You’ve probably heard the name "Suez" thrown around in history class or during some news segment about global shipping delays. But honestly, if you're trying to pin down exactly when was the Suez Crisis, the answer isn't just a single date on a calendar. It was a messy, high-stakes drama that unfolded across several months in 1956, and it basically changed how the world works today.
The short answer? The military part happened between October 29 and November 7, 1956.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to understand the timeline, you’ve gotta look at the whole year. It started with a speech in July and ended with a humiliated British Prime Minister resigning in early 1957.
The Spark: July 26, 1956
The crisis didn't start with tanks. It started with a guy at a podium. On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was giving a massive, televised speech in Alexandria. He was fed up. The U.S. and Britain had just backed out of a deal to help fund the Aswan High Dam—a massive project Nasser needed to modernize Egypt.
So, mid-speech, he shouted a code word: "Lesseps" (the name of the Frenchman who built the canal).
That was the signal for his troops to move. Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal Company, which was mostly owned by British and French shareholders. He basically told the old colonial powers, "This is mine now."
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Britain and France were absolutely livid. To them, the canal was the "jugular vein" of the British Empire. They weren't about to let some "upstart" dictator (their words, not mine) control the flow of oil to Europe.
The Secret Plan (Protocol of Sèvres)
Between August and October, things got weird. While the UN was trying to talk everyone down, Britain and France were meeting in a private house in Sèvres, France, with Israeli officials.
They cooked up a plan that sounds like a bad movie plot:
- Israel would invade the Sinai Peninsula.
- Britain and France would act like "peacemakers" and tell both sides to stop.
- They’d then "temporarily" occupy the canal zone to keep the peace.
It was a total setup.
The Invasion: October 29 to November 7
The actual "war" phase of the Suez Crisis kicked off on October 29, 1956, when Israeli forces pushed into the Sinai. Right on cue, the British and French issued an ultimatum. When Egypt ignored it (obviously), the Europeans started bombing Egyptian airfields.
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By November 5, British and French paratroopers were dropping into Port Said.
It was a military success but a total political disaster. They hadn't told the United States what they were doing. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was furious. He was in the middle of an election, and he was also dealing with the Soviet Union invading Hungary at the exact same time. He didn't want the West to look like hypocritical imperialists.
Why It Ended So Fast
The fighting stopped on November 7, 1956, but not because Egypt won on the battlefield. The U.S. basically broke Britain’s arm. Eisenhower threatened to sell off the U.S. government’s holdings of British Sterling, which would have crashed the UK economy.
Basically, the Americans told the British: "Go home, or we’ll bankrupt you."
The UN stepped in and created the first-ever UN Emergency Force (UNEF) to supervise the withdrawal. By late December, the British and French were out. Israel stayed in the Sinai until March 1957 before finally pulling back.
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Key Dates to Remember
- July 26, 1956: Nasser nationalizes the canal.
- October 24, 1956: The secret Sèvres agreement is signed.
- October 29, 1956: Israel invades Sinai.
- November 5-6, 1956: British and French troops land.
- November 7, 1956: Ceasefire takes effect.
- December 22, 1956: British and French forces leave.
- January 9, 1957: British PM Anthony Eden resigns.
The Aftermath: A New World Order
The Suez Crisis was the moment the British Empire officially died. It proved that Britain and France were no longer "superpowers." From that point on, if you wanted to do something big on the world stage, you needed the OK from Washington or Moscow.
It also made Nasser a hero in the Arab world. He stood up to the old empires and won. Even though his military got beat, he kept the canal.
If you're looking to dive deeper into this, your best bet is to look up the "Eden Memoirs" or the declassified documents from the British National Archives. Seeing the frantic telegrams sent between London and D.C. really puts into perspective how close the world came to a much larger conflict.
Actionable Insight: If you're researching this for a project or just out of curiosity, focus on the Protocol of Sèvres. It’s the "smoking gun" of the crisis that historians didn't fully confirm for years, proving the entire invasion was a coordinated conspiracy rather than a spontaneous peacekeeping mission.