Nationalisation, wars, an eight-year closure, a six-day blockage — the canal that keeps remaking world trade.
For 150 years the Suez Canal has been the shortcut between Europe and Asia — and a recurring flashpoint. Its history is the history of empires, nationalism, war, and, lately, the fragility of just-in-time shipping.
1859 — Construction begins under Ferdinand de Lesseps and the Suez Canal Company, cutting a sea-level canal across the Isthmus of Suez.
1869 — The canal opens on 17 November, letting ships sail between Europe and Asia without rounding Africa.
1875 — Britain buys Egypt’s shares in the canal company, gaining a commanding stake in the waterway.
1882 — Britain occupies Egypt; the canal passes under British protection.
1888 — The Constantinople Convention declares the canal open to ships of all nations, in war and in peace.
1915 — Ottoman forces attack the canal during the First World War; British and Indian troops repel them.
1936 — The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty lets Britain keep troops to defend the canal.
1956 — On 26 July, President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalises the canal, weeks after Britain and the US withdraw funding for the Aswan Dam.
1956 — The Suez Crisis: Israel, Britain, and France invade Egypt in October–November; American and Soviet pressure forces a withdrawal, and the blocked canal stays closed until 1957.
1957 — The canal reopens in March under Egyptian control, after United Nations clearance of the wreckage.
1967 — The Six-Day War closes the canal in June; fifteen ships — the “Yellow Fleet” — are trapped in the Great Bitter Lake for eight years.
1973 — The October War brings fighting along the canal between Egypt and Israel.
1975 — The canal reopens on 5 June after United Nations clearance operations.
1980s–2000s — Successive widening and deepening programmes let ever-larger vessels transit, including Suezmax tankers.
2011 — Egypt’s revolution shakes the country, but the canal keeps operating under military guard.
2015 — The New Suez Canal — a second lane of about 35 km — opens on 6 August, cutting waiting times for transits.
2021 — The container ship Ever Given grounds on 23 March and blocks the canal for six days, delaying hundreds of vessels.
2023 — Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping begin in November; major lines divert around the Cape of Good Hope.
2024 — Suez transits collapse as diversions continue; Egypt’s canal revenues fall sharply.
2026 — The Red Sea route remains disrupted and the Cape remains the fallback, according to the Bureau’s chokepoint pages (October 2026).
Sources
Magna Bureau, Suez Canal and Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint pages; UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2024.
