33 Facts About Suez Crisis

1.

Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, called the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France.

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2.

Suez Crisis'storians conclude the crisis "signified the end of Great Britain's role as one of the world's major powers".

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3.

Suez Crisis Canal was closed from October 1956 until March 1957.

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4.

Suez Crisis Canal was opened in 1869, after ten years of work financed by the French and Egyptian governments.

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5.

The Suez Crisis base was considered an important part of Britain's strategic position in the Middle East; however, it became a source of growing tension in Anglo-Egyptian relations.

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6.

Britain refused to withdraw from Suez Crisis, relying upon its treaty rights, as well as the presence of the Suez Crisis garrison.

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7.

Suez Crisis accused Nasser of plotting to rule the entire Middle East and of seeking to annex Algeria, whose "people live in community with France".

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8.

Suez Crisis 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.

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9.

Suez Crisis immediately agreed that military action might be inevitable, but warned Eden would have to keep the Americans closely informed.

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10.

Suez Crisis cautioned Eden that "[w]e must not, therefore, allow ourselves to get into a position where we might be denounced in the Security Council as aggressors, or where the majority of the Assembly was against us".

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11.

Suez Crisis had earlier warned Eden that Labour might not support Britain acting alone against Egypt.

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12.

Suez Crisis called the dispute over the canal "a crisis more grave than any since the Second World War ended".

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13.

Suez Crisis's government saw Nasser as an enemy but would benefit economically and geopolitically from a closed canal, and diplomatically from not opposing a nation's right to govern its internal affairs.

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14.

Suez Crisis was very important to the Dominion of Ceylon's economy, and it was renegotiating defence treaties with Britain, so its government was not as vocal in supporting Egypt as it would have likely been otherwise.

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15.

Suez Crisis argued that such a move would destabilize the Middle East, undermine the authority of the United Nations, divide the Commonwealth and diminish Britain's global standing.

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16.

Suez Crisis's advice was not taken; he tried to resign but the political leadership of the Royal Navy would not let him.

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17.

Suez Crisis played a key role in the reconciliation of the Gaitskellite and Bevanite factions of the Labour Party, which both condemned the invasion, after the 1955 leadership election.

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18.

Suez Crisis explained that, if not stopped, he believed Nasserism would become a Soviet-led worldwide anti-western movement.

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19.

Suez Crisis made an oblique reference to his intention to annex the Sinai Peninsula.

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20.

Suez Crisis did however concede in his letter to Eden that Britain had legitimate interests in Egypt.

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21.

Suez Crisis was obviously intoxicated much of the time and could be expected to commit irrational acts.

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22.

Suez Crisis warned his Prime Minister that Britain's foreign exchange reserves simply could not sustain the devaluation of the pound that would come after the United States' actions; and that within weeks of such a move, the country would be unable to import the food and energy supplies needed to sustain the population on the islands.

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23.

Some argued that the imposed ending to the Suez Crisis led to over-hasty decolonisation in Africa, increasing the chance of civil wars and military dictatorships in newly independent countries.

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24.

Khrushchev took the view that the Suez crisis had been a great triumph for Soviet nuclear brinkmanship, arguing publicly and privately that his threat to use nuclear weapons was what had saved Egypt.

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25.

Conclusion that Khrushchev drew from the Suez crisis, which he saw as his own personal triumph, was that the use of nuclear blackmail was a very effective tool for achieving Soviet foreign policy goals.

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26.

Suez Crisis destroyed the moral authority of the so-called world community.

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27.

Great military lesson that was reinforced by the Suez Crisis War was the extent that the desert favoured highly fluid, mobile operations and the power of aerial interdiction.

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28.

In October 1956, when the Suez Crisis erupted, Nasser brought in a set of sweeping regulations abolishing civil liberties and allowing the state to stage mass arrests without charge and strip away Egyptian citizenship from any group it desired; these measures were mostly directed against the Jews of Egypt.

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29.

Eden had been prime minister for less than two years when he resigned, and his unsuccessful handling of the Suez Crisis eclipsed the successes he had achieved in the previous 30 years as foreign secretary in three Conservative governments.

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30.

Suez Crisis enjoyed a close friendship with Eisenhower, dating from the North African campaign in World War II, where General Eisenhower commanded allied invasion forces and Macmillan provided political liaison with Winston Churchill.

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31.

However, at the same time, though British influence continued in the Middle East, Suez Crisis was a blow to British prestige in the Near East from which the country never recovered.

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32.

The Suez Crisis war had an immense impact on French domestic politics.

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33.

The Suez Crisis contributed to the adoption of a new national flag of Canada in 1965, as the Egyptian government had objected to Canadian peacekeeping troops on the grounds that their flag at that time included a British ensign.

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