French diplomat and engineer (after 1854) born in Versailles, who as a French administrator served his country in Lisbon, Alexandria, Cairo, Barcelona, Madrid and Rotterdam and became famous for designing and building the Suez Canal. Diplomat for 24 years (1825-1849), he began his career as assistant to the vice-consul in Lisbon (1825). While in Egypt, he became friends with Sultan Muhammad Ali, and his son Said Pasha, and studied the feasibility of building a canal on the Suez isthmus, between Egypt and the region of Palestine, connecting the Gulf of Suez by waterway to the Mediterranean Sea. The idea was not new, because since antiquity people had already thought about building a connection, including the This venture was unsuccessfully attempted by Jean-Baptiste Le Père, engineer of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the plan was abandoned.
Brilliant and dynamic entrepreneur, he retired from the diplomatic service (1849) and returned to Egypt to devote himself to the project of the Suez Canal (1854), at the invitation of the Viceroy of Egypt, Said Pasha, from whom he obtained the concession for the opening and exploration of the channel. He raised the necessary capital for this gigantic undertaking and was supervisor of the construction of the canal works (1859-1869), which would become a thoroughfare. communication between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, opening a new sea route between the Mediterranean and the shipping lines of the ocean Indian Ocean.
With the great prestige acquired, he was commissioned by the French government to build the Panama Canal (1878), but the ill-planned attempt was completely unsuccessful. His company went bankrupt after starting the construction of the work (1879) and had to abandon the project (1888). For this reason he was arrested and convicted in France (1893) along with his son. He died at the Château de La Chesnaye on December 7 (1894), and despite his failure in Panama, his reputation as an entrepreneurial genius made history.
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
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