An overview of the events leading to the 1956 Suez crisis.
This paper examines how, completed sometime between the years of 1858 and 1869, the Suez Canal has played a major role in the transportation of ships between Europe and the Far East. It looks at how, from the time the passage was first opened until the year it was nationalized by Gamal Abdel Nasser, leader of the Egyptian people, the owners of the canal had been the French and British stockholders, how this nationalization of the Suez Canal caused a major crisis between the East and the West, and how, ironically, the United States and Russia were not involved directly. It looks at how the conflict over the Suez Canal served to make the region a hot-spot during the Cold War and attempts to understand why it was such an important event for all countries involved..
“Nasser and the newly formed Arab forces were now concentrating on the destruction of Israel. After meeting with various Third World countries, it was obvious that the goals of these countries continued to be a struggle against the Hashemites for leadership of the Muslim world and to take advantage of anti-Zionist sentiments to unite the Arab peoples. (Judge) As was the goal for most of the Third World countries, they would use the Cold War to their advantage and wait for either the United States or Russia to come running to them and offer something more and better than the other.”