Suez. The Venetians, reviving an ancient attempt made centuries earlier to build a canal that had subsequently filled with sand, attempted to convince the Mamluk sultan to undertake the undertaking, which would radically change the global military and commercial balance. Work began in 1530 but would not be decisive until 1586 with the arrival of the Ottomans, who considered it to be of military, not commercial, importance: to protect Mecca from Christian attacks and to carry the war to India. But this Ottoman attempt, too, was unsuccessful, and the canal was never completed.
