The Suez Crisis: The Sun Sets on the Days of Empire

and Red seas. Britain obtained control over Egypt and the canal because Egypt was going through

Not many people recognize what the Suez Crisis is, but to those who do, they all know that Lester B. Pearson played a crucial role in the neutralization of the situation. In 1956 3 , Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, thus triggering a crisis. Britain and France soon joined in a coalition along with Israel, in order to topple the Egyptian government. The invasion was halted due to pressure from the U.N. Lester B. Pearson understood that France, Britain and Israel could not all hold onto the Suez Canal without consequences, most thought of a war of some sort. He also understood that the war would cause NATO and the Commonwealth to crack under the pressure. Knowing this, Lester B. Pearson convinced the U.N. peacekeeping force in an impressive 57-0 4 fashion, thus diffusing the Suez Crisis altogether. For his contributions, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. This is a defining moment in Canadian history and is often regarded as the start to Canada’s humble and nice keeping persona and it all started because of this man.

While the French were rather skilled in that area, as seen in the construction of the Suez canal, relations between the two countries were not the best. As the Siamese saw it, the French benefits from this the most and it implies that Britain and France have teamed up in order to slowly chip away at them. However, this project was never implemented.

Superpower involvement in the Middle East saw its first significant impact in 1956 when the Suez Crisis took place thus giving us the first hints of the war by proxy that the superpowers were fighting between each other. When President Nasser took over leadership of Egypt in 1956 he began signing arms deals with Czechoslovakia – which at the time was a puppet state if the USSR.

Some of the motivations were seen with positive attitudes about the acquisition with the pro imperialist who benefited the economy in documents 2, 5, and 12. During the acquisition, the purchase of the Suez Canal was seen more of a positive attitude towards the government it was a nationalistic attitude. Benjamin Disraeli discusses

Hiram Maxim created Machine Gun and in 1883, he created the first multi bullet-firing weapon. This lead to wider development of automatic weapons which were later used in war. (Note: the 1862 Gatling gun which was ran by hand cranking.)

The Suez Crisis, about 60 years ago, was the world’s first designated UN peacekeeping mission. It was a significant advance within the United Nations and

BBC Documentary. "The Other Side of Suez." Youtube. Video file, 55:59. July 22, 2012. Accessed May 19, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETOUALw2EIs.

Document 4 explains nationalization of of African territories. Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the Egyptians decided to pass laws in order to evacuate the British military from the Suez Canal area. As implied in Document 4, during the month of July 1956, President Gamal Abdel Nasser exemplified the nationalization of the area. Nasser perceived that if here were to bring nationalism to the Suez Canal, then he could assign a fee to the citizens that were not welcome. With this fee, he would influence the construction of a newly structured dam, hovering the Nile River of Egypt. Nasser understood that by nationalizing this canal, the world, and especially the British and French stockholders that were in ownership of the Canal Company would be taken aback. Even though President Nasser pledged that Canal Company would receive a significant amount of affluence for the loss of their property, the British, French, and Israeli societies decided that they would initiate a procedure to re-obtain their company, and overthrow Nasser. These countries formed a secret alliance, historically known as the tripartite collusion. The Israel society decided that they would engage in procedures opposing the Egyptian society in hopes of obtaining approval from many of the western nations. This was because they were limited on resources, not very well developed, and were very fearful of being authorized by an Arabian

On 2 April 1982, the British political system was rocked by news of an extraordinary event eight thousand miles away in the South Atlantic. A long-standing and thorny dispute with Argentina over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands – a tiny relic of empire proximate to the South American mainland – had erupted with a sudden and unprovoked invasion of British territory by Argentine forces. Britain’s Conservative government faced the greatest crisis in foreign affairs for a generation (Freedman, 1988). Behind this audacious Argentine manoeuvre laid the assumption that the British Government – struggling with union strife, plunging

Early modern Egypt’s relationship with imperialism goes as far back as the 16th century when the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt following the Ottoman-Mamluk War. The French occupied Egypt in 1798 during Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in the Middle East in order to protect French trade interest and to undermine British imperial interests. After Napoleon's invasion force withdrew, an Ottoman military officer named Muhammad Ali established his own independent government in Egypt by 1811. With the increasing importance of India to the European powers in the late 18th century the Suez Canal was built in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the red sea; it allowed ships to travel between Europe and South Asian without navigating around Africa. Britain's main interest was to make sure Egypt remained stable in order to protect their investment in the Suez Canal, so the British government tended to support the Ottoman Empire.

The years 1959- 1964 saw the occurrence of several foreign policy failures within British Politics. The failures include the formation and downfall of a rival group to the EEC called EFTA, as well as the occurrence of the Suez showing British the loss of the British Empire which previously allowed Britain to stand as a dominating world power. Though, some historians believe that the lack of realism across British politics and society was the root cause of foreign policy failures, whereas other historians tend to disagree. To begin with, it is arguable to suggest that a lack of realism as

Background: In the midst of the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli conflict, conflict arose over Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal. This was of particular concern due to Nasser’s increased connection with the Soviet Union, through the Czech Arms agreement and the Aswan Dam. Following Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal, Great Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt. In facing this crisis, the U.S. had to consider Cold War politics with the Soviet Union, relations with Arab and Israeli nations, and relations with the invading powers

To the east, Nile River flowed into Red seas, allowing the Egyptian access to trade with the eastern and other regions of Africa. The canals connected the Nile River to the Gulf of Suez. This canal was hand built by Egyptian vast amount of slave labor under Ptolemy II Philadelphus and renewed under the Roman Emperor (David, 2003). The Red Sea connects to the Indian Ocean and allowed Egypt to trade with the Far East and other regions of Africa. They were able to trade cattle, grain in exchange for spices, gold and ivory, silk and other exotic goods which gave the Egypt a great deal of influence throughout the modern world (Riggs, 2012).

The Suez War or Crisis of 1956 was a geopolitical conflict between Egypt with Israel, Great Britain, and France. Just War theory will be used to assess the “just” qualities of the British’s involvement in the war. Great Britain’s role in the war does not fit within any of the categories of being a just war in either “jus ad bellum” or in “jus in bello.” A “just war” can be justified if it brings peace to a region however; in this case, the Suez War was fought to retain the British’s colonial powers among other reasons.