During the 1950s, Britain, France the USA and the USSR all conducted great power politics and diplomacy in the Middle East, competing to court and undermine rising nationalist movements in Egypt, Sudan, Jordan and beyond. This podcast explores the wider context of these interactions and their culmination in the Suez CrisisSuez Crisis suez-crisis The 1956 international crisis triggered by Egypt’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal and the subsequent secret Anglo-French-Israeli military operation to reverse it. American pressure forced the withdrawal of all three invading powers, transforming apparent military success into political catastrophe and marking the definitive end of British and French imperial power. Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company on 26 July 1956, announcing that Egypt would use the canal’s revenues to fund the Aswan High Dam after the American and British withdrawal of financing. Britain and France, which regarded the canal as an economic and strategic vital interest, concluded secretly with Israel — which sought to eliminate Egypt’s military threat — on a plan: Israel would invade the Sinai, and Britain and France would intervene ostensibly to separate the combatants but actually to reoccupy the canal zone. The Israeli offensive began on 29 October; British and French forces landed on 5 November. The military operation succeeded, but the political operation failed catastrophically. Eisenhower, furious at being deceived by allies who had risked Cold War stability for imperial interests, demanded immediate withdrawal and threatened economic consequences including allowing a run on sterling. The Soviet Union threatened rocket attacks on London and Paris. Britain, its economy dependent on American financial support, backed down within days; France and Israel followed. The crisis ended with British and French forces replaced by UN peacekeepers and Nasser’s nationalisation of the canal confirmed. Eden, the British Prime Minister who had conceived the operation, resigned in January 1957 in broken health. Suez is the moment when the post-war world’s power structure was publicly confirmed. Britain and France had been declining powers since 1945, dependent on American financial support and unable to sustain major military operations without American acquiescence; Suez made this visible in a way that could not be denied or reframed. The lasting significance is not just the humiliation of two particular governments but the demonstration that American support — or the lack of it — was the decisive variable in any military operation by a Western European power. European integration, which accelerated significantly in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome, was partly a response to the Suez lesson: if European powers could not act independently and could not count on American support for imperial ventures, perhaps they could act collectively in ways that gave them greater weight in American calculations. The crisis also, paradoxically, strengthened Nasser: the man who lost the military confrontation and won the political one emerged as the symbol of successful resistance to Western imperialism across the developing world. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, pleas