The+Suez+War

Sydney Morton and Marlon Sabo

The Suez Crisis was one of the most controversial events of the 20th century. It destroyed the alliance between the Western countries, split the British Commonwealth into two sides and it could have been a spark for a large war that would have engulfed the Middle East. Canada didn’t have any military, political or economic involvement in the crisis but it was a major player in resolving the event. The biggest asset though was Lester Pearson who became the go-to-guy at the United Nations. He worked from the end of October into early November 1956, and finally proposed the world’s first ever peacekeeping force at the UN General Assembly. With his years of experience and his vast network of connections throughout the UN, he was able to make this UN peacekeeping force or UNEF (United Nations Emergency Force) a reality. This is where Lester Pearson shone and showed the world what he was capable of and because of his amazing feat he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize one year later in December 1957.   The Suez Crisis signalled the end of France and Britain as world powers . These two countries had been weakened during the Second World War, but both of them were still treated as important world nations and given permanent seats in the United Nations. The Suez crisis exposed the underlying truth that they were no longer dominant countries in the world. The Suez Canal was constructed by the French who obtained approval from Said Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt, and it opened in 1869. The Suez Canal linked the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and had a massive impact on world trade. The canal was like a shortcut from the Red Sea right to the Indian Ocean. Before, if goods had to be shipped from Europe to India or China they would have to be shipped all the way around the massive continent of Africa which was a multi-month journey. In 1875, the successor to Said Pasha sold Egypt's share in the canal to the British for £4,000,000. Therefore the canal was owned by both the British government and the original French private investors who originally constructed the canal.

By the 1950’s Egypt had a new dictator, President Gamal Nasser. He was determined to free his country and his country’s most valuable assets from European colonization. Ideologically, Nasser was not a communist; he was just looking to increase his own power. He looked for financial support from both Americans and Soviets, and in the end he gained Soviet sponsorship. Feeling safe with his new allies he took the next step and decided to nationalize the Suez Canal in 1956, which provoked outrage in Britain and France. The canal is extremely vital to world shipping lanes, and Britain & France weren’t about to let their profitable possession fall out of their hands. The two countries tried to convince the Americans to intervene and return ownership of the canal to them but the American government was unconvinced of their argument.

The British and the French then decided to seize control of the canal on their own. Both countries recognized that invading a foreign nation just to seize property would cause an international crisis and destroy public relations. So they made up a secret treaty called the Protocol of Sevres. According to this protocol, Israel, who was worried by the recent arms acquisitions in Egypt, and seeking to build up credit with the Great Powers, would invade Egypt through the Sinai Peninsula and advance to the Suez Canal. Britain and France would then pretend to come to break up the conflict and send a “neutral” force to separate the opposing sides and try to make peace. According to the Sevres protocol the line where Britain and France wanted to break up Egypt and Israel was right on the Suez Canal, and when the fighting ended Britain and France would control the canal and Israel would control the Sinai, which was Israelis payment for its part. In October 1956, the Israeli forces invaded the Sinai Peninsula, then the French and British forces intervened and bombed nearby military installations and then used paratroopers to seize the canal.  The invasion turned out to be total failure and it quickly turned into a crisis. The British and French timing of the invasion was a catastrophe. The same week earlier the Soviets invaded Hungary to suppress the revolution occurring. The Americans were also more interested in getting rid of Soviet suppression of democratic activists in Hungary, rather than to support British and French invasion of Egypt. The Soviets were not happy with Britain and France’s actions and they told them to withdraw from Egypt or else their actions could lead to nuclear war. The Soviet threat was unmistakably a bluff because the Russian government wouldn’t risk a global war over a single canal far off in Egypt. The western worlds (Canada, United States), however, had to take this threat seriously.