Suez Crisis

Suez Crisis

The Suez Crisis marks major shift in the power relations of western Europe, signalling the rising importance of cold war politics in international crises, The Crisis has a big impact on Canada and our peace keeping ability's.Lester Pearson's idea to stop the crisis hepls show that we are a peacefull nation.

Firstly, The Suez Crisis began on 26 July 1956, when United States' decision to withdraw its offer of a grant to aid the construction of Egypt's Aswan High Dam, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.(1) The governments of Britain and France secretly began planning for an invasion of Egypt. Israel soon was doing its own invasion planning, completing its final plan on 5 October. After several international mediation efforts had failed, Britain and France agreed in mid-October 1956 to undertake a joint intervention in Egypt. Aware of the upcoming Israeli plan to invade the Sinai, French officials suggested that a France-British force could enter Egypt and separate the combatants, while actually seizing control of the entire Suez waterway.(2) On 26 October, the United States learned of Israel's military mobilization, and President Dwight Eisenhower sent the first of two personal messages to Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion asking that Israel do nothing to endanger the peace. In the Mediterranean on the 28th, the U.S. Sixth Fleet was placed on alert.(3) Undeterred by U.S. diplomatic maneuvering, Israeli forces began attacks in Egypt on 29 October.The canal had many useful reason like trading, and to to have Nassar take control of stopped any other country from trading with country's like Isreal and this also stopped isreal from exporting their goods. No one predicted Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26,1956.(4) Four interconnected events prepared the way for Nasser's greatest moment: the Evacuation Treaty of 1954, the Baghdad Pact, the Czech arms deal, and the Aswan Dam negotiations. Nasser began a diplomatic campaign to restore Egyptian dignity and get the British out of Egypt. The British planned to create a Middle Eastern collective security organization similar to that of NATO and SEATO to protect their interests in the region. The US supported the idea but would not consider joining any such agreement. The President traveled to Egypt in 1953, because be believed Britain should consider Egypt for the base of the organization.(5) He quickly realized that neither Nasser nor his people would ever consent to such a deal.