How The Suez Crisis Contributed to the Fall of the British Empire (Essay Sample)

HOW THE SUEZ CRISIS CONTRIBUTED TO THE FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
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The 1956 Suez crisis contributed to the decline and the fall of the British Empire. As known by moist diplomats, the diplomatic disaster emerged after Gamel Abdel Nasser, who was the Egyptian president, nationalized the Suez Canal since France and Britain previously owned it as a private entity. The Suez Canal was vital to Europe since it had a passageway connecting Western Europe with the Middle East, creating a pass away from the Middle Eastern oil to Western Europe. Therefore, nationalizing the Suez Canal was a threat to the British, who were nursing a fragile post-war economy. The Suez Canal runs through the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian border. It was not a natural phenomenon but human-made since it was connected to connect the two regions. Many neighboring countries also had an interest in this Canal since it offered the shortest route possible between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. They did not have any travel route around Africa, and therefore they cut off about 5,000 travel miles.[Sahel, Malika. "The British Council'S Educational Enterprise In Egypt After The Suez Canal Crisis: A Rebirth Of Anglo-Egyptian Links." International Journal Of Research In Engineering And Technology 06, no. 15 (2017): 1-5. doi:10.15623/ijret.2017.0615001.p.2]
During this time, Britain had a strong empire that was not challenged by any other nation. Therefore, when the Egyptian nationalized the Suez Canal, Britain interpreted this to mean a sign of defiance. Britain had privatized the Suez Canal, the act that symbolized the progress of the Pan-Arab nationalists. However, Nasser successfully overthrew the monarchy, which was aligned to western and decided that his next mission was to eliminate the British’s influence over Egypt. This provoked all the shareholders comprising of Britain, France, and Israel to attack Egypt, and in the process, they launched several military strikes targeting Egypt. However, the general public and the United Nations were against this violent aggression, and therefore they forced a ceasefire. However, this conflict acted as the final blow to Britain’s imperial power and reputation as the empire collapsed. The 1956 crisis of the Suez Canal shows the colonial powers of Britain’s collapse and the success of the modern nationalist movement.[Malika, Egyptian after the Suez Canal crisis. P. 4]
Britain’s involvement in the Suez Crisis, which led to the British’s collapse, is distinguished by the Sevres Protocol. Historians believe that their participation did not leak to the public since Anthony Eden, the then British Prime Minister, took that secret to the grave. While it is evident that the British approached the Suez Canal issue with violence, Eden maintained that they plaid peacekeepers’ role. Even after the reports, Britain, Israel, and France leaked and demonstrated that the three shareholders countries were working together to destabilize Egypt’s Suez Canal row. The Suez crisis’s interest was still dominant in the 1960s since the books detailed about the first-hand reports of the crisis were published. Memoirs containing the information about the Suez crisis too were not published by 1960.[Ritapa Neogi, "Neocolonialism And The Ecological Crisis Of The Suez Canal," Maneto Undergraduate Research Journal 2, no. 1 (2019), doi:10.15367/m:turj.v2i1.159. p.10]
In 1967, the British Foreign Office, Former Minister of State Anthony Nutting, disclosed the alleged negotiation between the French and the British. These accounts that he wrote disclosing the Suez Canal crisis soon led to his resignation from the office. However, historians did not know of the Suez Canal crisis until 1987 when the London-based Public Record Office released several British documents that dated back to 1956. After the release, there was an insurgent of outpouring scholarships. Therefore, it was after the 30 years the Sevres Protocol was unveiled. The archive that dated back to 1956 demonstrated the information and revealed all the secrets between the three shareholding countries: Britain, Israel, and France. The revelation showed that the three countries had planned to invade the Suez Canal as a retaliation tactic after President Nasser nationalized the Canal. Therefore, historians hastily and closely examined the military operations, global and regional implications, diplomatic origins, the Soviet Union, and the United States intervention, all of which led to the Britain Empire’s collapse.[Neogi, Ecological Crisis of the Suez Canal, p.15]
Before 1922 and the second world war, Britain was a powerful empire controlling several nations, including Egypt. However, in 1922, Egypt broke from the rule of Britain and declared itself a sovereign state. However, the British did not leave Egypt yet as they wanted to continue occupying Egypt since it was the only way to continue their influence in the Middle East. After the Second World War, the best passage for the Middle Eastern oil was on its way to Western Europe. At this time, Britain recognized that the Suez Canal was vital to them as their recovery from the fragile post-war economy depended on it. However, as Britain was concentrating on the Suez Canal, they suffered another major blow in 1947 after India, which was the British Empire’s crown jewel, resisted their rule and declared independence. This made them concentrate more on the Middle East, and therefore they used Egypt as the pawn to get to the Middle East.[Bertjan Verbeek, "The 1956 Suez Crisis As A Perfect Case For Crisis Research", Oxford Research Encyclopedia Of Politics, 2020, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1619.]
The British government faced the consequences of a new regime after King Farouk’s abdication, who was then Egyptian monarch. However, an agreement was dubbed Anglo-Egyptian Agreement in July 1955 that required the Egyptian forces to withdraw from Egypt by the next year. The agreement dictated that the British were bound to return to the Canal Zone if any foreign power attacked an Arab State except Israel. This Suez Canal Treaty was one of the major setbacks for the plan by the British. The treaty allowed Nasser to negotiate arms deals with the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union supplied Egypt with enough and the most potent weapons. This deal turned Egypt into a country with super-strong military powers in the Middle East. The agreement also allowed the Soviets to enter the door to Egypt, which Britain was not expecting.[Luis Eslava et al., Bandung, Global History, And International Law Cambridge [i pozostali]: Cambridge University Press, 2018.]
Israel’s invasion of the Sinai Peninsula also was detrimental to the influence of the British. Two days after Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula on October 29, 1956, the British and France, in collaboration, issued ultimatums that required Israel and Egypt to refrain from fighting 10 miles from where the Suez Canal was located. The Ultimatum gave them a window of only 12 hours. On November 5, Anglo-French forces occupied the Suez Canal, acting as the peacekeepers. Egyptians suffered so many casualties since they were totaling one thousand civilians included. On the other hand, the British, together with the French, only had causalities totaling about 26. The United Nations also contributed to the end of the ceasefire after they voted sixty-five to five in favor of ceasefire. Therefore, the allied nations were called to end the fighting in Egypt. During this time, Israel managed to reopen the Strait of Tiran to Israel shipping. Therefore the Israeli government agreed to a ceasefire and abandoned their allies. This weakened Anglo-France forces after their ally left.[Eslava, Global History, p.20]
Britain made another mistake when they entered into secret negotiations with France and Israel. This secret negotiation led to the initial invasion, after which Israel retreated and left the other two allies powerless. To appear that they follow diplomacy, Britain and France would start a war in which Israel would intervene, and everyone would think that the British follow democracy. This strategy was good initially but eventually, it laid out the exact cause of actions. The pact was well planned since Israel was to launch an attack on Egypt, after which France and Britain would arrive the following day and issue ultimatums. The ultimatums would impose a ceasefire, which would then bring the Anglo-French forces to guard the Canal. This secret is known as the Sevres Protocol, which the three parties entered on October 24, 1956. This secret was entered into writings, and therefore after Eden found out that the secret is recorded in writing, he ordered all books to be destroyed. No one knew about this secret throughout the crisis, but the information’s fragments started to leak to the public after the crisis. During this time, the British were the world’s most influential empire, and therefore it had all reasons to keep the collusion secret. However, the British government’s concerns and secrecy did not go well with the Arabs states. Therefore they retaliated, crashing the British economy, which was already doing worse.[Kheirandish Abdolrasool and Kabgani Hojat Allah, "Oil Dimensions Of The Suez Crisis And Its Impact On The Persian Gulf Oil Industry," Scientific Information Database 10, no. 1 (2018): 59-76.]
The Suez crisis led to the deterioration of the excellent relationship between the United States and Britain, contributing to the British Empire’s collapse. This is seen in Eisenhower and Eden’s agenda before to use the economic and diplomatic pressure aiming to isolate Nasser&r...