How did Britain gain control of the Suez Canal? Why was the Suez Canal important?

French engineers constructed the Suez Canal, part of Napolean III's foreign policy, which linked the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. Napoleon III sought to return France to a preeminent position in European affairs by intervention in the Crimean War, in Italian unification, and in Mexico. Maximilian’s failure in Mexico revealed French political and military weakness. The disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 brought the French Second Empire to an end.

The Suez Canal, completed in 1869, gave Europe a shorter trade route to the east. Europeans were attracted to Egyptian cotton and the plan to construct the Suez Canal, completed in 1869. Islamic intellectuals met in Egypt to discuss means of expelling the European threat. Some argued for strict Islamic religious observance, others for greater Westernization in science and technology. The two groups were unable to reconcile their different approaches. French and British Investors, who held the majority of shares in the Suez Canal, urged their governments to intervene directly in Egypt. An Egyptian army rebellion under Ahmad Orabi induced the British to send military units to Egypt in 1882. Thereafter the administration of Egypt was in the hands of British consuls.