I have been reading The Tools of Empire by Daniel Headrick, professor of history at Roosevelt University, and one of the central tenants of the book is that steamships essentially dominated other technological advances during imperialism. In fact, from what I understand, it was the motivation from steamboats and imperialism itself that encouraged the Suez Canal.
Prior to the Suez Canal, merchants would travel around the Cape of Good Hope, or otherwise travel through the Middle East. One of the routes through the Middle East was through Egypt. A merchant from England would take a steam ship across the Chanel, a train through France and a steamer to Alexandria. From Alexandria, the merchants had to cross the desert on foot, with camels, etc to Suez. In addition, all of the coal for the steamers to India had to be brought to Suez on the backs of camels.
So, my question is: during a time where Europeans emphasized efficiency, why didn't they choose to build a railroad through Egypt to bypass the need for the camels, to speed the process of transfer of goods between Alexandria to Suez, and to save money in building the canal?
The technology was available. The United States was building the Transcontinental Railroad, with completion in 1869 (same year as the canal). Dr. Headrick also said that by 1849, the railroad had eclipsed the steamboat.
But there was a railroad between Alexandria and Suez before the canal. It was built by the Pashas of Egypt with support from the British.
There was a rivalry between Britain and France over the issue of connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The French wanted to build a canal that would be open to ships of all countries. The British opposed it, because they feared it would cut into their Indian trade, and other European countries would start sending more ships to India if the canal made it so easy. Instead, they wanted a railroad, which would be under their control via the Pashas.
As early as 1833, Mohammad Ali Pasha wanted to build a railroad in Egypt, but the French were interested in a canal, so they pressured him against it. It wasn’t until 1854 that Abbas Pasha built the first section, connecting Alexandria to Kafr el-Zayyat on the Nile. He died soon after but his successor Sayeed Pasha extended the railroad to Cairo in 1856, and then to Suez in 1858. This was all done with British cooperation, the contract being given to Robert Stephenson, son of George Stephenson who invented steam locomotives.
So a railroad did exist a decade before the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 by the French. The British were bitterly opposed to building the canal, and went so far as to try to sabotage it by sending armed Bedouin to attack the construction and rile up the workers. Officially, their position was that they were opposed to forced labor used in building the canal, but as the French pointed out, they had no problem using forced labor themselves when building the railway.
There really isn’t such a huge gap to account for there. The first real steam locomotives capable of hauling large loads only appeared in the 1830’s, and the Suez railroad began construction around 1850, so it was barely two decades. Perhaps it could have been built a few years sooner, but as I said, there was some political drama going on between Britain and France which delayed it.