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The World the Suez Canal Made

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1–10 of 26 posts

Re: The World the Suez Canal Made

#2
It will be interesting if the Danube to Mediterranean canal is constructed. Balkan states do not agree with each other on much, but depriving the Turks of toll money could be the one thing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/geopolitics/comments/k37f9f/china_p...

Proposed new Istanbul Canal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_Canal

Re: The World the Suez Canal Made

#3
One of the interesting facts I leaned about the Suez canal is how container ships have grown in size with time and how the canal also widened gradually with time to accomodate them.

Another interesting fact was that Egypt, like the USA was on the point of industrialising in the 19th century but was prevented from doing so by its British rulers.

Re: The World the Suez Canal Made

#4

One of the interesting facts I leaned about the Suez canal is how container ships have grown in size with time and how the canal also widened gradually with time to accomodate them. Another interesting fact was that Egypt, like the USA was on the point of industrialising in the 19th century but was prevented from doing so by its British rulers.

Curious about your Britain-bashing last line, I had a quick gander.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-6-the...

Seems to suggest that Britain may well have meddled in Egypt's industrialisation, but is by no means absolutely to blame. There's a myriad of reasons Egypt didn't industrialise, as you'd expect from history - nothing's quite so simple.

In fact, it could be argued that Britain did more to raise Egypt up than any other country playing the game at that point in time, of which the UK was just one actor.

People tend to forget that one of the main reasons Britain herself industrialised early and comprehensively was simply thet fact it sits on vast amounts of coal. Egypt does not.

Re: The World the Suez Canal Made

#5

One of the interesting facts I leaned about the Suez canal is how container ships have grown in size with time and how the canal also widened gradually with time to accomodate them. Another interesting fact was that Egypt, like the USA was on the point of industrialising in the 19th century but was prevented from doing so by its British rulers.

>Egypt, like the USA was on the point of industrialising in the 19th century but was prevented from doing so by its British rulers.

It seems a little selective to blame the British when Egypt contemporaneously suffered an invasion by Napoleon and a contested political status under the Ottomans. If the French or Turks had won the game of empires, would they be to blame instead?

Re: The World the Suez Canal Made

#7
post #4

One of the interesting facts I leaned about the Suez canal is how container ships have grown in size with time and how the canal also widened gradually with time to accomodate them. Another interesting fact was that Egypt, like the USA was on the point of industrialising in the 19th century but was prevented from doing so by its British rulers.

Curious about your Britain-bashing last line, I had a quick gander. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-6-the... Seems to suggest that Britain may well have meddled in Egypt's industrialisation, but is by no means absolutely to blame. There's a myriad of reasons Egypt didn't industrialise, as you'd expect from history - nothing's quite so simple. In fact, it could be argued that Britain did more to…

Well the article you cited has a really important piece: the British simply blocked Egpytian and Ottoman empire imports. They had tremendous control over the seas and Egypt was virtually a colony of the British.

Preventing IP from reaching Egypt was a big deal. The US had to pirate a lot of intellectual property from the British in order to develop their industry.

Japan also didn't have coal.

Re: The World the Suez Canal Made

#8
post #6

Just a sidenote, but I really like the yellow background, it makes (similarly to hackernews) reading the text more pleasant and it's kinda weird that on average white seems to be the default.

White gives you the highest contrast ratio, which continually ranks as one of the best ways to make text more readable.

Re: The World the Suez Canal Made

#9
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious about your Britain-bashing last line, I had a quick gander. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-6-the... Seems to suggest that Britain may well have meddled in Egypt's industrialisation, but is by no means absolutely to blame. There's a myriad of reasons Egypt didn't industrialise, as you'd expect from history - nothing's quite so simple. In fact, it could be argued that Britain did more to…

Well the article you cited has a really important piece: the British simply blocked Egpytian and Ottoman empire imports. They had tremendous control over the seas and Egypt was virtually a colony of the British. Preventing IP from reaching Egypt was a big deal. The US had to pirate a lot of intellectual property from the British in order to develop their industry. Japan also didn't have coal.

Yes, I read that line, the third suggestion after leadership woes and a lack of local resources, and one that points at European protectionism generally.

Elsewhere in the article in mentions that Egypt herself didn't have an entirely unified stance about embracing industrialisation and it doesn't take much to note a vast gulf between the national psyches of Japan and Egypt, Japan also having been treated somewhat shoddily by Western powers.

Re: The World the Suez Canal Made

#10
don't want to sound harsh, but articles like this are the reason I don't read much. Maybe it's because English is my second language, so it's on me, but why such epic journey to seemingly say so little. I only read half of it, couldn't go through more. Interesting topic but to me personally, delivery is quite difficult.
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