The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1150 Suez Canal

Franz was not the first person to propose connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. According to an inscription from 2000 BC, large-scale excavation activities had already taken place at that time.

Completed during the reign of Pharaoh Senusret III of the 1884th Dynasty of Egypt (1849-1300 BC), the canal existed for at least several centuries until it was abandoned around BC.

Around 600 BC, the Egyptian pharaoh wanted to rebuild the canal, and he recruited 12 slaves at one time, which was a national effort.

However, due to the rise of Persia and the increasing pressure of war, they gave up building the canal.

After that, Persia invaded Egypt. In 512 BC, Darius I finally opened the canal in order to consolidate his rule, and made many modifications. It is known in history as the "Persian Canal".

However, although Darius I's canal reduced costs, it was only accessible when the Nile River flooded.

His descendants did not pay much attention to it, and soon the so-called "Persian Canal" disappeared in the memory of history. The descendants of the Persians even thought that the Persian Canal was in the Mesopotamian region.

Around 250 BC, the Greeks widened the canal between the Big and Small Bitter Lakes to allow traffic in all seasons, thus digging out the prototype of the modern Suez Canal.

In the years that followed, the Romans and Arabs successively ruled Egypt, and the canal was repeatedly built and diverted.

Finally, the Abbasid Caliph ordered the Grand Canal to be blocked in order to suppress the popular uprising in Medina, which interrupted its operation for a thousand years.

On March 1672, 3, Leibniz, a German mathematician known as the "Aristotle of the 15th century", met with the "Sun King" Louis XIV at the Palace of Versailles in Paris with his Grand Canal plan.

This versatile man convinced Louis XIV's staff with his amazing talent, and the latter did have ambitions to conquer the East and even the world.

However, it was more than a hundred years later when the Suez Canal plan was brought up again. In 1784, Volnets, who had just returned from Egypt, began to preach that Egypt was already weak and now was a good time to seize Egypt and open the Suez Canal.

In 1798, Napoleon went on an expedition to Egypt, and he immediately had a seemingly crazy idea: to open the Suez Canal to destroy the British dominance in commerce.

Napoleon was a man of action. Once he had an idea, he took action. It just so happened that he had some scientists and surveyors in his army.

It's just that Napoleon was a strange person. He laughed off Fulton, who could help him conquer Britain, and he firmly believed in the data provided by several scientists who had not conducted field research.

According to unofficial historical records, scientists sent by Napoleon came to an astonishing conclusion after investigating the brothels and taverns in Egypt: the water level difference between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea was as high as ten meters.

One of the authoritative figures even pointed out that once the two oceans are connected, it will be a world-destroying natural disaster like Noah's Flood, and the whole of Europe will be submerged.

In any case, Napoleon never mentioned the construction of the Suez Canal again in the days that followed.

In 1830, British engineers remeasured the water level of the Suez Canal, and this report was enough to overturn the French conclusion.

However, Palmerston keenly sensed the business opportunity and suppressed the report.

However, the historical line ends here, and the Second Turkish-Egyptian War became unrecognizable due to the participation of Austria.

Egypt was at odds with France and Britain, and Muhammad Ali retained a stronger military force than ever before.

Austria's rise made the British throw the plan of opening the Suez Canal into the wind, after all, the most direct beneficiaries of the opening of the canal were Austria and France. The Governor of Alexandria committed suicide after being attacked by the Austrian navy, and Muhammad Ali's fourth son, Muhammad Said, was killed in a naval battle with the British.

Originally, both of them were supposed to play a key role in the construction of the Suez Canal.

The legendary French explorer participated in the Congo expedition organized by the Austrian Empire and his life or death is currently unknown.

However, it is common sense that people die for money and birds die for food. It is normal for an explorer to participate in a riskier expedition for higher rewards and greater challenges.

When Franz offered a high reward to any brave man who could cross the Great Falls and explore the Congo Basin, he did not expect that there would be so many chain reactions.

At this time he had to take on the role of proposing the Suez Canal plan, but this was a good thing for the Austrian Empire itself.

Historically, the Suez Canal Development Company was too small in scope and its mind was ridiculously small, so the Suez Canal was also too small to meet the development of the times.

Initially, the British thought that the Suez Canal could be built with 25 pounds, and the French were even more exaggerated, claiming that the Isthmus of Suez could be dug with 15 francs. In fact, the final cost was 1860 million pounds.

The result of this boasting contest was that the project progressed extremely slowly, taking nearly ten years from the time the plan was proposed to the start of construction.

For Austria, the sooner the Suez Canal is opened, the better. On the one hand, it can share in the profits of the Eastern trade, and on the other hand, it can better manage East Africa and even promote the re-shifting of the world trade center.

Franz dared to bet that once this plan was announced, Venice and the Italian states would go crazy about it, and the Venetians would even be willing to dig the canal themselves.

Muhammad Ali's initial ecstasy turned into a hint of sinisterness. Digging a canal was a very exhausting task, and he took this opportunity to eliminate domestic opposition forces and those pro-British and pro-French factions.

In addition, laborers can be recruited from the Sudan region, which can not only save costs but also weaken local resistance forces.

When it came to the construction of the canal, Ali the Elder was not going to rely solely on one thing, so he wanted to bring in other powers as well. This would prevent the Austrian Empire from being the only powerful country, and would also be a good opportunity to implement his national policy of using barbarians to control barbarians.

Before the construction of the canal began, he made demands on the European powers, and after the construction of the canal began, the European powers demanded that he complete the canal.

There is nothing more satisfying than holding the emperor hostage to control the other lords.

He couldn't help but feel secretly happy when he thought that all the great powers were at his mercy.

Franz didn't care what old Ali was thinking, and toasted him from a distance. Muhammad Ali also quickly picked up the glass and drank it all, and the two smiled at each other.

This cup is really sweet and refreshing!
Muhammad Ali believed that the arrogant young man in front of him would definitely pay the price for his actions today.

"Old Ali has infinite wisdom, young people should not be too impetuous."

Franz still had a polite smile on his face, this emotionless smile was hard to understand, and it also made old Ali feel a little uneasy.

"Old man, your plan is just to help my career."