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Article: A late eighteenth-century Austrian attempt to develop the Red Sea trade route.
- Article from:
- Middle Eastern Studies
- Article date:
- April 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Frank Cass & Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The northern Red Sea had been closed to the ships of Europe since the conquest of the territories along its two shores by Ottoman forces in the sixteenth century, but in the second half of the eighteenth century a series of attempts was made, by merchants acting independently and by several European states, to open a direct line of commerce and/or communication between the Indian principalities and the Egyptian port of Suez.(1) European merchants first requested that the governments petition the Ottoman central government for the right, under their capitulations, to bring their ships directly to Suez, then, when the Ottomans continued their objections to this trade, sought ...