Egypt Reopens Suez: Nasser's Sovereignty Confirmed

Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping on March 8, 1957, four months after British, French, and Israeli forces had invaded to seize control of the waterway. The canal reopened on Egypt's terms, under Egyptian management, with the former colonial powers humiliated and the United States and Soviet Union having demonstrated that the era of European imperial intervention was over. The Suez Crisis was the moment the old empires lost their nerve. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had nationalized the Suez Canal Company on July 26, 1956, seizing the waterway that connected the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and through which two-thirds of Europe's oil supply passed. The canal had been operated by an Anglo-French company since its opening in 1869, and Britain held the largest share of stock. Nasser nationalized it to fund the Aswan High Dam after the United States and Britain withdrew their financing offer. Britain, France, and Israel secretly planned a joint military operation at the Protocol of Sevres in October 1956. Israel would invade the Sinai Peninsula, and Britain and France would intervene as supposed peacekeepers, occupying the Canal Zone. The plan worked militarily: Israeli forces swept across the Sinai in days, and British and French paratroopers seized Port Said on November 5. But the plan collapsed politically. President Eisenhower, furious at not being consulted, threatened to sell US holdings of British bonds, collapsing the pound sterling. The Soviet Union, simultaneously crushing the Hungarian Revolution, warned of nuclear retaliation. Facing economic ruin and superpower opposition, Britain agreed to a ceasefire on November 7, barely 48 hours after the landings. France followed. The withdrawal was complete by December. A United Nations Emergency Force, the first UN peacekeeping mission, was deployed to the Sinai. UN salvage teams cleared the canal of sunken ships that Egypt had scuttled to block traffic during the fighting. Egypt retained full sovereignty over the canal and established the Suez Canal Authority to operate it. The Suez Crisis ended Britain's pretension to great-power status, made Nasser the hero of the Arab world, and proved that Cold War superpowers would not tolerate independent European military adventures.