps was inducted into the Académie Française (French Academy) on 21
February 1884 and was admitted as a member on 23 April 1885 by Ernest
Renan.
He died on 7 December 1894, invested with the Cross of the Legion of Honour (Grand-Croix de la Légion d'Honneur) at La Chesnaye. He was given a state funeral and is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.