Definition of the Suez Crisis from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary


the Suez Crisis

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a series of events that took place in 1956 after the Egyptian government nationalized the Suez Canal. Britain and France, who had owned shares in the Canal, sent groups of soldiers to attack Egypt. This caused shock throughout the world and many arguments in Britain, where some British people thought that the government was right to use the armed forces and show that Britain was still a strong country, but many others were angry at the use of force. The United Nations and the US were opposed to the British and French action, and after less than two months the soldiers left Egypt. These events made many people realize that European countries such as Britain and France now had much less influence in the world than in the first half of the 20th century, when they still had large empires. see also Anthony Eden