The Suez Crisis of 1956

What was it all about? 

• The President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nassar wanted to build the Aswan dam, a project which would supply the Egyptian people with electricity. 
• He was in need of money so he asked the US and British government who in turn agreed to give him a loan. 
• However, Nasser also approached Russia. The US and Britain heard about this and ended up withdrawing their offer. 
• This is where the Suez Canal comes in. The canal was the main trading for ships from the Mediterranean to Asia. 80% of the western world's oil also went through the here. In the past, the canal was owned by a number of private investors, British and American alike. This changed in 1956.
• Desperate for money, Nasser decided to Nationalise the canal, making it part of the Egypt and therefore all the profits will be sent straight to the Egyptian government.  
• The British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, was livid. The nationalisation of the canal meant Nasser could control Britain's oil supply and charge the ships how much he wanted. 
• As a result, Eden began to think of ways to bring Nasser down. 

What happened? 

• Britain allied itself with Israel and France. The US did not want to get involved since a presidential election was imminent so the invasion would be unpopular with the American people. The US also warned Britain not to get involved, but Britain went ahead anyway. 
• The plan was to get Israel to attack Egypt, then France and Britain would come in as peacemakers. Britain would then claim the canal. (It was much more complicated than this, but that was the basically what they intended to do.) 
• Everything was going smoothly until the US found out what was happening - they were furious that they were not consulted. 
• The USSR also got involved by sending a formal note to Britain which condemned the invasion and described it as bullying. They even threatened to use rockets (nuclear weapons) against them.

Why did Eden have to pull out of the Suez campaign?

• The strength of the opposition - Gaitskell and Bevan made attacks on Eden's "mad venture." 
• Pressure from the United Nations and from the US to withdraw. 
• Britain's failure at international backing. 
• Reluctance of most Commonwealth countries to support Britain. 
• Run on the pound - less people investing on the sterling. 
• Arab threat of imposing a total oil embargo on Britain and France. 
• Russia's threat (though it was unlikely that they would have gone through with it; they only wanted to shake up the relationship between Britain and America.) 

Aftermath 

• Eden resigned as Prime Minister. 
• The crisis made a fundamental impact on British Politics (explained in the next post).