Was it possible the Ottoman Turks to build the Suez Canal back in the 15th Century?

Question

If they had done so,how would that have affected world history? Since the goals of the European explorers was to trade directly with China without a middleman to cream of the profits,would events like the 'discovery' of the Americas & the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope have happened on a later date?

Answer 1

To build something like the Suez Canal would have been counter-productive for the Turks.  They were making the big, big, bucks by importing goods from the Far East, marking it up greatly, then selling it to the Europeans.  A prospective Suez Canal would have interfered with it - People from Europe would have fought to own it, (a new crusade?)as a way to bypass the Turks.

How would this have changed exploration, as you note?

It would certainly be delayed, so long as Europeans could see it would be easier to occupy the Suez Canal, rather than send ships to unmapped places thousands of miles away.

Maybe, Europeans would end up waiting for the Aztecs to come to them, first....

Answer 2

The Suez was made with all human labor, no big digging engines, so sure it was possible. But in the 15th century, the Ottomans controlled the Arabian Peninsula, and the traffic to India, and beyond to China, all filtered through their territory anyway. There was no need for a new water route.

It might have made a difference if they'd had a navy to keep the Portuguese and Dutch out of the Indian Ocean, but the Ottoman navy could not even control the Med.

Read up on Henry the Explorer, King of Portugal. After his time, the trip around the world was probably inevitable.

Answer 3

Historians debate that Pharaoh Senusret III may have built a Canal joining the Nile and the Red Sea in about 1800 BC. So yes, and you have to think the Egyptians built the elaborate pyramids and the sphinx which are masterpieces that have stood the test of time. But you have to think that this is a time where the Ottomans are enemies with the Christian world as they took Constantinople in 1453 also when the hundred years war ended.