Ferdinand de Lesseps
| Ferdinand de Lesseps | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
19 November 1805 Versailles, French Empire |
| Died | 7 December 1894 (aged 89) Guilly, French Republic |
| Residence | Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Tunisia |
| Citizenship | France |
| Alma mater | College of Henry IV, Paris |
| Occupation | Diplomat, entrepreneur |
| Known for | Suez Canal, Panama Canal |
| Works | Recollections of forty years (1887) |
| Awards | Albert Medal (1870) |
Ferdinand Marie, Vicomte de Lesseps GCSI (French: [də lesɛps]; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times between Europe and East Asia.
He attempted to repeat this success with an effort to build a Panama Canal at sea level during the 1880s, but the project was devastated by epidemics of malaria and yellow fever in the area, as well as beset by financial problems, and the planned de Lesseps Panama Canal was never completed. Eventually, the project was bought out by the United States, which solved the medical problems and changed the design to a non-sea level canal with locks. It was completed in 1914.
The origins of de Lesseps' family are traceable back as far as the end of the 14th century. His ancestors, it is believed, came from Spain, and settled at Bayonne during the region's occupation by the English. One of his great-grandfathers, Pierre de Lesseps (Bayonne, 2 January 1690 – Bayonne, 20 August 1759), son of Bertrand Lesseps (1649–1708) and wife (m. 18 April 1675) Louise Fisson (1654–1690), was town clerk and at the same time secretary to Queen Anne of Neuberg, widow of Charles II of Spain, exiled to Bayonne after the accession of Philip V, and married on 7 January 1715 his great-grandmother Catherine Fourcade (2 June 1690 – 22 August 1760), by whom he had fourteen children, six of whom died in childhood: Dominique de Lesseps (1715–1794), Pierre de Lesseps (1716 – ?), Marie de Lesseps (1717–1722), Arnaud de Lesseps (1719–1726), Jean-Barthélémy de Lesseps (1720–1795), Marcel de Lesseps (1720–1730), Jean-Pierre de Lesseps (1721–1721), Catherine de Lesseps, Gracy de Lesseps (1725–1791), Plaisance de Lesseps (1727–1735), Michel de Lesseps (1729–1801), married in 1769 to Florence Verdier (1739–1822) (parents of Louise Thérèse de Lesseps (1770–1866), married in 1788 to Mathieu Belland (1764–1817), Martin de Lesseps (1730–1807), married to Anna Caysergues (1730–1823) and had issue, Jeanne de Lesseps (1733 – ?), married in 1759 to Alexandre Dubrocq, and Etiennette de Lesseps (1735 – ?), married in 1761 to Pierre Simonin.
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