CAUSES OF THE SUEZ CANAL CRISIS 1956
The Suez Canal is an artificial water way connected to the Red sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It was constructed in 1869 such that by 1875 the French and the British had significant shares for example the British government under Prime Minister Benjamin had bought shares worth 400,000 pounds giving Britain about 43% of the Suez Canal company stock.
By 1956 a question now arose over the ownership of the Canal between Britain and France, Israel and Egypt yet Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser wanted effective control over all Egyptian resources.
Real war started in October 1956 when Israel attacked Egypt in the Sinai and Gaza strip. He then got full backing from Britain and France and when Nasser attacked foreign forces in Suez Canal military show down had started.
The following were the causes of suez canal crisis.
After the success of the Egyptian revolution in 1952 Nasser wanted to delink Egypt from Western Europe interference and therefore the failure of the foreigners (Israel, Britain and French) to leave the canal created a chance for Nasser to begin his operation of doing away with any foreign domination that is why he started with freezing all foreign properties in Egypt something that was unacceptable the result of which was the Canal crisis.
The nationalistic influence of Egypt in the Pan African and Pan Arabism politics called for the crisis, she was a strong opponent of colonialism and imperialism both in Africa and in the Middle East. By so doing she stepped on the toes of Britain and France. Egypt offered material assistance to liberation movements like the Mau Mau, FLN of Algeria and became a propaganda base through radio Cairo; this alarmed the imperialists and compelled them to resort to violence which came in the Suez Canal crisis.
The Suez Canal crisis was partly due to the question of Sudan which was one of the main aims of the 1952 coup in Egypt, Egypt wished to restore the Union with Sudan because of the vital importance of the Nile. Since 1898 no Egyptian was ever appointed as the governor general of Sudan and this was hindered by the presence of British rule over Sudan. The Suez Canal conflict was then used as the immediate cause to settle the old wrangles.
The strategic location of the Suez Canal, it had strategic concerns to many states that made the war inevitable. Nasser considered the Suez Canal as a political source of government revenue that would enhance domestic economic reforms, besides the Suez Canal linked Egypt well with Arab states in the Middle East, Britain and France had considerable interests for the canal provided a short route to the oil producing countries and India. Therefore when Nasser tried to break this economic progress the war in the Suez Canal became inevitable in 1956.
In 1955 Nasser denounced the Baghdad pact and condemned Arab states such as Iraq and Iran plus Turkey and Pakistan that had signed the Agreement. He was then referred to as a menace by the Western powers and they also called him “The new Hitler and a backing dictator”. It is this blockade of the Western interests in the Middle East that strained the relationship between them and Nasser leading to the Suez Canal crisis in 1956.
Cold war politics, Nasser was increasingly becoming procommunist for example in 1954 on coming to power, he immediately recognized the communist government in China led by Mao Tse Tung and he denounced the capitalist government in Taiwan which was an ally of the West. In 1955 he went further to buy large quantities of arms from Russia and Czechoslovakia to reinforce the security of Egypt. However this was looked at as a strategy of spreading communism through Egypt, the Western powers then opted to stop this through the Suez Canal crisis.
The refusal by Britain and France to respect the Anglo-Egyptian treaty in 1936 which stated that they would only stay within the canal for only twenty years. By 1956 they had not shown any sign of leaving the canal and on coming to power Nasser wanted to fulfill this by whichever means. He began with freezing all foreign properties and later military show down with the foreigners.
The Anglo-France Israel conspiracy that is to say these powers agreed on the time table of the attack that is Israel should attack first for it had reasons because Egypt was supporting the Jedagens and Golan rebels that were causing unrest to Israel. Then Britain and France would come in as helpers. This compounded strength to Israel which had natural hatred to the Arabs and by 1956 the crisis could not be avoided.
In addition Egypt had broken the state of Israeli by depriving her free access to the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red sea; the area was of strategic importance since it had offered an outlet and communication link between Israel and the outside world through the port of Eilat. This angered Israel and opted to conspire with Britain and France to take over the Suez Canal, the result of which was the Suez Canal crisis.
Right from the start France was sympathetic to the Jews as people who had suffered so much, France admired how the Jews had created the state of Israel through war with the Arabs in 1948. Therefore the cause of Israel became a causeof the French in the Middle East. It supplied it with fighter air crafts and by 1955 Egypt experienced anexceptionally harsh attack of Israel in the Gaza strip. This annoyed Nasser and military confrontation in the Suez Canal became inevitable.
Another cause of the crisis was the refusal by the West to extend financial assistance in the construction of the Aswan High Dam project, USA was supposed to provide about 10 million dollars and when by July 1956 this offer was turned down, Nasser turned to the Soviet Union to secure loans for the Aswan High Dam project. This angered the Western world and military confrontation in the Suez Canal could not be avoided.
In 1956 Nasser took a mood to nationalize the Suez Canal and this could not be allowed by the Western powers for Britain and France had a share of 90% of all the revenue collected. On the other side Nasser wanted to use this revenue to develop Egypt. This therefore became the immediate cause of the crisis within the Suez Canal.
The need to implement the 10th article of Constantinople pact of 1818 where Egypt was given the custodianship of the canal which Britain failed to acknowledge and when Nasser came to power he wanted to protect whatever belonged to Egypt. Therefore the unwillingness of Britain to leave the canal called for a crisis.
Nasser’s desire to maintain economic supremacy, he intended to transform Egypt into an industrial Arab state in the region from the backward agricultural economy. This was opposed by the capitalist states like Britain and France who wished to have Egypt as their market for European industrial products. Moreover Nasser also feared that France and Britain would gain an upper hand in the Egyptian oil fields and exploit them in the same way they were exploiting the Suez Canal. Thus to fulfill his economic programmes Nasser had to engage in war with Britain and France hence forth the Suez Canal crisis.
Much as Egypt was apparently defeated at the battle field it won the war of nationalizing the Suez canal as the UN forces intervened and forced the British, French and Israelites forces to retreat, they had gone as far as Alexandria. This helped Nasser’s government who then settled and continued with his revolution.
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