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As travel time from the Philippines to Spain and vice versa was shortened to 30 days from more than two months, this positively affected the development of agricultural exports, which brought economic prosperity to native indios or the so-called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilustrado" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="ilustrados">"ilustrados"</a> (Filipinos with money and education).


These development also paved the way for Filipino "ilustrados" to send their children to universities in Europe.


The rise of the "ilustrados" was inevitable and they became the new patrons of the arts that led to the secularization of arts in the 19th century.


The Suez Canal was often called the "crossroads of Europe, Africa and Asia" because the route was used to transport goods to and from all three continents.


The new route was built for 10 years by a French company led by Ferdinand de Lesseps.


Before its opening in 1869, goods were sometimes offloaded from ships and carried overland between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.



Source: 

<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
 Philippine News Agency archives
</li>
</ol>

November 17, 1869: the Suez Canal in Egypt opened paving way for the Philippines' direct commercial relations with Spain