What is Ferdinand de Lesseps?
[[File:Ferdinand de Lesseps.jpg|thumb|right]] '''Ferdinand Marie, [[Peerage#Ranks|Vicomte]]{{Broken anchor|date=2024-10-02|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=Peerage#Ranks|reason= The anchor (Ranks) [[Special:Diff/9802801|has been deleted]].}} ({{lang-en|Viscount}}) de Lesseps''', [[Order of the Star of India|GCSI]] (19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was the [[French people|French]] developer of the [[Suez Canal]], which joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas in 1869. He also tried to build a [[Panama Canal]] during the 1880s, but [[malaria]] and [[yellow fever]] was so bad that he gave up and the Panama Canal Company went [[bankrupt]]. A different canal was later built by the United States and completed in 1914. ==Early life== Ferdinand de Lesseps was born at [[Versailles, Yvelines]], in 1805. His first years were spent in Italy, where his father was a diplomat. ==Career== ===Diplomatic=== In 1828 de Lesseps was sent as an assistant [[vice-consul]] to [[Tunis]], where his father was [[consul-general]]. He aided the escape of [[Youssouff]], pursued by the soldiers of the [[Bey]], of whom he was one of the officers, for violation of the [[seraglio]] law. In 1832 de Lesseps was appointed vice-consul at [[Alexandria]], and in 1833 he became consul in [[Cairo]], and soon afterwards given the management of the consulate general at Alexandria, until 1837. Near the end of 1837 he returned to France, and on 21 December married Agathe Delamalle ([[Garches]], [[Hauts-de-Seine]], 15 October 1819 – Paris, 13 July 1853), daughter of the prosecuting attorney at the court of [[Angers]]. They had five sons. In 1839 he was appointed consul at [[Rotterdam]], and in the following year transferred to [[Málaga]], the ancestral home of his mother's family. In 1842 he was sent to [[Barcelona]], and soon afterwards promoted to the grade of consul general. From 1848 to 1849 he was minister of France at [[Madrid]]. In 1849 the government of the French Republic sent him to Rome to negotiate the return of [[Pope