June 18 – Evacuation Day in Egypt

nPostednon June 18, 2015

When I say “British troops,” I am
including troops from the “crown
colonies,” including Australia.

I bet, when you got up today, you
didn’t think to yourself, I wonder if I will
see a photo of a soldier playing with a
kangaroo in front of the Egyptian
pyramids…did you?

nYounprobably know that Egypt was the site of one of the world’s earliestngreat civilizations. Yet, Great Britain occupied and ruled over thisnnation, as it did so many others, starting in the late 1800s.nAlthough Egypt was able to implement a constitution with electionsnand a Parliament and other trappings of democracy, Britain stillnwielded a lot of influence. Finally, in 1952 there was a revolution,na military overthrow of the rulers and and end to the Britishnoccupation of the country.

nAndnwhen I say that the 1952 revolution ended the British occupation, Inmean that it BEGAN to end it. There were still British forces there,nand in 1954 Britain and Egypt signed the Anglo-Egyptian Agreement,nand in that treaty Britain agreed to withdraw its forces during thennext 20 months.

nFinally,non June 13, 1956, the very last British soldier left territory ofnindependent Egypt. And on this date in 1956, the Egyptiansnceremoniously rose the national flag above the last freed building innPort Said. Officially and in actual fact, the British occupation wasnfinally over.

nThencommemoration of this date has been widely (and, I read, joyously)ncelebrated, but other national holidays such as Revolution Days innboth January and July and Armed Forces Day in October are morenimportant at this point. n

nWhyndid the British occupy Egypt in the first place?

nDonyou remember the early days of world exploration and trading, whennEuropeans kept sailing and sailing (and sailing and sailing), tryingnto figure out how big Africa was, trying to get around Africa and tonthose coveted riches and spices of India, China, Japan, and the “EastnIndies”?

It turns out, Africa is pretty big! For centuriesnEuropean ships had to travel ALL the way around this 5,000 milen(8,000 km) long continent to get to Eastern Asia. And everyonenrealized that they would save a lot of time and money by punchingnthrough the Isthmus of Suez, from the Mediterranean Sea to the RednSea, instead of going so far around. n

nCanalsnare big-time projects that take a lot of time and money to build. AnFrench man spearheaded the construction project; surprisingly, thenBritish government was against construction of the canal because itnwould interfere with their dominance in trade with India! However,nonce the canal opened under French control, the first ship thatntraveled all the way through the canal was British! Apparently, thenopening of the canal was all planned out, and the first ship to gonthrough was supposed to be a French ship, L’Aigle, but CaptainnGeorge Nares navigated the HMS Newport in total darkness,nwithout lights, through the waiting ships, until it was in front ofnL’Aigle. Once there, there was no way for L’Aigle to pass thenNewport (the canal basically fits only one ship at a time, althoughnthere are several spots where ships can duck into a wider bit so thatntwo ships can pass).

So, when dawn broke on opening day, thenFrench were really upset to see a British ship of the Royal Navy wasnfirst in line! n

Because of Nares’s bold AND SNEAKY
action, history books will forevermore say that,
when the Suez Canal opened in 1869,
the HMS Newport led the way.

n Ofncourse, the British government gave Captain Nares an officialnscolding for doing such a stunt, but apparently in private Nares wasnthanked for promoting British interests.
n

nThenopening of the Suez Canal had an immediate effect of world trade, ofncourse, effectively “shrinking” the world. Apparently Britishntrade did suffer, as people feared it would; however, Britain gained control of the canal when one of Egypt’s rulers askednBritain for help to suppress a revolt against his rule. n

nTo learn more about the Suez Canal, check out this earlier post.