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Camillo Cavour and Pietro Paleocapa: Italy’s Path to Unification and the Technoscientific Diplomacy of the Suez Canal (1855–1857)

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Italy and the Suez Canal, from the Mid-nineteenth Century to the Cold War

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Abstract

The Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia played an important part in the technical and political discussions leading to the construction of the Suez Canal, a subject largely neglected by historiography. This chapter deals with the role of Prime Minister Camillo Cavour and of his Minister of Public Works, Pietro Paleocapa, a member of the International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez created in 1855. The Commission’s activities coincided with the 1856 Paris Peace Congress and its aftermath, which redefined the European order and the ‘Eastern question’ after the Crimean War, and marked the entry of Piedmont and the ‘Italian question’ to the concert of European diplomacy, while addressing the issue of infrastructures for Europe’s growth.

Based on the correspondence between Cavour and Paleocapa, the reports by the Piedmontese consul in Alexandria, and the Bollettino dell’Istmo di Suez, published in Turin between 1856 and 1858, the chapter assesses Piedmont’s position in this larger European framework and during the ‘decennio di preparazione’ (decade of preparation) leading to Italy’s unification. As minister, Paleocapa was also pursuing the construction of the Fréjus tunnel through the Alps, connecting Italy to France. Participation in high-level European diplomacy at the Congress of Paris, tunnelling through the Alps, and Suez were part of the same geopolitical project meant to insert Piedmont (and Italy) into the core group of European powers and create physical connections to the networks of modern growth.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Luigi Gobbi to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Cibrario, 19 November 1855, AST, CN, Alexandria, Mazzo 7.

  2. 2.

    On the history of the Suez Canal Company, see Piquet (2008), Piquet (2009), Bonin (2010).

  3. 3.

    Luigi Gobbi to Cavour, 4 February 1855, AST, CN, Alexandria, Mazzo 7.

  4. 4.

    For this first stage, see de Lesseps (1855), the first volume of a series of three containing documentation on the canal’s ‘rise and progress’ between 1855 and 1856. The extensive bibliography on Lesseps varies in quality. As an example, see Association du Souvenir de Ferdinand de Lesseps et du canal de Suez (1994).

  5. 5.

    The members of the Commission were: Frederik Willem Conrad, chief engineer of Holland’s Water Staat; Captain Harris of the British Royal Navy; Captain Charles Jaurès, the hydrographic engineer Lieussou and Rear Admiral Charles Rigault de Genoully, all of the French Imperial Navy; Louis Auguste Renaud, inspector-general of Ponts et Chaussées; the Prussian Carl Lentze, Chief Engineer of the Works on the Vistula; the British engineers J.R. McClean, J.M. Rendel and Charles Manby; the Director-General of Public Work at Madrid Cipriano Segundo Montesino; the engineer Luigi (Alois) Negrelli, inspector-general of the railways of the Austrian Empire; and Pietro Paleocapa, Minister of Public Works of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

  6. 6.

    The five were Conrad, McClean, Negrelli, Renaud, and Lieussou. The minutes of the meetings can be found in: Extraits des Procès-Verbaux de la Commission internationale du Canal de Suez, published in: Percement de l’Isthme de Suez (1856).

  7. 7.

    Nada (1990); Romeo (1984, III, 848) just mentions the issue of Suez and underlines its historiographical potential. For a recent approach to the topic, Curli (2015).

  8. 8.

    Vimercati (1864, 130). Historian, traveller, and patriot, Vimercati had journeyed extensively in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, the ‘natural seat’ of civilisation (Vimercati 1849), and visited the isthmus during the canal’s construction.

  9. 9.

    On Paleocapa, see Gottardi (2014), Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (1990). A number of studies were published in the 1930s and shortly thereafter, including Sammarco (1940), Di Prima (1940), Manfredi (1932).

  10. 10.

    Van der Vleuten and Kaijser (2006, 10–11).

  11. 11.

    Holland (2012), Simpson (2004, 173).

  12. 12.

    Correnti (1869).

  13. 13.

    Vimercati (1864, 268).

  14. 14.

    Bilici (2019).

  15. 15.

    Letter from Paleocapa to Cavour, 9 November 1855, AST, AC, Mazzo 12 (Correspondence).

  16. 16.

    Paulin Talabot, French engineer, politician, and banker, had been part of the 1846 Société d’Études du Canal de Suez. In May 1855 he had published an article defending the indirect Alexandria-to-Suez route; see Talabot (1855).

  17. 17.

    Baude 1855. On Baude’s mission to Vienna, Bruley (2012, 354).

  18. 18.

    Luigi Gobbi to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Cibrario, 29 December 1855 and 5 January 1856, AST, CN, Alexandria, Mazzo 7.

  19. 19.

    See Cavour’s Diaries (1991, 603).

  20. 20.

    Saint-Hilaire (1856, V). For a biographical profile of Saint-Hilaire, Picot (1899).

  21. 21.

    These contacts are documented in Monti (1937a, 182–183). The correspondence published by Monti is supported by other sources, but as the originals have not come to light, it is used here only as a reference.

  22. 22.

    Rapport à S.A. Mohammed Said Pacha, vice-roi d’Egypte, Alexandrie, 2 Janvier 1856, published in Percement de l’Isthme de Suez (1856, 191).

  23. 23.

    Luigi Gobbi to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Cibrario, 5 January 1856, AST, CN, Alexandria, Mazzo 7.

  24. 24.

    Lemnitzer (2013, 2014).

  25. 25.

    Tamborra (1956), Gatejel (2017).

  26. 26.

    A thesis recently revisited by Abbenhuis (2014, 67).

  27. 27.

    Ameil Nathan Soutou (2009).

  28. 28.

    Buzan Lawson (2015), Jarrett (2013), Mitzen (2013), Koskenniemi (2002).

  29. 29.

    Luigi Gobbi to Cavour, 23 February 1855, AST, CN, Alexandria, Mazzo 7.

  30. 30.

    Bruley (2012, 355–356).

  31. 31.

    Luigi Gobbi to Cavour, 21 February 1856, AST, CN, Alexandria, Mazzo 7.

  32. 32.

    Letter from Cavour to Paleocapa, 22 February 1856 in Cavour (1992 (1856), 105–106).

  33. 33.

    Letter from Cavour to Vittorio Emanuele d’Azeglio, 6 February 1856 in Cavour (1992 (1856), 70–72).

  34. 34.

    Letter from Paleocapa to Cavour, 22 February 1856, in Cavour (1992 (1856), 112–113).

  35. 35.

    Paleocapa (1856).

  36. 36.

    Letter from Paleocapa to Cavour, 2 March 1856, AST, AC, Mazzo 12 (Correspondence).

  37. 37.

    Letter from V.E. d’Azeglio to Cavour, 23 February 1856, in Cavour (1992 (1856), 114–118).

  38. 38.

    Monti (1937a, 167ff). On the use of this correspondence see note 22.

  39. 39.

    Bollettino dell’Istmo di Suez (henceforth, Bollettino), I, 1856, 37–39. On Cavour and the port of Genoa, Tonizzi (2011).

  40. 40.

    Letter from Paleocapa to Cavour, from Paris, 25 June 1856, AST, AC, Mazzo 12 (Correspondence).

  41. 41.

    Dispatch of 30 April 1857, AST, CN, Alexandria, Mazzo 7.

  42. 42.

    Apertura e canalizzazione dell’Istmo di Suez (1856).

  43. 43.

    Opinione pubblica in Italia sulla canalizzazione dell’Istmo di Suez (unsigned, but by Calindri), Bollettino I, 1856, 86–87.

  44. 44.

    Bollettino I, 1856.

  45. 45.

    Baruffi (1848). On Baruffi, see Nada (1970).

  46. 46.

    Letter from Saint-Hilaire to Baruffi, 21 February 1857, BSP, AB.

  47. 47.

    Baruffi (1857, 19).

  48. 48.

    Bollettino I, 1856, 145.

  49. 49.

    Torelli (1870). On Torelli, see also Manfredi 1930.

  50. 50.

    Torelli (1859, VI). Part IV of the book is devoted to the Suez Canal (quote p. 245).

  51. 51.

    Monti (1937b, 173).

  52. 52.

    Monti (1937b).

  53. 53.

    Torelli (1867, 8).

  54. 54.

    Torelli (1870).

  55. 55.

    Garelli (1864), Caizzi (1985).

  56. 56.

    PPercement de l’Isthme (1856).

  57. 57.

    Luigi Gobbi to Cavour, 6 February 1857, AST, CN, Alexandria, Mazzo 7.

  58. 58.

    Darwin (2009), Kamel (2015).

  59. 59.

    Monina (2008, 32–34); see also Natili (2009).

  60. 60.

    Sevket and Williamson (2000).

  61. 61.

    Letter from Cavour to V.E. d’Azeglio, 27 October 1857, in Cavour 1994 (1857), 520–521.

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    Barbara Curli

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Curli, B. (2022). Camillo Cavour and Pietro Paleocapa: Italy’s Path to Unification and the Technoscientific Diplomacy of the Suez Canal (1855–1857). In: Curli, B. (eds) Italy and the Suez Canal, from the Mid-nineteenth Century to the Cold War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88255-6_2

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