The canal removes the voyage around Africa and makes the Mediterranean a through-route for global traffic. Ports and economies around that sea benefit from local commerce and from the passing flow of people and goods. Their position inside the wider network also gives Mediterranean states strategic influence over a major sea lane. Without Suez, the region loses much of that connective advantage.
Chapter · 20:30-21:46
Suez turns the Mediterranean into a world link
Suez gives the Mediterranean importance both as its own economic region and as the shortest link between wider trading centres.