Lecture About Suez Canal at UPB

Dr. Marvin Thomas, professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, will speak on the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Suez Canal, one of the world’s major waterways, on April 14.

The lecture, “Nothing so Successful as Success: The Suez Canal,” begins at 8 p.m. in Rice Auditorium in Fisher Hall. A part of the university’s Spectrum Series, this is the 33rd year Thomas has presented his popular historical talk.

Located in northeastern Egypt, the 101-mile long artificial waterway joins the Mediterranean and Red seas. Ships from America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania heavily use the mostly single-laned Suez Canal to trade goods, bypassing a voyage around Africa.

In the 13th century B.C., an Egyptian pharaoh ordered the site to be dug between the Nile River delta and the Red Sea. After years of neglect, the ancient Suez Canal ceased to function in the 8th century A.D.

French-owned Suez Canal Co. excavated the site on April 25, 1859, a project that totaled approximately $1 million. More than a decade later, on Nov. 17, 1869, ships began using the canal.

Last year’s talk on The Sepoy Mutiny that erupted in 1857 in India prompted Thomas to choose this year’s topic.

“The British government had been indifferent to the building of the canal,” Thomas said, “however, as a result of the sepoy crisis, it was evident that a shorter route to India was absolutely essential.”

Thomas has been teaching at Pitt-Bradford since 1969. In 1997, he was chosen as the recipient of the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association’s Teaching Excellence Award. He teaches survey courses across the entire spectrum of European history from the ancient, medieval and renaissance periods through modern history.

He holds a doctorate in history from Penn State University and earned a master of arts degree in history from Columbia University and a bachelor of arts degree in history from Long Island University.

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