Answer: a Frenchman built the Suez Canal, but it ultimately came under British control.
Step-by-step explanation:
Due to a friendly relationship developed while he was a French diplomat, Ferdinand de Lesseps received a concession from Sa'id Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, to form a company to build a canal. After the British invasion of 1882, Britain gained control of the canal. Foreign control of the canal subsisted until the President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, nationalized it in 1956.