Model Question and Answers for APSC | What were the events that led to the Suez Crisis in 1956? How did it deal a final blow to Britain’s self-image as a world power?

Ans: Suez Crisis, (1956), an international crisis in the Middle East, precipitated on July 26, 1956, when the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, nationalized the Suez Canal. The canal had been owned by the Suez Canal Company, which was controlled by French and British interests.

The events that led to the Suez Crisis in 1956:

• The Suez Crisis was provoked by an American and British decision not to finance Egypt’s construction of the Aswan High Dam, as they had promised, in response to Egypt’s growing ties with communist Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
• Nasser reacted to the American and British decisions by declaring martial law in the canal zone and seizing control of the Suez Canal Company, predicting that the tolls collected from ships passing through the canal would pay for the dam’s construction within five years.
• On November 5 and 6, British and French forces landed at Port Said and Port Fuad and began occupying the canal zone.

A final blow to Britain’s self-image as a world power:

• This move was soon met by growing opposition at home and by S.-sponsored resolutions in the UN (made in part to counter Soviet threats of intervention), which quickly put a stop to the Anglo-French action.
• On December 22 the UN evacuated British and French troops, and Israeli forces withdrew in March 1957.

Nasser emerged from the Suez Crisis a victor and a hero for the cause of Arab and Egyptian nationalism. Britain and France, less fortunate, lost most of their influence in the Middle East as a result of the episode.