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Egypt has just completed a multi-billion dollar upgrade of its strategic Suez Canal.

But why is this relatively poor country spending so much money on this project?

And what role has the canal played in forming Egypt's national identity?

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Why is the Suez Canal a big deal? BBC News explains its historical significance, in 60 seconds.

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Egypt is a state with a semi-presidential system of government, established following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the resignation of the dictator Hosni Mubarak.

The President is the Head of the State and is elected every four years. He holds the executive power together with the Council of Ministers (headed by the Prime Minister). The Parliament is unicameral organ, in charge of the legislative branch.

The country is divided into 26 governorates that within their districts establish and run all public utilities, provide services and designate industrial areas.

Egypt is bisected by the highly fertile Nile Valley, where most economic goings-on take place. The Egyptian economy mainly depends on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, textiles and tourism.

There isn’t a great variety of religions, 90% of the population is Muslim, 8% are Christians, with the Coptic Orthodox Church being the largest denomination. There are also other minority groups, such as: Baha’is and Jews.

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LA INFORMACIÓN: referente en actualidad empresarial y económica.

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Noticias exclusivas y de última hora sobre empresas, economía, deportes, ciencia y tecnología de España y el mundo en lainformacion.com

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MORE ABOUT THE SUEZ CANAL, invation of 1956

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MORE ABOUT THE SUEZ CANAL, invation of 1956

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When the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez canal in 1956, he took control of one of the main oil routes from the Middle East. France and Britain tried to seize it back.

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Suez canal invasion 1956, Witness - BBC World Service

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In November 1956 Britain and France invaded Egypt - to regain control of the Suez canal

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MORE ABOUT THE CRISIS OF SUEZ CANAL, October 1956. Timeline.

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MORE ABOUT THE CRISIS OF SUEZ CANAL, October 1956. Timeline.

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BBC NEWS | Middle East | Timeline: The Suez Crisis

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A record of key events during the 1956 Suez Crisis.

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MORE ABOUT THE CRISIS OF SUEZ CANAL, October 1956. Key players.

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MORE ABOUT THE CRISIS OF SUEZ CANAL, October 1956. Key players.

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The Suez Crisis began on 26 July 1956 when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal.

The move was in response to a decision by the United States and Britain to withdraw finance for the Aswan High Dam - a massive project to bring water to the Nile valley and electricity to develop Egypt's industry - because of Egypt's political and military ties to the Soviet Union.
GAMAL ABDEL NASSER, EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT
Gamal Abdel Nasser, a military man, was elected president of Egypt in 1956 after serving as Egypt's prime minister for two years.

Previously, he had been the leader of the Free Officers Organisation - a group of soldiers who seized power in Egypt by toppling the British-backed monarchy and turning the country into a republic.

It soon became clear that Colonel Nasser had broader goals than simple control in Egypt. He strove to put himself on top of the Arab nationalist movement that was gaining pace throughout the Arab world.

During his first years in office, he played Western and Soviet powers off against each other to gain concessions for his country.

In October 1955, Nasser signed a major arms deal with Czechoslovakia that threatened Israel's military superiority.

Soviet strategy changes

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had also agreed to provide Nasser with more arms, marking a shift in Soviet policy. Stalin had never been interested in providing nationalists who were not Communists with arms. In his memoirs, Khrushchev says that at first, Nasser came across as a bourgeois Latin-American style dictator.

The Czech arms deal angered the West and by way of punishment, Britain and the US withdrew an offer of financial aid to finance the building of the Aswan High Dam.

The Egyptian president retaliated by taking control of the Suez Canal zone - the crucial shipping lane linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea - away from the British and French companies which owned it.

Apart from finding an alternative way to fund the dam project, Nasser was keen to assert Egyptian independence.

At the same time, as part of his ongoing struggle with Israel, Egyptian forces had blocked the Straits of Tiran, the narrow waterway that is Israel's only outlet to the Red Sea.

The Suez move was popular both at home and throughout the Arab world.

An electrifying speaker, Nasser was already admired by Arab nationalists. He had fought in the 1948 war with Israel and had demanded that the British leave bases and troops stationed in the Canal Zone. The Suez Crisis helped elevate him to hero status in the Arab world.

Although Nasser was not banning freedom of passage through the canal - except for Israeli ships or foreign ships bound for Israel - he knew his move would provoke a strong reaction from the West. He was undeterred.

Today, when many Arabs feel humiliated by Israel and the American superpower, there is a certain nostalgia for Nasserism.

But to his critics, Nasser led the Arabs down a cul-de-sac by aligning Egypt with the Soviet Union. After the Suez crisis, the Soviets eagerly rushed in to provide the aid for the Aswan Dam that Egypt needed.

Relying on Soviet aid, he built up a monolithic state-run economy - which his successors have ever since been struggling to demolish.
ANTHONY EDEN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER
Between the two world wars, Anthony Eden was the golden boy of British politics. He was charming, suave and handsome.

He first entered Parliament in 1923. He became Foreign Secretary in 1935 but resigned three years later in protest at what he saw as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement.

He returned to the cabinet under Churchill's war leadership. When the Conservatives were elected in 1951, he became Churchill's foreign secretary again. He succeeded Churchill in 1955 and was a popular prime minister at first.

A year later, he made what many consider a blunder, by embroiling Britain in a dangerous and costly adventure with France in the Suez Canal.

The short-lived war came to an end when Eden finally lost the support of his cabinet and caved in to US pressure to accept a ceasefire.

British military prestige in the Middle East was destroyed in a matter of weeks.

The crisis also took a huge toll on his reputation for statesmanship and ultimately led to a breakdown in his health.

He resigned in 1957, but remained popular on a personal level. He was made Earl of Avon in 1961.
GUY MOLLET, FRENCH PRIME MINISTER
A former English teacher and wartime resistance fighter, Guy Mollet rose within the ranks of the Socialist Party after World War II. He served in various governments in the late 1940s and early 1950s, becoming prime minister at the head of a left-of-centre, anti-communist coalition in January 1956.

He wanted to concentrate on domestic issues, but was soon confronted with a major foreign policy crisis.

Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez canal provoked deep anger in France where it was regarded not just as a breach of international law, but also as a direct attack on the country's prestige and economic interests.

The "Compagnie de Suez" was French. It had built the canal in the 1860s and had acquired a 99-year concession to operate it. As Mollet saw it, nationalising the company was an act of warfare.

Mollet was the main driving force behind the Suez expedition - much more so than the British.

The Algerian War - which was in full swing at the time - also played a key role in his determination to strike back.

Mollet, like most left-wing leaders in France, had long opposed colonialism in Africa. However he insisted on a ceasefire as a precondition for any negotiations with Algerian nationalists.

As prime minister, he became determined to crush the rebellion. This put him on a collision course with Nasser as a pan-Arab nationalist who actively supported Algeria's National Liberation Front.

Mollet saw Nasser as an "Arab Fuehrer", bent on a policy of ethnic supremacy and elimination of the Jews.

In March 1956, after reading Nasser's new book, Mollet told Eden that "Nasser's whole policy is contained in this book, in the same way that Hitler's was contained in Mein Kampf."

Allowing Nasser's action to go unpunished, he repeatedly argued in his discussions with Eden, would amount to repeating the fatal mistake made by democracies at the 1938 Munich conference.

Pro-Israeli

Mollet also regarded Israel as a beacon of hope for the moderate left, a model of egalitarian, democratic socialism that stood in opposition to the USSR.

Mollet and Eden enjoyed a good relationship. The British Prime Minister said of Mollet afterwards: "I have never enjoyed more completely loyal understanding with any man".

In order to overcome British reservations, Mollet agreed to leave the overall command of military operations in Suez to the British. But the French PM grew impatient what he saw as London's foot-dragging and in October decided to involve Israel to speed things up.

Mollet expressed regret after the debacle, but mostly because of the pain and damage done to Eden.
DWIGHT EISENHOWER, US PRESIDENT
Dwight Eisenhower was elected US president in 1952. All the early signs indicated a reversal of the friendly attitude to Israel that the administration of Harry Truman had fostered and an attempt to strengthen the US role in the Arab world.

Eisenhower was horrified by the prospect of military action sparked by the nationalisation of the Suez Canal.

Not only did he had an election to fight in the next few months, but he did not want the West to lose influence in the Middle East. The Soviet Union was already making inroads in Egypt and during the crisis, Nikita Khrushchev was calling for a peaceful solution and respect for international law.

Eisenhower also did not see Nasser as a major threat to oil supplies of ships in the canal.

He believed that France and Britain were wrong on a matter of principle and strategy - military action by one or two European nations without substantial world backing would not achieve a stable settlement, he argued.

Eisenhower also recognised that military action might rally support for Nasser across the Middle East, recognising that the seizure of the canal was not only popular with Egyptians but with other Arab peoples.

US wanted UN solution

Although Anthony Eden tried to persuade Eisenhower that lack of military action would be disastrous, Eisenhower wanted a peaceful solution. He thought it would be better to let the United Nations sort the problem out.

War is not acceptable just "to protect national or individual investors". There can be no question of the "legal rights of sovereign nations being ruthlessly flouted", Eisenhower wrote in a letter to Eden.

Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was dispatched to defuse the crisis on terms acceptable to Britain and France through public statements, negotiations, conferences and deliberations with the UN.

Finally, Eisenhower used a variety of political and economic levers to compel France, Britain and Israel to desist.

After Suez, the United States became the major Western power in the Middle East. The Eisenhower Doctrine of 1957 declared that the United States would distribute economic and military aid and, if necessary, use military force to stop the spread of communism in the Middle East.
MOSHE DAYAN, ISRAELI MILITARY LEADER
For the Israelis, the Suez Campaign enshrined General Moshe Dayan as a hero-tactician.

The war had been preceded by several difficult years of guerrilla attacks along Israel's border - to which Israel had, on some occasions, reacted with harsh retaliatory attacks in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, under Egyptian and Jordanian control respectively.

Dayan, chief-of-staff of the Israel Defence Forces, became a chief proponent of the policy of hard-hitting retaliation in response to infiltration across Israel's borders from the neighbouring Arab states. A reputation for ferocity, he believed, would act as a deterrent.

Like David Ben-Gurion, who assumed the premiership in 1955, General Dayan recognised that Israel's basic security was affected by the 1955 arms deal with Czechoslovakia. The number of Egyptian troops deployed in Sinai along the Israeli border increased in 1956, Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal and then closed the Straits of Tiran, at the southern tip of Sinai, to blockade Israeli shipping.

Dayan wanted a preventive war with Egypt and eventually managed to persuade Ben-Gurion that a military campaign in the Sinai peninsula was the answer.

Lure to Egypt

He did not advocate a pre-emptive strike, so that Israel would not appear as an aggressor. Rather, his strategy was to use massive military reprisals in order to provoke Egypt into a war that he believed it was not ready for.

He came up with a scheme by which a large-scale reprisal raid in the Sinai was launched, with the British and French following soon after.

Under his command, Israeli troops swept through Egyptian positions to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip within six days - an area three times the size of Israel. The Egyptian army was defeated.

IDF losses in the campaign were 171 dead, several hundred wounded, and four Israelis taken prisoner. Egyptian losses were estimated at several thousand dead and wounded, while 6,000 prisoners were taken.

A few months later, Israeli troops were forced under pressure from the UN and US to withdraw from the Sinai and the Gaza Strip after a few months.

Despite this, the campaign was seen as an enormous success as it enhanced Israel's standing as a military power. The presence of UN troops also afforded Israel a modicum of increased security - the decade after the war was the most tranquil period in the nation's history.

It also obtained guarantees from the US that the international waterways would remain open to Israeli shipping, and a UN force was stationed in the Sinai.

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BBC NEWS | Special Reports | Suez Crisis: Key players

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The Suez Crisis began on 26 July 1956 when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. The move was in response to a decision by the United States and Britain to withdraw finance for the Aswan High Dam - a massive project to bring water to the Nile valley and electricity to develop Egypt's industry - because of Egypt's political and military ties to the Soviet Union.

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III.- EFFECTS OF BRITISH’S IMPERIALISM (II)

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III.- EFFECTS OF BRITISH’S IMPERIALISM (II)

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British Imperialism impacted Egypt negatively through the “westernization” of the country; the negligence to improve education and healthcare; the loss of freedom and control over the country during their presence; and also the great amount of Egyptians that died during this period.

This “westernization”, or loss of culture the nation experienced, occurred as a result of Britain’s power over most of Egypt. Britain took ultimate control of the nation, therefore having power over things such as what it was taught in schools. This lead to the teaching of English and the spread of Christianity across the nation. There were also a large number of non-Egyptian citizens who influenced natives with their western way of life.

Despite Britain’s opportunity to improve the education system of Egypt, they focused on economic, political and military matters, resulting in the continued poor level of literacy across the nation. Similarly, Britain denied establishing a better healthcare system, which would have greatly benefitted Egypt.

Egypt also suffered a great loss of freedom and control over its own country; because European powers controlled the nation politically, economically and militarily.

New laws were introduced by the British and most powers belonged to the British Consul-General.

Britain not only controlled most areas of Egypt, but Egyptian powers had nearly no say in matters regarding themselves. This lack of authority didn´t only have a negative effect in Egypt at the time, but also led to negative impacts after the reign of Britain. Once European powers had cleared out of Egypt, they were left without any firm political structure that could effectively govern the country.

Additionally, many Egyptians died due to exploitation and the incremented existence of revolutionary activities as a result of imperialism.

This exploitation led to the 1919 revolution; that it, itself, caused also further impacts that also affected Egypt. The main one was the death toll, because it is estimated that 800 Egyptians died and 1600 were injured during revolutionary activities.

Egyptians were used as cheap labourers and were greatly exploited in cotton industries and infrastructure constructions.

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Nowadays, Egypt is a country situated in the northeastern corner of Africa. It has an area of 1,001,450 km². However most of this land (75%) is occupyed by the Lybian and Western deserts, only 3.5% is cultivated and 6,5% is a settled area (NileValley, Delta, and oases).

Egypt is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by Israel and the Red Sea, on the south by Sudan, and on the west byLibya.

Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is located in the northeastern part of the country and together with Alexandria and Giza they are the most important cities.

The population of this developing country in 2016 was estimated at 94,667,000 and the annual population growth rate is about 2.51%.

Most of the population (99%) is concentrated in the areas of the banks of the Nile and the Nile Delta, which fans out north of Cairo; and along the Suez Canal. These regions are among the world's most densely populated, containing an average of over 1,540 people per km², as compared to 69.58 people/km² for the country as a whole.

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III.- EFFECTS OF BRITISH’S IMPERIALISM (I)

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III.- EFFECTS OF BRITISH’S IMPERIALISM (I)

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The effects imperialism had in Egypt are varied and of cause are both, positive and negative.

The country was impacted positively by Imperialism through the improvement of the economy and the development of greater infrastructures

The poor nature of Egypt’s economy made it ‘necessary’ for Britain to intervene, in order to protect their main trading route with its most important colony.

It was after British acquisition that the economy slowly began rising again. Only a few years later, the economy stabilized and started to see a budget surplus.

The British achieved this through the expansion of the Egyptian cotton and light industries and tourism as well as later on through during the First World War, through the supply of allied countries with resources.

It also impacted the country through the development of greater infrastructure.

British imperialism saw the development of better dams, railways and roads throughout the country, which would continue to be beneficial to the nation even after Britain’s departure.

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The Egyptian government went through many political fluxes because political parties such as the Wafd (a nationalist political organisation) and the Muslim Brotherhood (religious and political group founded on the belief that Islam is not simply a religion, but a way of life)competed for power during the years after World War I and through World War II.

In 1952 there was a coup over the Egyptian monarchy, led by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser. Finally, with Nasser as Egypt's Prime Minister in 1954, the British formally withdrew the last of their troops from the Suez Canal by signing the Anglo-Egyptian Agreement.

In July 1956, President Gamal Abdel Nasser announces nationalisation of Suez Canal. This is the start of Crisis of Suez Canal.

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The British established a protectorate over Egypt in 1914 at the start of World War I, as a result of the declaration of war by the Ottoman Empire, allied with the German side; with the intention of protecting the Suez Canal.

The increasing presence and power of the British in Egypt led to a spirit of nationalism among Egyptians social classes and so, to the creation of anti-British, nationalist independence parties.

A group of Egyptian politicians, led by Sa'ad Zaghlul, a prominent member of the Egyptian elite and former education minister, petitioned British high commissioner for permission to go to the next Paris Peace Conference to make Egypt's case. Instead of giving permission, the British arrested and exiled Zaghlul and his compatriots. This event lit the flame of revolution. In the spring of 1919, students, peasants, the urban poor, civil servants and others protested across Egypt, claiming Egypt’s independence. In response to this disorder, the British gave Egypt conditional independence in 1922, which allowed for the formation of a constitutional monarchy. However under this new treaty, the British still controlled Egypt's defences and foreign policy. In 1924 Zaghlul became the Egyptian prime minister.

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Just a few years before the colonization, the Suez Canal was built in order to modernize the country and also to bring Egypt closer to the West. “We are not now a country of Africa, but a country of Europe” was thought.

The Suez Canal provided a vital trading route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and beyond, to Africa and Asia.

It was built by the French Ferdinand de Lesseps, using Egyptian forced labour. Around 120,000 workers died during its construction.

It stretches 192km (120 miles) between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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4. The British intervention in Egypt in 1882 

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4. The British intervention in Egypt in 1882 

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The British intervention in Egypt in 1882 had as its main objectives, because of the  interest in the area, to: maintain the control of the Suez Canal and recover the debt Egyptians had with the British creditors. The British colonial authorities, as a result, didn’t pay much attention to the social aspects of the population.

The products coming from Great Britain started to replace the national ones, as a result the productions of goods in the country decreased, while the unemployment increased.

The industrialization process was only introduced in those sectors where the British had investments, for example the cotton industry developed significantly during this time.

When the Ottoman Empire started to take part in the First World War, supporting Germany; Great Britain promised to the Egyptians to make some changes in the matter of self-government when the war was over, if they supported them. They finally didn’t accomplish their agreement, what led to many revolts.

The war years were very difficult for the Egyptian peasants, because the British forced thousands of them to take part in their army in the Middle East and seized their herds. The effects of the war were catastrophic for the population, which was impoverished and with very high unemployment rates.

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The British at first doubted about the viability of the canal project fearing that British shipping would gravitate towards the canal when travelling to India (their main colony) and become dependent on it, making it vulnerable to interruptions during war time as it was owned by France and Egypt.

British took advantage of Egyptian economic problems and bought half of the shares of the Canal, gaining a huge influence. Egypt was descending into "anarchy" because of internal revolts and the decline of the Ottoman Empire, threatening the Suez Canal; so the British government in 1882 invaded Egypt.

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Egypt’s colonial parent country during Imperialism was Great Britain.

The main interests the British found in Egypt were cotton and the Suez Canal. They started to develop during the American Civil War. At this time, British mills were starved of cotton, so British companies began investing heavily in its in Egypt. The hugely ambitious public works programs of the ruling Khedives also attracted British businessmen.