The Suez Crisis : Victory Against Western Imperialism
By: Ahmed Abu Sultan/Arab America Contributing Writer
During the mid 20th century, the world was in a form of total war never seen before in history. The aftermath of the Suez crisis resulted in the loss of millions of lives and billions of dollars worth of damage. As a result, the dominating powers of France and Britain were deeply in debt, which weakened their grip on their colonies in the Middle East. In addition to the rising pan-Arabism, a series of events launched one of the biggest one-sided war in Egypt’s history.
Egyptian Independence
Britain used Egypt as a base for Allied operations throughout the region, especially the battles in North Africa against Italy and Germany. Its highest priorities were control of the eastern Mediterranean, and especially keeping the Suez Canal open for merchant ships and military connections with India and Australia. The government of Egypt, and the Egyptian population, played a minor role in the Second World War.
After the war subsided, the region saw a period of instability due to the damage caused by the conflict. On July 22, 1952, the Free Officers Movement, led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, launched a coup d’état against the king. King Farouk I abdicated the throne to his son Fouad II, who was, at the time, a seven-month-old baby. Popular expectations for immediate reforms led to the workers’ riots in Kafr Dawar on 12 August 1952, which resulted in two death sentences. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, the Free Officers abrogated the monarchy and the 1923 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on 18 June 1953. Naguib was proclaimed as president, while Nasser was appointed as the new Prime Minister. Nasser’s main objective was to deal with the Tripartite Declaration of 1950, which was a joint statement by the United States, United Kingdom, and France to guarantee the territorial status quo that had been determined by 1949.
The Tripartite Aggression
Nasser’s response to the Tripartite Declaration was the nationalization of the Suez Canal. On 26 July, in a speech in Alexandria, Nasser gave a riposte to Dulles. During his speech, he deliberately pronounced the name of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the canal, a code-word for Egyptian forces to seize control of the canal and implement its nationalization. He announced that the Nationalization Law had been published, that all assets of the Suez Canal Company had been frozen, and that stockholders would be paid the price of their shares according to the day’s closing price on the Paris Stock Exchange. That same day, Egypt closed the canal to Israeli shipping.
The nationalization surprised Britain. Egypt’s action, however, threatened British economic and military interests in the region. Prime Minister Eden was under immense domestic pressure from Conservative members of Parliament who drew direct comparisons between the events of 1956 and those of the Munich Agreement in 1938. Since the U.S. government did not support the British protests, the British government decided in favor of military intervention against Egypt to avoid the complete collapse of British prestige in the region. On 29 July 1956, the French Cabinet decided upon military action against Egypt in alliance with Israel, and Admiral Nomy of the French Naval General Staff was sent to Britain to inform the leaders of that country of France’s decision, and to invite them to co-operate if interested. Between July and October 1956, unsuccessful initiatives encouraged by the United States were made to reduce the tension that would ultimately lead to war. International conferences were organized to secure agreement on Suez Canal operations but all were ultimately fruitless.
The War And Its Aftermath
The Suez Crisis began on October 29, 1956, when Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal. Two days later, British and French military forces joined them. Originally, forces from the three countries were set to strike at once, but the British and French troops were delayed. Behind schedule but ultimately successful, the British and French troops landed at Port Said and Port Fuad and took control of the area around the Suez Canal. However, their hesitation had given the Soviet Union time to respond. The Soviets, eager to exploit Arab nationalism and gain a foothold in the Middle East, supplied arms from Czechoslovakia to the Egyptian government beginning in 1955, and eventually helped Egypt construct the Aswan Dam on the Nile River after the United States refused to support the project. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev railed against the invasion and threatened to rain down nuclear missiles on Western Europe if the Israeli-French-British force did not withdraw.
The United States threatened all three nations with economic sanctions if they persisted in their attack. The threats did their work. The British and French forces withdrew by December; Israel finally bowed to U.S. pressure in March 1957, relinquishing control over the canal to Egypt. In the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, Britain and France, once the seat of empires, found their influence as world powers weakened as the United States and the Soviet Union took a more powerful role in world affairs. British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned two months after withdrawing British troops
The crisis made Nasser a powerful hero in the growing Arab and Egyptian nationalist movements. Israel, while it did not gain the right to utilize the canal, was once again granted rights to ship goods along the Straits of Tiran. Nonetheless, this marked the first great victory against western imperialism in the Arab world. It also set a series of events that eventually led to the independence of other Arab states such as Algeria. In the end, this crisis marked the end of the long-reigning British and French influence in the Arab world.
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Arab America Contributor, Ahmed Abu Sultan, discuss the series of events that led to the expulsion of the Western powers of the British and French from the Arab World. The relevancy of the Suez Crisis that eventually led to the independence of several other Arab States.
