Question 2. Why did the Suez Canal crisis of 1956 take place?
Answer. There were various reasons for the start of the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956. One of the foremost reasons for the war the nationalization of the Suez Canal this canal represented a main source for oil for the Britain and France. Another important reason was the Arab-Israeli rivalry which had reached a peak after the 1948/49 war, the Arabs wanted revenge due to the loss of war. A separate reason was that Egypt had closed the canal for any Israeli ships and vessels. An additional cause of the crisis was Nasser’s continued attempts to frustrate and anger the British through various different methods. The western powers decision to cancel the Aswan dam building loan was another source for the start of the crisis. Of course the continued attacks by the Fedayeen had a far reaching effect on Israel. A small reason would also be Russia supplying arms and planes to Egypt, even going to extents of sending trained military personnel to train the Egyptian armed forces.
One of the most important if not the most important reason was the nationalization of the Suez Canal on 26th July 1956. This was seen as a very big threat by the British and French. As they relied heavily on the Suez Canal for oil if Nasser took control of the dam he could control the supply of oil to Britain and France. This was caused due to the soviet involvement in Egypt. The soviets were supplying the Egyptians with arms which was interpreted by the US in an offensive way, as they believed that soviet were getting involved in the Middle East. “Under the terms of this deal, Czechoslovakia sold Egypt 200 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, 120 MiG jet fighters, 50 jet bombers, 20 transport planes, 15 minesweepers, 2 destroyers, 2 submarines, hundreds of vehicles and thousands of modern rifles and machine guns.” This huge number of arms volume saw a change in balance of power which also became a catalyst for the Israelis to act quickly before the start of the crisis. Another reason for the withdrawal of US aid was due to Egypt’s official recognition of China which angered US. Thus on 19th July 1956 USA withdrew all aid towards Egypt for the Aswan Dam project. The Suez Canal held a lot of importance for many European countries trying to do trade with the rest of the world. As the Suez Canal cut travel time as ships did not have to travel all across Africa.
