Americans in a hurry have secretly hated this "damn Suez". After all, Americans have long thought of blowing up a new canal in Israel with 520 nuclear bombs, but considering the high cost, they have no choice.
This is ironic and funny. It seems that human beings have been able to "fly to the sky" for a long time, especially among big countries, and they often display all kinds of high-tech equipment of Niu X, which looks "invincible in the world".
Unexpectedly, the ship was blocked by a small canal, and the wall lasted for several days. Finally, after 175 hours, it is still ridiculous to straighten the stranded cargo ship with the help of the natural external force of tidal rise and strong wind.
Ironically, it also made people on earth realize the importance of Suez Canal in global shipping again.
How important is 0 1? Suez Canal is one of the most commonly used shipping routes in the world. It is located on the Suez Isthmus connecting Asia and Africa, with a total length of 175 km, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, which greatly shortens the voyage from Europe and North America to countries along the Indian Ocean, and is also the main waterway for people from Asia, Africa and Europe. Therefore, it is called "the Great Waterway of the East".
It is said that a cargo ship named "Ever Given" can block the canal, which leads to the misfortune of hundreds of ships behind, especially those pulling livestock, and it has become a "biological weapon". Some ships have no choice but to bypass the Cape of Good Hope, which is 8000 ~ 10000 kilometers longer than the Suez Canal, and it takes at least 10 days to sail for 40 days. The time, financial resources and risks it needs are self-evident, which is really sad.
Some people say that since it is so important, why not dig the river wider and deeper?
Why not? Camels near the canal also seem to laugh at humans. Why not dig wider? Just dig a ditch.
However, is it really that easy to dig? Of course not!
The little-known truth behind the Suez Canal is not long, but countless workers died trying to dig this short river. Every inch of the canal is dug, hundreds of people fall, which can be described as an artificial canal full of blood and tears.
The history of the Suez Canal may be traced back to the 12 dynasty in Egypt, when the Egyptian Pharaoh ordered the construction of an "east-west" canal to connect the Red Sea and the Nile. However, due to various reasons, it has not been done for a long time.
By around 600 BC, the canal was dug again, but it was still unfinished. Later, in the history of 1000 years, although it was open for a period of time, it was repeatedly improved, destroyed, rebuilt and abandoned.
In modern times, 1858+ February, a company named Suez Canal was established. 1859, the canal officially broke ground and started excavation. In the first two years of the canal construction, the company recruited people in the form of free recruitment. As a result, very few workers were recruited. In the second year, there were only 1.7 million workers, and the progress of the project was extremely slow.
In order to speed up the progress, 186 1 year, the government requested to increase the number of workers, and soon the Compulsory Labor Law was promulgated. Egypt, with a population of just over 5 million at that time, needed tens of thousands of people to dig canals every month. They practice a monthly rotation system. Every month, 60,000 laborers are needed to work in the construction site in turn, and the laborers are stranded in the canal construction site.
In order to increase the labor force, even the army soldiers were asked to take off their uniforms and rush to the canal site to work.
With the passage of time, a batch of workers fell, and a new batch of workers were forced to "take over" their jobs. Finally, the canal dug for more than ten years was finally completed and opened to traffic in June 1869+065438+ 10/7. Its exhausted expenses exceeded180,000 Egyptian pounds, and120,000 migrant workers contributed precious lives to it.
The reason for this is not only related to the intensity of work, but also related to the harsh environment and treatment.
As we all know, the Suez Canal is located in the desert, which is hot and rainy all the year round. Water resources are extremely scarce, and drinking water is difficult to solve. At that time, migrant workers who died of thirst, like crops lacking water, fell one after another.
In addition, because the social productivity at that time was still relatively low, digging canals could only rely on manpower, and manpower basically relied on both hands. Due to the lack of high-tech tools, people can only dig with heavy shovels and picks, and then carry soil with simple and worn dustpans and baskets. Such a simple and backward operation method is basically the same as the way of excavating river transportation in Egypt's Pharaoh era thousands of years ago.
Poor working conditions, poor environment, poor food, migrant workers are often deducted and squeezed, suffering both physically and mentally. Squeezed by French colonialists and baked by the hot desert, the living environment of migrant workers is not guaranteed, mosquitoes and flies swarm, stinking, and hunger and plague are rampant. In the end, a large number of deaths are inevitable. At that time, I was so sad that I couldn't even find the person who carried the body. There were many bones on both sides of the canal.
To sum up, we can see that the Suez Canal is not suitable for people to live and work here because of its special geographical environment and climate.
However, "money makes the mare go" and bad environment are not the important reasons that ultimately affect canal excavation. After all, as we can see, even if there were countless deaths when the Suez Canal was dug, the colonists could still make black-hearted money without changing their colors.
At that time, Egypt paid a terrible price in life for digging the Suez Canal. After the canal was opened to traffic, it not only failed to bring happiness and prosperity to the Egyptian people, but also made the Egyptians heavily in debt, bearing hundreds of millions of pounds of debt, and even brought endless poverty and famine, disaster and death.
The opening of the Suez Canal made the western powers see great benefits. In order to control the canal, the great powers fought fiercely here. In the end, the British occupied all the territory of Egypt and brutally colonized and enslaved the Egyptians.
1June, 1976, the canal was expanded again, and the navigable water area was expanded from 1800 square meters to 5000 square meters, and the draught of navigable ships was further increased. However, even if countless workers have suffered, they have not been able to dig out many "achievements" in the end.
Now human tools and methods are more advanced. What excavators, all kinds of instruments and equipment are used? Why not dig back and forth, dig wide and dig deep?
Is that really the case? Of course it's not that simple, because there are too many interests involved. Let's make an analogy. Just like aunts and uncles irrigating crops in the fields. If you want to get more water from your own field to irrigate crops, the easiest way is to take two shovels down, plug the ditch next door and open your own ditch. But try to see if trouble will come. What is certain is that the aunt next door will appear at your door soon.
The Suez Canal has always been a territory contested by the great powers, and the war between Britain and France here fully illustrates this point. The Suez Canal, as a throat artery, has important military significance. If the river channel is widened and dug deeper, the western powers will definitely object.
Although the Suez Canal is relatively narrow, which somewhat affects the shipping efficiency, it is not as important as the national security strategy. After all, narrow canals are easier to control, which is a good maritime advantage for neighboring western powers.
In the event of war, as long as the Suez Canal is closed, warships or aircraft carriers of any other country cannot pass through. If the channel is widened, this advantage will be gone! Therefore, if you want to simply broaden it, you need to face many interests disputes. With the current capacity of Egypt, I am afraid there is still no way to deal with it.
Third, the Suez Canal belongs to Egypt, which is still a relatively backward developing country. Although it used to be one of the four ancient civilizations, it is not what it used to be.
Because the domestic level of science and technology is still relatively backward, it takes countless manpower, financial resources and material resources to dig canals, so whether to widen the canal surface again needs to consider many factors, rather than just doing it.
Furthermore, if the canal is widened, its management difficulty will be greatly improved. Therefore, considering from many aspects, whether the Suez Canal can be widened and deepened again can only become an engineering idea that is still under consideration but has not been realized.
Egyptian President Nasser once said: "The Suez Canal was built by the Egyptian soul, head, blood and bones."
Suez Canal, an artificial canal with a history of blood and tears, benefited from countless laborers who paid a heavy price for it.
However, even if the Yangtze River is full of blood and tears, the Suez Canal has not been able to get rid of the fate that has been contested for thousands of years, which makes people deeply moved!
It can really be said: a river, the road is taken by people ~
References:
World History and Culture Series General History of Egypt
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