Earliest possible Kiel Canal?

Let's assume that the relevant tracts of land are under the control of a single prosperous state with a good reason to dig a canal roughly equal to OTL's Kiel Canal. Let's also handwave away any wars that might get in the way for now. How early could such a project conceivably be completed?

I know of the Danish Eider Canal of 1784, but I am interested in knowing if it would be possible for one to be completed significantly earlier than that.
 
It would depend on what size boats or ships you want to use there. The smaller the boat the easier to build. In France the Canal de Midi was built in 1681.
 
It would depend on what size boats or ships you want to use there. The smaller the boat the easier to build. In France the Canal de Midi was built in 1681.
Going with the Hanseatic idea below, I'd guess the medieval Hulk ships used by the Hansa after the Cog started getting obsolete, or something evolved from them, would be the kind of ship it would be built for. I don't know much about ships used in the area beyond the 16th century though.

Considering that a project like this would probably be far smaller in scale than the Canal de Midi, I'd wager it could probably be completed even earlier than the late 17th century, then?

The mighty Hanse might be your choice!:)
They would certainly have a good reason to do it, given how much the Danish Sound Due messed up their business.
 
They would certainly have a good reason to do it, given how much the Danish Sound Due messed up their business.
Wasn't Holstein either directly ruled, or heavily influenced, by the monarchs of Denmark for large stretches of its history? Seems slightly counterintuitive for them to spend all the money to create it when they already control the straits, and if they then come into ownership of the duchy then they'd probably just slap on a toll for its use equal to the sound dues. Of course that's not taking into account the butterflies.
 
Wasn't Holstein either directly ruled, or heavily influenced, by the monarchs of Denmark for large stretches of its history? Seems slightly counterintuitive for them to spend all the money to create it when they already control the straits, and if they then come into ownership of the duchy then they'd probably just slap on a toll for its use equal to the sound dues. Of course that's not taking into account the butterflies.
Indeed, but let's assume that one of the scenarios below holds true for this speculation:
a) Denmark is not in control of Holstein and is in no position to gain it. A different state controls it and wants to avoid paying the Sound Due.

b) Denmark is in control of Imperial territory linking Oldenburg to Denmark proper, as well as more Baltic Imperial territory. (Mecklenburg and Cispomerania perhaps) In order to save their fleets the trouble of sailing around Jutland, a canal is built.
 

Tyr Anazasi

Banned
The first ideas of a canal were made in the 7th century. Haithabu, an important Viking market place at the Schleswig Fjord, had only 16 km to the Treene, which flows into the river Eider, which ends in the North Sea. These 16 km were used by oxes, which were pulling the ships to and from Haithabu. With the end as market place and Lübeck became market place. Here one built indeed the Stecknitz and Alster-Beste-Canals. These were in no way suitable for sea ships though. The latter one was not very successful though. The Eider Canal, built by order of the Danish king Christian VII., but planned earlier, was the first step to the modern Kiel Canal.
 
Random question but why was the particular route of the canal chosen - geographic reasons such as length or route, social ones such as having it start at the city, something else?
 

Tyr Anazasi

Banned
Random question but why was the particular route of the canal chosen - geographic reasons such as length or route, social ones such as having it start at the city, something else?

Geographic reasons. For one it uses parts of the older Eider Canal. The other point is, that Tönning, the end of the Eider Canal at the North Sea, is in the Wadden Sea and thus difficult to navigate to (tide). Furthermore it lasted long, 3 days, and larger ships were no longer able to pass the small Canal. Because of this a new one was dug, which now ends at Brunsbüttel at the Elbe river, which is much easier to reach.
 
Perhaps if Gustavus Adolphus had been more succesful, he or his daughter Christina might have attempted it in the mid-seventeenth century. It would have had to have been more of a vanity project, though :rolleyes:
 
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