Ferdinand de Lesseps

Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps (French: [lesɛps]; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French Orientalist 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 by financial problems, and the planned 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.

Ancestry

The origins of 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 period of the Angevin Empire. One of his great-grandfathers, Pierre de Lesseps (1690–1759), son of Bertrand Lesseps (1649–1708) and wife (m.1675) Louise Fisson (1654–1690), was town clerk and at the same time secretary to Queen Maria Anna of Neuburg, widow of Charles II of Spain.

From the middle of the 18th century, the ancestors of Lesseps followed diplomatic careers, and he himself occupied several diplomatic posts from 1825 to 1849. His uncle was ennobled by King Louis XVI, and his father was made a count by Emperor Napoleon. His father, Mathieu de Lesseps (Hamburg, 4 May 1774 – Tunis, 28 December 1832), was in the consular service; his mother, Catherine de Grévigné (Málaga, 11 June 1774 – Paris, 27 January 1853), was Spanish on her mother's side and aunt of the countess of Montijo, mother of the Empress Eugénie. She was a daughter of Henri de Grevigné (baptised at Notre-Dame-aux-Fonts, Liège, 2 June 1744) and wife (m.1766) Francisca Antonia Gallegos (1751–1853).