WI Khedives of Egypt didn't want a Suez Canal & turned down Lesseps?

Can Egypt avoid a Suez Canal if it wants

  • Yes-Egypt could reject Suez Canal proposals & make it stick

    Votes: 1 5.0%
  • No- some "western" country would compel the building of the canal eventually

    Votes: 19 95.0%

  • Total voters
    20

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
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WI the Khedives decided that building a Suez Canal required such a large western investment that it was dangerous for Egyptian sovereignty and begged off on Lesseps' canal schemes?

Would Egypt lose its independence another way? (the canal had much to do with the Khedive's later insolvency) Would Europeans eventually force building of a Suez Canal or not?

Would the Khedives face the serious prospect of a coup by soldiers/ministers believing they could profit from a canal deal?
 
Wouldn`t it just get built the same way as the Panama canal was done. Lease the territory under a long term lease...99 yrs anyone....and build it themselves...no investment from the Khedivate at all. of course it may take longer to get a consortium together to finance something like that, and then what happens when the lease runs out.....and its proven to be such a money winner.
 

raharris1973

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What if the Egyptians don't want it built on their land, thinking that a canal would destroy jobs in the land caravan sector, and, despite the money that might go to the palace, it invites intervention by Europeans and provides them a base.
 

Yun-shuno

Banned
What if the Egyptians don't want it built on their land, thinking that a canal would destroy jobs in the land caravan sector, and, despite the money that might go to the palace, it invites intervention by Europeans and provides them a base.
If they really didn't wanna play ball-expect men with Gatling guns and rifles in Cairo in 3-2-1. The Suez Canal simply has way to much strategic and commercial value. It's a sad world we live in were nations could dictate other nations geography at gunpoint but it's history.

The goal isn't to laugh or cry but as Spinoza said to understand.
 

raharris1973

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So who does it first? Lesseps was French. Does invading Egypt in the late 1850s become his project? How comfortable or uncomfortable are the British with French action here? I would note in OTL that at the time it was initiated, the British opposed the Suez Canal (they had aa preference for rail schemes). The British only bought the Suez shares after the canal became an accomplished fact in OTL.
 
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