Background
Ferdinand de Lesseps was born on November 19, 1805, in Versailles, Yvelines, to Mathieu de Lesseps and Catherine de Grévigné. His father worked in Italy when Ferdinand was a little boy and thus he spent his initial years there.
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Ferdinand de Lesseps was born on November 19, 1805, in Versailles, Yvelines, to Mathieu de Lesseps and Catherine de Grévigné. His father worked in Italy when Ferdinand was a little boy and thus he spent his initial years there.
He received his education from College of Henry IV in Paris.
He started working when he was 18 years old. His first job was in the commissary department of the army where he worked for two years.
In 1825, he was made the assistant vice-consul at Lisbon, where his uncle was the French chargé d'affaires. He went to Tunis as an assistant vice-consul in 1828.
He was appointed vice-consul at Alexandria, Egypt, in 1832. The vessel he was sailing in was quarantined for some time and during this time he was sent several books by the consul-general of France at Alexandria.
One of these books was a memoir on an ancient abandoned Suez Canal written by Napoleon Bonaparte's civil engineer Jacques-Marie Le Père. De Lesseps was fascinated by this work and he came up with the idea of constructing a canal across the African isthmus.
He was assigned the responsibility of managing the consulate general at Alexandria in 1833 and worked in this position until 1837. During this time he survived an epidemic of plague which wiped out more than a third of the inhabitants of Cairo and Alexandria. He returned to France in late 1837.
He was appointed consul at Rotterdam in 1839. After being transferred to Malaga and then Barcelona, he was promoted to the grade of consul general in 1842.
In 1854, he learned that Said Pasha, an old friend of his, had been appointed to the post of Viceroy of Egypt. Retired from his diplomatic career now, de Lesseps felt that the time was right to act upon the creation of the Suez Canal.
He went to Alexandria to visit Pasha and Said Pasha signed the concession authorizing him to build the Suez Canal on 30 November 1854. He directed two French engineers in drawing up a first scheme, providing for direct link between the Mediterranean and Red Sea. The scheme was slightly modified and was adopted by an international commission of engineers in 1856.
Initially he struggled to raise enough financial capital for the project though he was finally successful in attracting financial backing from the French emperor Napoleon III and others. He also interacted with the French citizens and roused them to contribute towards the capital required. With the help of the capital raised, he founded the Universal Suez Ship Canal Company in 1858; this was the corporation that would construct the Suez Canal.
Work on the Suez Canal began in April 1859 and after ten long years, the canal was finally completed. The canal opened on November 17, 1869, inaugurated by the Empress Eugénie. The canal went on to change the course of world trade and made de Lesseps a very famous man.
In 1879, an international congress was held in Paris which voted in favor of the construction of a Panama Canal. De Lesseps, 74 years old at that time, undertook to carry out the project in spite of his advancing age. However, this project was plagued by many problems and scandals and could not be completed within his lifetime; it was eventually finished in 1914.
Ferdinand de Lesseps died on December 7, 1894, in Guilly, Indre. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
The French diplomat Ferdinand Marie, Vicomte de Lesseps successfully promoted the Suez Canal and made an abortive attempt to build the Panama Canal.
In 1870 Ferdinand de Lesseps was honored with the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) "for services rendered to Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, by the realisation of Suez Canal".
He was appointed to the rank of Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, and an Honorary Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India, and in July, 1870, the freedom of the City of London was presented to him.
Quotations: "Since 1849 I have studied incessantly, under all its aspects, a question which was already in my mind since 1832. I confess that my scheme is still a mere dream, and I do not shut my eyes to the fact that so long as I alone believe it to be possible, it is virtually impossible... The scheme in question is the cutting of a canal through the Isthmus of Suez. This has been thought of from the earliest historical times, and for that very reason is looked upon as impracticable. Geographical dictionaries inform us indeed that the project would have been executed long ago but for insurmountable obstacles."
Ferdinand de Lesseps was a member of the French Academy, of the Academy of Sciences, and of numerous scientific societies.
He was gifted with natural leadership and the capacity to accumulate great wealth. He had a great talent for management in all walks of life especially in business and financial matters where he contributed to the greater vision, purpose and long range goals. He understood the material world and intuitively knew what makes virtually any enterprise work.
Physical Characteristics:
During his last years as a diplomat, he had silver hairs with big moustache. Though he had a tough outlook, he was a very kind person with a lot of good qualities and abilities.
On December 21, 1837, Ferdinand de Lesseps married Mlle Agathe Delamalle. By this marriage de Lesseps became the father of five sons. In 1853 Agathe unfortunately expired. On November 25, 1869, he married his second wife, Mlle Louise-Hélène Autard de Bragard. He had 12 more children from this marriage.
Mathieu de Lesseps was in the consular service.
Mlle Agathe Delamalle was the daughter of the government prosecuting attorney at the court of Angers.
Mlle Louise-Hélène Autard de Bragard was the daughter of Gustave Adolphe Autard de Bragard, a former Magistrate of Mauritius, and wife Marie-Louise Carcenac.
