The Suez War

What is the conflict about?

In 1869 a 163 meter long canal in Egypt named Suez, was opened. The canal was made by France and Egypt. It was made to get easy from the Mediterranean to the red sea. In 1875 Britain bought Egypt’s stock of the Suez Canal. This gave Britain good control over the canal. In 1956 the president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser wanted to nationalize the Suez Canal. The Arabic people had for a long time felt that the west had taken to much control over them. They wanted to be more independent from the west. For France and Britain this was bad news. The Suez Canal was very important for they’re economic and for their boat traffic.

Who the parties was?

This was the background of the Suez war. The allied in the war was Britain and France. Israel was also an allied. They felt the pressure when Egypt in 1956 wanted to nationalize the Suez Canal. They were afraid that they would lose the right to drive through the canal.

How the war was fought?

France and Britain made a proposal of a solution for the Suez Canal. According to the source snl encyclopedia the proposal said that Egypt and Israel had to withdraw 16 meters from the canal. It also said that Britain and France could have France-British armies in Egypt. France and Britain knew Egypt would disagree, and they did. Now they had a “reason” to attack. Together France, Britain and Israel planed the attack against Egypt. The purpose was to destroy Nasser’s regime.

France, Britain and Israel attacked Egypt by bombing airfields and places by the Suez Canal. This gave strong international reactions. The Soviet Union threatened to intervene. UN demanded arms resting, while the USA almost forced France, Britain and Israel to retreat. They did.

This war showed that USA and the Soviet Union had very much power in the world. So much power that they could stop a war… Now the Suez Canal isn’t a political problem.

Sorces:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Canal_de_Suez.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis

http://www.europaveien.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=482&Itemid=207