In the mid 1950s, Anthony Eden and Guy Mollet, Britain and France’s respective prime ministers initially showed little determination to overthrow Colonel Nasser of Egypt. However, mounting French problems in Algeria and Britain’s dependence on ‘holding out’ in Egypt against further imperial decline, and the small and conspiratorial groups of ministers, intelligence chiefs and senior military figures that surrounded both governments began to shift thinking towards war. Explaining History helps yo
Reading time:
Get the weekly analysis
One piece every week connecting current events to their historical roots — free, every Tuesday.
Subscribe free →Paid tier also available — deeper dives, full archive, essay guides.

Explaining History Podcast
For more than a decade, the Explaining History Podcast has helped listeners around the world make sense of modern history. What began in 2012 as a simple experiment—short, accessible episodes explaining major historical events—has grown into a long-running library of carefully researched, thoughtful explorations of the 20th and 21st centuries.
If this was useful, there’s more where it came from.
Every week I publish one piece connecting a current event to its historical roots — free, every Tuesday. Paid subscribers get two additional deeper dives and full archive access.
Subscribe to Explaining History →