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Suez Canal

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Submitted By rajivravio
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Assignment #3
By Rajiv Ravishankar

One month after Gamal Abdel Nasser (President of Egypt from June 23, 1956 – Sept 28, 1970) took presidency, he overlooked the nationalization of the Suez Canal by issuing Law No. 285 of 1956 (Nationalization of the Universal Company of the Suez Maritime Canal). The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, which in turn also provides access to the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The Suez Canal greatly shortens the travel distance between Africa and Asia. This made it extremely important for the export of goods, especially oil. France and Britain had invested a lot in the Suez Canal Company and when Nasser had wanted to take over control, they saw it as a threat against them by the Egyptian Regime. Nasser knew fully well that nationalizing the Suez Canal would cause a mighty disruption in the oil industry as the Suez Canal was and is the only connection between Asian and Africa that ships could access. Nationalization of the canal affected most of the oil exporting countries in the area. However, his assumption that Egypt was impervious to attack from Britain, France and Israel however was completely amiss. The UK, France and Israel had an agreement to overtake control of the canal back and prevent Nasser from expanding his territory over Sudan.

Nasser’s ploy of using the Suez Canal as a power play shows his dominance and leadership ability. Moreover he used the abrupt retraction of funding for the Aswan dam project by the UK and the US to get the public of Egypt to see the reasoning behind his actions and to turn the public against the West. He used his charisma and his eloquent speaking abilities to denounce the imperialist West in the eyes of the Egyptian people. He implements Renan’s idea of building nationalism based on a common suffering. He does this by exposing a common problem

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