You’ve seen the Portuguese dominate trade, now followed by the British Empire and the French, using steamships to shorten the routes to Asia.

Maybe this is the stage upon which you make an entrance.

If a trade route connected the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, that would cut the route in half — Africa is huge. The only problem: the skill to cut through 164 km of land is not within your ability.

Fortuitously, a French engineer presents a proposal: ‘Sign here; we’ll handle the technical planning and raise the capital, and you provide the land, infrastructure, and labor. You even get 15% of the annual revenue from the canal.’ Seems pretty promising. You sign.

Once the canal is built, it costs double what you’d initially forecast, and a few poor financial decisions later, you find yourself selling all your canal shares to the British Empire just to stay afloat.

You’re Egypt, it’s the year 1875.