In the Egyptian history, 1956 is remembered as the year of prominent war which the whole world termed it as Suez calamity. The conflict was between United Kingdom and Egypt, Israel and France. When Israel started to invade the strips of Sinai and Gaza, three nations declared total war on Egypt in 1956. In Sinai, disastrous confrontations were witnessed against the military of Egypt, soldiers and the citizens. The violence crimes did not only occur to Israel but also to the sides of French and British countries whereby both British and French countries did not put into consideration the international humanitarian laws.
Generally, the 1956 war crisis is clarified as war aligned with Egyptian citizens, Egyptian POWs. Such wars were terrifying and were also considered to be against international humanitarian laws and conformity. Several events contributed to the 1956 Suez war. Both Western states and President Nasser had planned to finance the project of Aswan High Dam construction. They never came to a conclusion which later led to the beginning of the crisis. The construction of the dam aimed at increasing both the irrigation practices and also to generate electricity power.
Such would have served a variety of fields, among them being agriculture, industrial firms which would symbolize the modern Egypt (Monroe 1963, pg 55). Both United States and Britain volunteered to give Egypt unconditional loan to support the project which had a negative impact to Nasser. Suez Canal organization owned the canal which had the headquarters in Paris. Suggestions of nationalization of canal came up with Britain prime minister where the secretary of United States Dulles recommended that Nasser would eject the whole issue.
Britain and France were key users of the canal for transportation of oil to other nations. To them, they saw Nasser as a big threat to their business. Immediately, Eden planned to prepare a military attack but informed that Britain was not in a position of such actions. As a respond to this issue, Britain and France planned to freeze the Egyptian properties in their country and started preparing military officers in the eastern parts of Mediterranean. With time, the Egypt country decided to compensate the Suez Canal company stakeholders and also promised to warranty the access rights to all ships.
These were very hard conditions for Britain and French to meet. On the other hand, Egypt was given support by the Soviet Union, the third world countries and the East European allies of Soviet Union. Unites States was not after the idea of nationalizing the canal unlike the Britain. It was not after the issue of application of force to capture the canal. Consequently, an action which was referred to as tripartite war occurred whereby, Israel, Britain and France invaded Egypt.
The France and Britain’s plan to have full control of the Suez Canal made the Israel to invade across the desert of Sinai. France and Britain also issued ultimatum to Israeli and Egyptians to quit from both sides of the canal as they neared the scene. To facilitate shipping, Anglo French group occupied the canal to seize the fighting and also keep the canal free for transportation (Monroe 1963, pg 87). In late October, 1956, Egyptian commandos were adversely destroyed by troops from Israeli who had crossed the border into the Sinai.
The first indication of difference between Britain, Israel and France arose when Anglo-French provocation was forwarded to Israel and Egypt, even before the Israel had got entry to the canal. Egyptian air forces were destroyed by British through bombing. At the same time, the French and British paratroopers were crushed down. Fierce resistance could be witnessed from the Egyptians. No transport could take place in the canal because all ships were sunk. During the process of battle, about 2,700 military force and citizens of Egypt were wounded or killed.
Eventually, Egypt claimed to be the winners of the battle although it was attacked and the Canal Zone used for quite some time. The tripartite attack resulted to general criticisms. France and Britain were highly threatened by the Soviet Union due to application of rocket hits if they failed to withdraw from the battle. The United States was annoyed because it was not incorporated in the battle against Egypt. It in turn pressurized France and Britain to cease from fighting. After several threats, France and Britain accepted to cease fire in the late 1956, when their troops were suspended to proceed the along the canal.
The final attack occurred on December, 22 1956. From the first, both Nasser and Western states had an agreement of financing the construction of a dam in the Suez Canal which would provide them with both energy and electricity. They never succeeded and in turn, crisis erupted. Later, Egypt decided to ban Britain from transporting the services through the canal which to Britain sounded like an act of interfering with its economic activities. This also led to conflicts between the two states.
Also, the battle was highly catalyzed by the intentions of France and Britain to forcefully capture the Suez Canal through issuing the ultimatum to both Egypt and Israel to vacate from the Canal Zone. As a result, Egyptian president Nasser refused where France and Britain reacted through attacking Israel and Egypt thus occupying a section of the zone (Hahu 1991, pg 65). The principal state actors in the invention included the Israeli forces and Egyptian who bordered the Suez Canal and had the ownership of the zone and the Britain and France who wanted to capture the canal by force.
During the battle, some of the officials who participated within the focal state included Abdul Nasser, the president of Egypt, Eisenhower who was the United States President among others. The British and France presidents also played a role in facilitating the Suez war so as to protect their international business interferences from Israel and Egypt who wanted to ban them from using the Suez Canal. The actual role played by the key participants in the Suez war 1965 includes the Gamal Abdel Nasser’s objection to the plan of France and British states to capture the Suez Canal.
This was of great importance because the two states had planned to capture and dominate the whole zone through use of powers. Also, Nasser’s plan with the western states to construct a dam to in the canal played a major role in decision making because in turn it would boost the economic status of Egypt. Although the plan never materialized, it aimed at making a new Egypt. During the time of war, several dimensions were put in place to obtain the objectives of the crisis. Such included military force where some Arab and Egypt nations gained independence from European controlled empires like France and Britain.
As these young nations assert their political rights as liberated people, the old cultures strove to expand their military and economic sufficiency. The Cold War crisis that has been happening between the most capitalist countries and the communist countries in west by Soviet Union has interfered with nationalist objectives and goals for most of the Asian and Africa countries. For instance, foreigners denied Egypt financial aid to build the Aswan Dam in River Nile which would have had control to the wild River Nile (Hanes 1995, pg 92).