Was it possible the Ottoman Turks to build the Suez Canal back in the 15th Century?
To build something like the Suez Canal would have been counter-productive for the Turks. They were making the big, big, bucks by importing goods from the Far East, marking it up greatly, then selling it to the Europeans. A prospective Suez Canal would have interfered with it – People from Europe would have fought to own it, (a new crusade?)as a way to bypass the Turks. How would this have changed exploration, as you note? It would certainly be delayed, so long as Europeans could see it would be easier to occupy the Suez Canal, rather than send ships to unmapped places thousands of miles away. Maybe, Europeans would end up waiting for the Aztecs to come to them, first….
