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86-619: The palace was most likely originally built in the mid-19th century and sold to Khedive Ismail in 1866 by his brother Mustafa Fazl Pasha . Under Khedive Tewfik , Koubbeh Palace was a venue for One Thousand And One Night celebrations, royal weddings, and a place where visiting dignitaries admired magnificent gardens. During his son's rule ( Khedive Abbas II ; r. 1892-1914) the garden palace gradually came to be regarded as complementary to Cairo's Abdin Palace in terms of officialdom. When King Fouad I ascended Egypt's throne in 1917, Koubbeh became

172-509: A diversified investment firm. In 1959, it established a banking subsidiary, the Banque de la Compagnie Financière de Suez , renamed Banque de Suez et de l'Union des mines in 1966 following Suez's combination with financier Jack Francès  [ fr ] 's conglomerate, Union des mines La Hénin . That bank merged in 1975 with the Banque de l'Indochine to form Banque Indosuez , which

258-510: A festival of unprecedented scope, most of it financed by the Cattaui banking house, from whom he borrowed $ 1,000,000, inviting dignitaries from around the world. These developments – especially the costly war with Ethiopia – left Egypt in deep debt to the European powers, and they used this position to wring concessions out of Isma'il. One of the most unpopular among Egyptians and Sudanese was

344-433: A large expenses-paid festivity took place including: a riding exhibition, a rifle competition, tight-rope walking, an Armenian with a dancing bear, an Italian with a hurdy-gurdy, Arab sword dancing, glassblowing, flame eating, snake charming, juggling, dancing darvishes, belly dancers, Koran recitations, Arabic poetry recitations, prostitution, food, and drink. On 19 November, the flotilla proceeded south to Suez. In summary,

430-495: A machine to dredge ports in Russia. Railroad tracks were laid along the canal route to accommodate some of the machines, whereas others were mounted on barges . The varying soil type necessitated more than a dozen different types of excavation machinery. Nearly 300 of these machines were used in this 5 year dredging period. Their subcontractor excavation price was determined on a price-per-unit basis – francs per cubic meter – which

516-517: A price of 500 francs each would be publicly offered beginning 5 November 1858. In the notification, Lesseps estimated an annual revenue of 30 million francs based on freight fees, and a construction period lasting 6 years. In preparation for the offering, shares were sent to brokerage houses across Europe and in the United States. At the close of offering on 30 November 1858, about half of the shares (around 200,000) belonged to French citizens with

602-556: A right to defend the canal and stationed troops there for that purpose into the 1930s. The company's profits rose greatly during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1938, Benito Mussolini demanded that Italy have a sphere of influence in the Suez Canal, specifically demanding that an Italian representative be placed on the company's board of directors . Italy opposed the French monopoly over the Suez Canal because under French domination of

688-415: A stamp collection, an 8,500-piece coin and medals collection, studded clocks and watches, in addition to many other antiquities including a pure gold coffee set and a 1906 Faberge egg that belonged to Tsar Nicholas II . Much of these were auctioned off in 1954. After the 1952 revolution that led to the declaration of the republic, Koubbeh Palace was declared as one of three official presidential palaces,

774-469: A state prisoner, until his death. According to TIME magazine , he died while trying to guzzle two bottles of champagne in one draft. He was later buried in Cairo . Although he ruled Egypt, where the common language was Arabic, Isma'il spoke Turkish best and could not speak Arabic. Nevertheless, under his reign, the use of Arabic in government gradually increased at the expense of Turkish, which had been

860-514: A statutory reserve of 430 million francs, a special reserve of 7 billion francs, a contingency fund of 1.72 billion francs, and a pension fund of 7.81 billion francs. After Jacques Georges-Picot's arrival to the company in the 1940s, the board started to hire investment advisors, and by the late 1940s, the company had investments in Air France , Air Liquide , colonial sugar refineries, coal mining companies, railroad companies, electric companies,

946-532: A £4 million loan from Lionel de Rothschild to purchase the 177,000 shares from Ismail on behalf of the British government. This offer was slightly greater than the French offer, and Ismail physically delivered his share certificates to the British consulate. By December 1875 Britain became the largest shareholder of the Suez Canal Company, owning 44 percent of the shares. However, the remaining 56% of

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1032-678: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Khedive Ismail Isma'il Pasha ( Arabic : إسماعيل باشا Ismā‘īl Bāshā ; 12 January 1830 – 2 March 1895), also known as ' Ismail the Magnificent , was the Khedive of Egypt and ruler of Sudan from 1863 to 1879, when he was removed at the behest of Great Britain and France . Sharing the ambitious outlook of his grandfather, Muhammad Ali Pasha , he greatly modernized Egypt and Sudan during his reign, investing heavily in industrial and economic development , urbanization , and

1118-581: The Cape of Good Hope , half would pass through the canal. After some complaints, a figure of 10 francs per ton and 10 francs per passenger was announced. Politically during this period, company workers experienced a cholera outbreak in 1865 that caused the deaths of several hundred Europeans, including Voisin's wife, and more than 1,500 Arabs and Egyptians. The Ottoman Sultan approved of the French reconciliation framework in 1866. By 1866 there were about 8,000 Europeans and 10,000 Arab and Egyptians that had settled in

1204-794: The Emperor Yohannes IV . In 1865 the Ottoman Sublime Porte ceded the African portion of the Habesh Eyalet (with Massawa and Suakin at the Red Sea as the main cities of that province) to Isma'il. This province, which neighboured Ethiopia, first consisted of a coastal strip only but expanded subsequently inland into territory controlled by the Ethiopian ruler. Here Isma'il occupied regions originally claimed by

1290-703: The Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II to depose Isma'il Pasha, and this was done on 26 June 1879. The more pliable Tewfik Pasha , Ismail's eldest son, was made his successor. Isma'il Pasha left Egypt and initially went into exile to Resina, today Ercolano near Naples , until 1885 when he was eventually permitted by Sultan Abdülhamid II to retire to his palace in Emirgan on the Bosporus in Constantinople . There he remained, more or less

1376-466: The Société Générale de Belgique in 1988, and changed name again to Compagnie de Suez in 1990. In 1997, it merged with water utility and construction conglomerate Lyonnaise des eaux  [ fr ] to form Suez-Lyonnaise des eaux . The merged entity renamed itself as Suez in 2001 and underwent several subsequent mergers, spin-offs, and restructurings that led to the creation of

1462-683: The Sublime Porte to make his case to the Grand Vizier of the Sultan , Ali Pasha . The Ottoman Empire, although neutral to the idea, were greatly under the influence of the British at that time . Since Britain – through the policy of Lord Palmerston – was largely opposed to the canal project, and its citizens owned a potentially competing project in form of a railroad from Alexandria to Cairo , not to mention various merchant warehouses along

1548-566: The 1856 concession as a binding contract, ended the use of corvée labor, placed the land grants back into the hands of the Egyptian government, but called for remuneration of 84 million francs to the Suez Canal Company for violation of the labor and land agreements. Ismail received a loan from the Oppenheim brothers for nearly 100 million francs. Meanwhile, the progress of the canal construction proceeded slowly from 1863–1864. By February 1864,

1634-584: The African forest and agriculture Society, and the Lyonnaise de Madagascar. King Farouk of the Muhammad Ali line was overthrown in a military coup in 1952 and Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser eventually emerged as the leader of Egypt. By the mid-1950s, canal traffic reached 122 million tons annually, over half of which was oil shipments. In response to the World Bank denying a loan to build a dam across

1720-483: The African sea route, Lesseps made several trips to Britain between 1854 and 1858 to persuade Palmerston and the British public. Lesseps also had to fight back against Robert Stephenson 's and even Enfantin's expert opinions on the feasibility of the canal. Lesseps formed an organization of international engineers (the International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez ) to again study

1806-609: The Anglo-Egyptian-Ethiopian Hewett Treaty , when Bogos was given back to Ethiopia. The Red Sea Province created by Ismail and his governor Munzinger Pasha was taken over by the Italians shortly thereafter and became the territorial basis for the Colony of Eritrea (proclaimed in 1890). The jurisdiction of Isma'il Pasha from the 1870s until 1884 included the entire northern coast of Somalia, up to

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1892-602: The British government to inquire into the finances of Egypt, and in April 1876 their report was published, advising that in view of the waste and extravagance it was necessary for foreign Powers to interfere in order to restore credit. The result was the establishment of the Caisse de la Dette . A subsequent investigation in October by George Goschen and Joubert resulted in the establishment of joint Anglo-French control over most of

1978-456: The Egyptian government's finances. A further commission of inquiry by Major Evelyn Baring (afterwards 1st Earl of Cromer) and others in 1878 culminated in Isma'il handing over much of his personal estates' to the nation and accepting the position of a constitutional sovereign, with Nubar as premier, Charles Rivers Wilson as finance minister, and de Blignières as minister of public works. As

2064-754: The House of Cattaui. Judgments were given against the Khedive in the international tribunals. When he could raise no more loans, he sold the Egyptian and Sudanese shares in the Suez Canal Company in 1875 with the assistance of Yacoub Cattaui to the British government for £3,976,582; this was immediately followed by the beginning of direct intervention by the Great Powers in Egypt and Sudan. In December 1875, Stephen Cave and John Stokes were sent out by

2150-713: The Maritime Canal of Suez), sometimes colloquially referred to in French as Le Suez ("The Suez"), was a company formed by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1858 to operate the Egyptian granted concession of the Suez Canal , which the company built between 1859 and 1869. Initially, French investors held half of the Company's stock , with Egypt's ruler Sa'id Pasha holding most of the balance. In 1875, financial distress forced Sa'id's successor Isma'il Pasha to sell

2236-489: The Nile at Aswan, Nasser declared on 26 July 1956 that Egypt was nationalizing the canal. In response, Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt and destroyed large portions of Port Said. The canal was returned to Egypt after the United States disapproved of the action. For the following ten years, the canal was operated by Egypt who paid an amount to the Suez Canal Company for its use. In 1967, another war with Israel arose and

2322-569: The Ottomans when they had established the province (eyalet) of Habesh in the 16th century. New economically promising projects, like huge cotton plantations in the Barka delta, were started. In 1872 Bogos (with the city of Keren ) was annexed by the governor of the new "Province of Eastern Sudan and the Red Sea Coast", Werner Munzinger Pasha. In October 1875 Isma'il's army tried to occupy

2408-431: The Red Sea with the aid of blasting. After the use of corvée labor was approved in 1861, work proceeded south from Lake Manzala with, at its height, 60,000 fellahin hand digging the canal. Guards were used to watch over the fellahin, although a large number of guards were not required due to the remote location and nearby hostile Bedouins . At the same time, the freshwater canal was being dug easterly to Lake Timsah. At

2494-575: The Spring of 1869 shortly after the initial lake filling ceremony but while the lake was still filling and toured the canal zone. The prince of Wales stayed in a chalet in Ismailia while in the region. The southern dam in the rocky Chalufa ridge would not connect the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea until it was broken on 15 August 1869. Prior to that, hand digging was used to remove soil in

2580-557: The Suez Company eventually sold to Crédit Agricole in 1996. Meanwhile, in 1972 the Suez Company acquired control of another bank, Crédit Industriel et Commercial , which it relinquished in the 1980s. Following its nationalization in 1982 and privatization in 1987, the Suez Company in 1988 successfully participated in a takeover battle for control of the Société Générale de Belgique , which significantly broadened its portfolio of activities. The opulent building at 1, rue d'Astorg

2666-583: The adjacent highlands of Hamasien , which were then tributary to the Ethiopian Emperor, and suffered defeat at the Battle of Gundet. In March 1876 Isma'il's army tried again and suffered a second dramatic defeat by Yohannes's army at Gura . Isma'il's son Hassan was captured by the Ethiopians and only released after a large ransom. This was followed by a long cold war, only finishing in 1884 with

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2752-568: The behest of Yacoub Cattaui his minister of Finance and close advisor, he refused to ratify the concessions to the Canal company made by Sa'id, and the question was referred in 1864 to the arbitration of Napoleon III, who awarded £3,800,000 to the company as compensation for the losses they would incur by the changes which Isma'il insisted upon in the original grant. Isma'il then used every available means, by his own undoubted powers of fascination and by judicious expenditure, to bring his personality before

2838-500: The canal a neutral zone under British protection. The agreement went into effect in 1904 , the same year as the Entente cordiale between Britain and France. The British assigned more than 100,000 troops to the canal during the first world war. The canal was used to help stage T.E. Lawrence and Faisal's Arab revolt during the war against the Ottomans. Egypt was declared an independent country in 1922, however, Britain still asserted

2924-502: The canal region. By 1867 and 1868 the total population in the canal region would grow to 26,000 and 34,000, respectively. As the diversity and number of settlers in the canal region rose, Ismail directed Nubar to begin his decade-long journey of revising the judicial system from a system of capitulations to a system of mixed tribunals. The company made an appeal at the 1867 Universal Exposition of Art and Industry to attempt to sell an additional 100 million francs (£4 million) worth of debt in

3010-428: The canal route in late 1855, and its results were released to the general public. In January 1856, Said granted a second concession to Lesseps' company which replaced the first concession. This concession defined the canal as a direct route, but also stipulated a freshwater canal from the Nile to Lake Timsah. Again, mining and land rights were included along with generous tax exemptions. A majority ( 4 ⁄ 5 ths) of

3096-537: The canal was made impassable with scuttled ships. The canal would not reopen until 1975 after the Camp David Accord . Traffic through the canal began to fall in the early 1980s after petroleum pipelines eroded ship traffic business. After the company became defunct in the late 1990s, the canal was generating $ 2 billion a year in revenue for Egypt. Following the Suez crisis, the Suez Company reinvented itself as

3182-543: The canal. Borel and Lavalley, like many of the engineers working on the project, were École Polytechnique alumni. These machines were powered by steam from coal in an era before the mass production of machines and machine tools. The men had prior railroad experience and Lavalley, in particular, had customised locomotives , designed lighthouses on the Black Sea, created a tunnel boring machine in Lithuania, and created

3268-485: The chambers of commerce of Lyon and Venice. Following the granting of the first concession in 1854, Lesseps was in near constant travel to assemble diplomatic approvals perceived as necessary to build the canal from other foreign governments involved. Although the first concession was granted by Egypt, at the time Egypt was an administrative subdivision of the Ottoman Empire , and so Lesseps traveled frequently to

3354-503: The company all Italian merchant traffic to its colony of Italian East Africa was forced to pay tolls upon entering the canal. Britain secured the canal against the Germans and their Afrika Korps during the second world war. Immediately following the end of the second World War, company profits rose greatly due to petroleum shipments and the company reserved much of this income. By 1952, the company held four different reserves accounts:

3440-471: The company as being officially formed on 15 December 1858. Prior to the existence of the Suez Canal, Port Said and Lake Timsah had few residents, the Great Bitter Lake was a dry basin, and drinking water was difficult to find. In addition to infrastructure challenges, Said would not allow the use of massive corvée labour until 1861, when Napoleon III publicly backed the canal project. In

3526-404: The company's power. Ismail would soon issue a clarification that corvée labor could still be used for public works essential for the common good (though not on the Suez Canal project). The British also commented on the use of forced labor by the company. Ismail issued declarations upholding much of the previous concessions, with exceptions including the labor issue. Aziz favored the end of the use of

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3612-408: The company's shares remained under the ownership of French shareholders. In 1876, Ismail again faced government debt payment issues and was forced to join an international commission which would govern Egypt's finances known as Dual Control . As a condition of joining the commission, the khedive's right to 15 percent of the commissions from Suez Canal traffic was sold. The buyer was a French bank and

3698-412: The corvée and the return of land from the company to Egypt. The problem was referred during 1864 to the arbitration of Napoleon III . Ismail authorised Boghos Nubar Nubarian to negotiate on behalf of Egypt, and Nubar in turn allied with Emile Ollivier and Morny against Lesseps and the company. It wasn't until July 1864 that Napoleon III released a ruling for the framework for resolution which accepted

3784-481: The corvée had finished the access canal from Lake Timsah to the Red Sea. After Napoleon III's decree in Summer of 1864, the use of corvée labor was restricted. The use of large mechanical dredging machines began to excavate the main canal. In December 1863, Voisin hired Paul Borel and Alexandre Lavalley 's company, Borel, Lavalley, and Company, to design, build, and operate the dredging and excavation machines to finish

3870-609: The cost of the canal) to continue building other infrastructure in Egypt. By 1875, the Egyptian treasury was £100 million in debt, and no lender would issue Ismail money to pay for the December debt instalment of several million pounds. Société Générale was interested in his shares of the Suez Canal Company in exchange for paying off the debt instalment, however, the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli responded quickly and with permission from parliament and Queen Victoria received

3956-536: The country's shares to the government of the United Kingdom . The Suez Company operated the canal until Egypt's new president Gamal Abdel Nasser revoked its concession in 1956 and transferred canal operation to the state-owned Suez Canal Authority , precipitating the Suez Crisis . Following the loss of the canal concession, the Suez Company received financial compensation from the Egyptian government,

4042-497: The countryside and the central government. This was shown in 1876 when the assembly persuaded Isma'il to reinstate the law (enacted by him in 1871 to raise money and later repealed) that allowed landownership and tax privileges to persons paying six years' land tax in advance. Isma'il tried to reduce slave trading and with the advice and financial backing of Yacoub Cattaui extended Egypt's rule in Africa. In 1874 he annexed Darfur , but

4128-409: The eastern coast at Ras Hafun in contemporary Puntland . The Khedive's northern Somali Coast territory was reached as far inland as Harar , although it was subsequently ceded to Britain in 1884 due to internal difficulties of Egypt. Isma'il's khedivate is closely connected to the building of the Suez Canal . He agreed to, and oversaw, the Egyptian portion of its construction. On his accession, at

4214-533: The end of 1862, the access canal connecting Lake Timsah to the Mediterranean Sea was complete. François Philippe Voisin became chief engineer in January 1861 and Hardon's contract expired at the end of 1862. Compared with the later mechanised excavation, a low amount of material was excavated during this phase of construction. The British began to loudly decry the use of corvée labor in 1862. Said died in mid-January 1863, and in late-January, just before Ismail began

4300-475: The energy company Engie and the water and waste-management utility also named Suez . The original concession assembled by Lesseps and granted by Said in 1854 included the following stipulations: 10 percent of the annual profits were reserved for the founders, 15 percent of the annual profits were reserved for the Government of Egypt, and 75 percent of the annual profits were reserved for shareholders. There

4386-519: The expansion of the country's boundaries in Africa . His philosophy can be glimpsed in a statement that he made in 1879: "My country is no longer only in Africa; we are now part of Europe , too. It is therefore natural for us to abandon our former ways and to adopt a new system adapted to our social conditions". In 1867 he also secured Ottoman and international recognition for his title of Khedive (Viceroy) in preference to Wāli (Governor) which

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4472-552: The final payment of which was made in 1962, and used this resource to reinvent itself as a major investment and holding company in France. In 1958 it renamed itself the Compagnie financière de Suez ("Suez Financial Company"), and in 1967 changed its name again to Compagnie financière de Suez et de l'Union parisienne , a change that was reversed in 1972. It was nationalized in 1982, then privatized in 1987. It acquired control of

4558-652: The foreign sovereigns and public, and he had much success. In 1867 he visited Paris during the Exposition Universelle (1867) with Sultan Abdülaziz, and also London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and welcomed by the Lord Mayor . While in Britain he also saw a British Royal Navy Fleet Review with the Sultan. In 1869 he again paid a visit to Britain. When the Canal finally opened, Isma'il held

4644-579: The form of bonds – maturing in 50 years – to finish the project. Remaining unsold bonds were sold in lotteries approved by the French government. Two dams prevented the filling of the Great Bitter Lake and thus the completion of the canal, one to the north and one to the south. Rocky terrain was cleared on the Serapeum ridge to the north of the lake for a lake filling ceremony witnessed by Ismail in early 1869. The prince of Wales visited in

4730-488: The formation of a Western-trained elite. A national library was founded in 1871. One of his most significant achievements was to establish an assembly of delegates in November 1866. Though this was supposed to be a purely advisory body, its members eventually came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Village headmen dominated the assembly and came to exert increasing political and economic influence over

4816-474: The historian Eugene Rogan has observed, "the irony of the situation was that Egypt had embarked on its development schemes to secure independence from Ottoman and European domination. Yet with each new concession, the government of Egypt made itself more vulnerable to European encroachment." This control of the country by Europeans was unacceptable to many Egyptians , who united behind a disaffected Colonel Ahmed Urabi . The Urabi Revolt consumed Egypt. Hoping

4902-492: The jetties for Port Said were also constructed by the Dussaud brothers. They created two jetty structures, one at 1.5 miles in length, and the other at 2 miles in length, by dumping 20-ton concrete blocks in the Mediterranean Sea. The blocks were produced in an assembly line with mechanical elevators to pour in cement, lime, and water. After curing for two months in wooden frames, they were lifted on to barges that dropped them into

4988-606: The language of the ruling elite in the Nile delta during the hundreds of years of Ottoman rule. In the following decades, Arabic would further expand and eventually replace Turkish in the army and in administration, leaving Turkish to be used only in correspondence with the Ottoman Sultan in Constantinople. Suez Canal Company The Suez Company or Suez Canal Company , full initial name Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez (Universal Company of

5074-414: The meantime from 1859 to 1861, the company's Chief Engineer Eugène Mougel and its new superintendent Alphonse Hardon, planned for and built fresh water distilleries along the route, hauled in additional fresh water from the Nile, built housing for workers, gathered stone for the jetty , assembled some aging dredging equipment from the Nile, and looked for workers. Company town establishments arose along

5160-596: The money went for the construction of the Suez Canal. About £46 million went to construct 8,000 miles (13,000 km) of irrigation canals to help modernize agriculture. He built over 900 miles (1,400 km) railroads, 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of telegraph lines, 400 bridges, harbor works in Alexandria, and 4,500 schools. The national debt rose from £3 million to about £90 million, in a country with 5 million population and an annual treasury revenue of about £8 million. Isma'il launched vast schemes of internal reform on

5246-476: The new system of mixed courts , by which Europeans were tried by judges from their own states, rather than by Egyptian and Sudanese courts. But at length the inevitable financial crisis came. A national debt of over £100 million sterling (as opposed to three millions when he acceded to the throne) had been incurred by the Khedive, whose fundamental idea of liquidating his borrowings was to borrow at increased interest. The bond-holders became restive, chief among them

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5332-569: The next largest block owned by citizens of the Ottoman Empire (Said bought around 60,000). None of the shares reserved for Britain, Russia, Austria, or the United States were bought. Said purchased the remaining unbought shares (for a total of 177,000 shares) in order to ensure that the company reached its necessary capitalization amount (to become a legal entity as defined in the 1856 concession). The average number of shares bought by French investors amounted to nine shares each. Lesseps declared

5418-621: The official royal residence. During his reign, King Fouad ordered enhancements and extensions to Koubbeh, including a six-meter wall around the 75-acre (300,000 m), a new gate and an external garden. In addition, a royal train station was added to the palace complex where visiting dignitaries arrived by special carriage directly from Alexandria or from Cairo's main railway station. It was at this palace that King Fouad died, and his then 16-year-old son King Farouk greeted his subjects during an inaugural radio broadcast on 8 May 1936. King Farouk kept his personal collections at Koubbeh. These included

5504-486: The other Great Powers recognized him only as Wāli. Like all Egyptian and Sudanese rulers since his grandfather Muhammad Ali Pasha, he claimed the higher title of Khedive , which the Sublime Porte had consistently refused to sanction. Finally, in 1867, Isma'il succeeded in persuading the Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz to grant a firman finally recognizing him as Khedive in exchange for an increase in

5590-624: The other two being Abdeen Palace in downtown Cairo and Ras El Tin Palace in Alexandria. It was at Koubbeh that President Gamal Abdel Nasser preferred to host guests. It was also there that his body lay awaiting his funeral in September 1970. The Shah of Iran also lived in this palace when in exile in Egypt. Koubbeh remains Egypt's principal guesthouse. U.S. President Barack Obama was received in it during his visit to Cairo in June 2009. This article about an Egyptian building or structure

5676-585: The presence of his nephew, employed him in the next few years on missions abroad, notably to the Pope , the Emperor Napoleon III , and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire . In 1861 he was dispatched at the head of an army of 18,000 to quell an insurrection in Sudan , a mission which he accomplished. After the death of Sa'id, Isma'il was proclaimed Khedive on 19 January 1863, though the Ottoman Empire and

5762-452: The price was 22 million francs. In 1879, Ismail was deposed by the Ottoman Sultan and replaced with Tawfiq . Tawfiq was challenged for leadership during a nationalist uprising in 1880 by Colonel Ahmad Urabi . In response to an anti-European riot in 1882 , Britain landed an army, seized the canal, and developed a protectorate over Egypt, placing Lord Cromer as the head governing authority. The 1888 Convention of Constantinople declared

5848-473: The process of establishing himself as the new viceroy of Egypt by Ottoman Sultan Abdul Aziz , Ismail declared that he was establishing reforms in the ways of the creation of a civil service list and the abolishment of corvée labor . Ismail's motives had to do with his own personal projects (cotton farms, whose export from Egypt had been increasing since the beginning of the American Civil War , and other cash crops and public works) within Egypt and with limiting

5934-484: The remaining 10 miles between Suez and the southern dam. The average final width of the canal was 200 feet – 300 feet at the top with a depth of at least 26 feet. The company and Ismail set aside 1 million francs for the inauguration of the canal on 17 November 1869. One thousand guests were invited for a tour upon opening. The empress Eugénie and Ismail were a major attraction. The multinational flotilla of about 60 ships proceeded south from Port Said to Ismailia, where

6020-436: The revolt could relieve him of European control, Isma'il did little to oppose Urabi and gave into his demands to dissolve the government. Britain and France took the matter seriously, and insisted in May 1879 on the reinstatement of the British and French ministers. With the country largely in the hands of Urabi, Isma'il could not agree, and had little interest in doing so. As a result, the British, and French governments pressured

6106-408: The route. In 1860, the company employed 210 Europeans and 544 Egyptians along 11 stations of the route. Employees were provided scrip to buy provisions. Plans were made for an access canal from the Nile to Lake Timsah to provide fresh water. Once the necessary infrastructure was established, the plan was to build an 8 metre-wide access canal from Port Said to Lake Timsah and later from Lake Timsah to

6192-481: The scale of his grandfather, remodeling the customs system and the post office, stimulating commercial progress, creating a sugar industry, building the cotton industry, building palaces, entertaining lavishly, and maintaining an opera and a theatre. Over one hundred thousand Europeans came to work in Cairo, where he facilitated building an entire new quarter of the city on its western edge modeled on Paris. Alexandria

6278-440: The sea. 30,000 blocks were used in the jetties. In 1867, the company began to develop its fee structure in preparation for opening. During this same year the company had already started to charge fees for transport of goods across the northern almost-completed portion to the separate southern access canal, garnering millions of francs in annual revenue. The company estimated that of the 10 million tons of annual goods shipped around

6364-491: The three sons of Ibrahim Pasha , and the grandson of Muhammad Ali , Isma'il, of Albanian descent, was born in Cairo at Al Musafir Khana Palace . His mother was Circassian Hoshiyar Qadin , third wife of his father. Hoshiyar Qadin (also known as Khushiyar Qadin) is reported to be the sister of Pertevniyal Sultan , mother of the Ottoman Emperor Abdulaziz , who ruled from 1861 to 1876 and who also

6450-401: The total construction cost of the canal, according to Lesseps' autobiographical account, was £11,627,000. This cost was more than covered by the initial equity capitalization of £8 million (1858), a legal decision awarding about £4 million (1864 and 1866), and a bond issuance of £4 million (1867). Approximately 500 ships carrying around 400,000 tons made passage through the canal in 1870, which

6536-586: The tribute, because of the Khedive's help in the Cretan Revolt between 1866 and 1869 . Another firman changed the law of succession to direct descent from father to son rather than brother to brother, and a further decree in 1873 confirmed the virtual independence of the Khedivate of Egypt from the Porte. Isma'il spent heavily—some went to bribes to Constantinople to facilitate his reform projects. Much of

6622-575: The workers for the company were required to be supplied from Egypt and the skilled workers were required to be paid commensurate with skilled workers on other Egyptian public works projects. An amendment stipulated that work could only commence with the approval of the Ottoman Sultan. The board of directors of the concessionaire company would have 32 members, each serving for eight years. The operations office would be headquartered in Alexandria, while administrative offices would be located in Paris. This company

6708-469: Was also improved. He launched a vast railroad building project that saw Egypt and Sudan rise from having virtually none to the most railways per habitable kilometer of any nation in the world. Education reform increased the education budget more than tenfold. Traditional primary and secondary schools were expanded and specialized technical and vocational schools were created. Students were once again sent to Europe to study on educational missions, encouraging

6794-411: Was built for the Suez canal Company in 1911-1913 on a design by architect Henri Paul Nénot . The Suez Company was long known colloquially as the "old lady of the rue d'Astorg" ( French : la vieille dame de la rue d'Astorg ) with reference to its headquarters address. Following the Suez Company's merger with Lyonnaise des eaux, it was sold to the real estate arm of General Electric and renovated in

6880-652: Was deposed at the behest of the western powers. Thus, Isma'il Pasha was ruling Egypt and Sudan for the entire period when his cousin, Abdulaziz , was ruling the Ottoman empire. After receiving a European education in Paris where he attended the École d'état-major , he returned home, and on the death of his elder brother became heir to his uncle, Sa'id , the Wāli and Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. Sa'id, who apparently conceived his safety to lie in ridding himself as much as possible of

6966-492: Was further varied depending upon the soil type they excavated. Ultimately, Borel, Lavalley and company removed 75% of the 74 million cubic meters excavated from the main canal. And most of that work was done between 1867 and 1869. Another French contractor, Alphonse Couvreux , who is credited with the first documented use of a bucket chain excavator on land, employed seven of his excavators to dig about 8 million cubic yards of material from 1863 to 1868. During this same period,

7052-470: Was much less than the 5 million tons projected in 1867. Of that tonnage, three-quarters came from Britain. In 1871, more tonnage made the passage, but it was still less than 1 million tons. The ship tonnage for 1872, 1873, and 1874 was 1,439,000, 2,085,000, and 2,424,000, respectively. Toll revenue from the first five years (1870–1874) are as follows: £206,373, £359,747, £656,305, £915,853, and £994,375. In 1873, Ismail borrowed £30 million (more than double

7138-878: Was no stipulation dictating whether the route of the canal would be direct or indirect (from the Nile). The company was given the right to free quarries and import equipment tax-free. In that original concession, founding members of the Company were to receive 10 percent of the canal's profits. These members included François Barthélemy Arlès-Dufour , Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds , Richard Cobden , Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin , Benoît Fould , Lesseps and several members of his family, Eugène Mougel , Ruyssenaers (Dutch Consul General in Egypt), M. Sabatier (French Consul General), Sa'id of Egypt and multiple members of his family, Paulin Talabot and his brother Edmond, and members of

7224-592: Was prevented from expanding into Ethiopia after his army was repeatedly defeated by Emperor Yohannes IV , first at Gundet on 16 November 1875, and again at Gura in March of the following year. Isma'il dreamt of expanding his realm across the entire Nile including its diverse sources, and over the whole African coast of the Red Sea . This, together with rumours about rich raw material and fertile soil, led Isma'il to expansive policies directed against Ethiopia under

7310-538: Was previously used by his predecessors in the Eyalet of Egypt and Sudan (1517–1867). However, Isma'il's policies placed the Khedivate of Egypt and Sudan (1867–1914) in severe debt, leading to the sale of the country's shares in the Suez Canal Company to the British government, and his ultimate toppling from power in 1879 under British and French pressure. The city of Ismailia is named in his honor. The second of

7396-689: Was to be called the Universal Company of the Maritime Canal of Suez. In late Spring of 1858, the French Academy of Sciences released a public report approving of the engineering plans for the canal. The report noted that in the previous two decades, Europeans had spent 12 billion francs building railroads, and that at a cost of 200 million francs (or £8 million), the canal was affordable. Lesseps pushed ahead without formal British or Ottoman approval. In October 1858, Lesseps notified international press and company agents that 400,000 shares at

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