The Suez Canal, located in Egypt, is a man-made sea-level waterway that connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas via the Suez Isthmus. It is widely used to demarcate the African-Asian border. It was built between 1859 and 1869 by the Suez Canal Company and opened on November 17, 1869.
About Suez Canal
The Suez Canal is a sea-level waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas through the Suez Isthmus. It connects the northern terminal of ‘Port Said’ in Suez to the southern terminal of ‘Port Tewfik’.
The places from north to south lie as:
- Port Said
- El Ballah Bypass
- Lake Timsah
- Great Bitter Lake
- City of Suez
- The Egyptian Suez Canal Authority (SCA) owns and maintains the canal.
Under the Constantinople Convention, it may be used by any vessel of commerce or war, regardless of flag, in times of war as well as in times of peace.
CONSTRUCTION of Suez Canal
Between 1854 and 1856, Ferdinand de Lesseps gained authorization from the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, Sa’id Pasha, to establish a firm to build a canal open to ships from all nations.
The business was supposed to run the canal for 99 years after it opened. De Lesseps had used his cordial relationship with Sa’id, which he had established while serving as a French diplomat in the 1830s.
According to the concessions, Ferdinand called a meeting of the International Commission for the Piercing of the Isthmus of Suez, which included 13 specialists from seven countries, to establish the canal’s path.
On December 15, 1858, the Suez Canal Company was established.
Despite their opposition to the canal’s development at first, the British eventually became a major partner in the Suez Canal Company. The majority of the stockholders were French.
IMPORTANCE OF SUEZ CANAL
Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, as well as Africa and Asia, were linked by the canal. Ships travelling from Asia to Europe and vice versa had to circumnavigate Africa’s southern tip, the Cape of Good Hope, to reach either continent before the canal was created.
The canal connects the North Atlantic and northern Indian oceans via the Mediterranean and Red seas, skipping the South Atlantic and southern Indian oceans and reducing the distance between the Arabian Sea and London by around 8900 kilometres.
The canal allowed commodities to be carried more directly between Europe and Asia by providing direct access to the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean trade routes.
The importance of the Suez Canal to international trade made it a subject of friction among Egypt’s neighbours, and by the 1950s, it had attracted the interest of the world’s superpowers.
NATIONALIZATION OF SUEZ CANAL
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser chose to nationalise the Suez Canal in July 1956.
The decision to nationalise the canal sparked a feud between the British and the French. Despite Nasser’s vow to fairly recompense the canal’s previous owners, the British and French developed a plot to retake the canal from Egyptian authority with the help of the Israelis.
In addition to fighting for economic gain, each country had a personal score to pay with Egypt, notably with Nasser. Egypt’s support for Algerian militants battling French colonial rule infuriated France.
Britain was enraged by the loss of British influence as a result of Nasser’s pan-Arab agenda. Between Israel and Egypt’s army, there were periodic border confrontations. Furthermore, the Egyptian president’s hatred for Israel’s existence exacerbated the situation.
SUEZ CRISIS 1956-1957
The issue was exacerbated by nationalisation. Due to transportation problems, the Israeli army struck first on October 29, 1956, followed by the British and French forces.
The offensive was successful, with British and French soldiers taking Port Said and Port Fuad, thus handing over control of the Sinai Peninsula to Israel.
During the joint offensive, Egyptian forces lost entire control of the canal area, and it appeared that the canal would be lost, but Nasser rallied his men and battled on.
Due to the offensive’s delay, Egypt’s allies, the Soviet Union, had time to retaliate. The Soviet Union, keen to acquire influence in the Middle East, provided weaponry and ammunition to Egypt’s army.
The Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, spoke out during a UN Security Council meeting scheduled to resolve the problem. If the Israeli-French-British army did not evacuate in a timely way, he threatened to unleash nuclear missiles at Western Europe.
In retaliation, the United States chastised the Soviets for their reckless talk of nuclear war.
Economic sanctions were threatened against Israel, the United Kingdom, and France by the United States.
This worked, and by December 1956, the British and French forces had withdrawn, leaving the Israelis in charge of the canal’s western bank until March 1957.
The first time a UN peacekeeping force was sent was during the Suez Crisis. The first time a UN peacekeeping force was sent was during the Suez Crisis. The UN Emergency Force (UNEF) was a military force dispatched to the region to supervise the cessation of hostilities and the evacuation of the three occupying armies.
AFTERMATH OF CRISIS
Following the Suez Crisis, the United States and the Soviet Union gained a deeper presence in international affairs, while Britain and France, formerly the seat of empires, saw their status as world powers decline.
Many of the remaining British and French colonies obtained independence in the years following the crisis, suggesting that the crisis expedited decolonization.
As a result of the crisis, Nasser became a prominent hero in the Arab and Egyptian nationalist movements.
Israel was allowed authorization to export products across the Tiran Straits once more while not being granted access to the canal.
Egypt blocked the canal ten years after the Six-Day War ended (June 1967). The Suez Canal has been a battleground between Israeli and Egyptian armies for nearly a decade.
As a peace gesture, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat reopened the Suez Canal in 1975. Around 300 million metric tons of commodities pass through the canal each year.
Egypt completed a major expansion of the canal in August 2015, widening the main waterway and adding a 22-mile parallel ship channel. The enlargement enables two-way traffic on a stretch of the channel for the first time, as well as the passage of larger vessels.
.
Read More Articles on Current Affairs
Follow on Youtube – Score Better
Join Us on Telegram For More Update
.