Chapter 318: Suez Canal

The Palace of Westminster in London, England, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is the seat of the British Parliament (including the House of Lords and the House of Commons). The Palace of Westminster is one of the masterpieces of Gothic Revival architecture and was listed as a World Cultural Heritage in 1987. The building includes about 1,100 separate rooms, 100 staircases and 8 kilometers of corridors. Although today's palace was basically rebuilt in the 19th century, it still retains many historical relics from the initial construction, such as Westminster Hall (dating back to 1097).

When you enter Westminster Hall, you will enter a circular central hall through the majestic and solemn St. Stephen's Gallery. From the bottom of the dome of the central hall to the right, you will enter the House of Lords (also known as the House of Lords), where the magnificent hall is spacious and bright, and the royal artifacts everywhere are all showing off the glorious history of the British Empire for nearly a thousand years.

The order in the House of Lords is good. Both the chairman and the members present are graceful and polite when speaking. They carefully but confidently maintain the dignity of the British aristocracy for hundreds of years.

But if you go left from the central hall, you will come to another completely different world - the decoration here is simple. There is nothing except two rows of green seats facing each other and an old gray-black long table in the middle. If there is a meeting, you will definitely hear bursts of laughter, scolding, booing and debates, and from time to time there will be many uncivilized words, which can easily make people feel that it is no different from the street.

This is the House of Commons (also known as the House of Commons) of the British Parliament. In the past nearly 400 years, this simple room has been the center of British politics. For a long time, many decisions that changed world history were made here.

At this moment, British Prime Minister Churchill stood on the podium of the House of Commons and criticized Vichy France passionately. "The betrayal of the French Navy directly led to the fall of Gibraltar and Malta. I had long expected that the French Navy would become Germany's accomplice, but I didn't expect them to come so soon!"

A rebuttal sounded immediately from below. "Bullshit, if you hadn't implemented that bullshit sneak attack plan, would the French Navy have turned so quickly? You bastards are simply helping the evil! I even doubt whether you deliberately sent the fleet to be sunk by the Germans!"

This man is certainly not a righteous person who is full of justice and speaks out for Vichy France. He is just biting each other for their own political interests. However, his words resonated with the surrounding parliamentarians. Most people were deeply dissatisfied with this secret operation, believing that Churchill's wrong decision made the British Navy and the entire British Empire worse. You must know that Gibraltar is more than just a colony for the British Empire. It is no exaggeration to say that it represents the entrance and exit of the Mediterranean.

Now this door is in the hands of Germany. Unless Gibraltar and Malta are recaptured, Britain will not be able to set foot in the Mediterranean; the materials of those Middle Eastern colonies can only go through the southern part of Africa.

But then again, with the fall of France and Italy's declaration of war on Britain, German fighter planes can attack British ships in the Mediterranean at any time, so after Britain lost its advantage on the European continent, they are actually unable to maintain the Mediterranean route.

Churchill explained for a long time and repeatedly assured that there would never be such secret operations in the future. The matter was slightly calmed down.

"The German army is sending troops to Libya, and the target is obviously our African colonies."

The British Empire is called the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets" for a long time. Colonies are all over the world, and there are 21 colonies in Africa alone. They are South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Lesotho, Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Zambia, Uganda, Tonga Seychelles, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and Gambia.

Of course, these are small countries that are dispensable; what Churchill is really worried about is Egypt, which is adjacent to Libya.

Once the German army attacks Egypt, the Suez Canal will be in danger.

The Suez Canal is called a "modern miracle". It connects the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Ocean-going ships do not have to detour around the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of Africa, which greatly promotes exchanges between Europe, Asia, and Africa and colonial expansion. After the Suez Canal was opened to navigation in 1869, the then world leader, the British Empire, saw its strategic position and bought 44% of the shares of the Suez Canal from the Egyptians. Since then, the Suez Canal has become a cash cow for Britain. In the 1950s, the Suez Canal brought the British Empire an extra income of 25 million US dollars every year.

But how could such a good cash cow be lost just like that?

Speaking of which, this is also an absurd story.

In 1953, Egypt overthrew the 5,000-year-old monarchy and established the United Kingdom. Before that, Egypt was ruled by a puppet government supported by the British, so in 1936, in order to better control the Suez Canal, Britain forcibly stationed 10,000 soldiers in the Suez Canal. After Egypt's independence, it naturally could not tolerate 10,000 British soldiers in the country. Under pressure, Britain decided to withdraw its troops from Egypt.

In the process of the continued escalation of the Suez Canal issue, the British top leaders were very calm, and the British Prime Minister at the time was also Churchill (in the 1951 general election, the Conservative Party regained power and Churchill became prime minister again). In Churchill's eyes, the Suez Canal issue was obviously not a big deal, and he chose to wait and see.

Many people thought that Churchill no longer had the decisiveness of the past, but later it was learned that even Churchill's indifference was much better than his successor Anthony Eden.

Under the shadow of the Cold War, friends are enemies. In 1956, because the Egyptian government traded with the Soviet camp, the United States immediately withdrew its economic aid to Egypt's Aswan Dam project. The Egyptian government immediately announced very strongly that the Suez Canal would be nationalized and the economic benefits would be used to fund the Aswan Dam. This angered Eden, who had just served as British Prime Minister for a year. He immediately implemented an embargo and blocked the Suez Canal. The Egyptian government was uncompromising and ordered the sinking of British ships. And that year, the British army should withdraw from Egypt as planned. As the situation escalated, Eden officially abandoned the original withdrawal agreement.

Eden, who had lost his mind, found France and prepared to use force to retake the Suez Canal. Britain and France took advantage of the contradictions between Israel and Arab countries, demanded that Israel attack Egypt, and then instructed Israel to seek help from Britain and France. In October 1956, the British and French forces took the opportunity to invade Egypt and soon occupied the Suez Canal.

Any conflict and contradiction during the Cold War would eventually rise to the confrontation between the two camps, not to mention the war of aggression.

Sure enough, the Soviet Union announced that it would intervene in the war in November. At this time, Eden remembered that the entire military operation had not been notified to the United States in advance. At that time, the United States was busy condemning the Soviet Union's brutal suppression of the Hungarian uprising. This was embarrassing. The United States could not oppose the Soviet invasion of Hungary while supporting the British and French invasion of Egypt. That would collapse.

In December, the United States forcibly promoted a ceasefire between the British and French forces and Egypt. In the end, the Egyptian government happily took home all of Britain's assets in Egypt, including the Suez Canal. And Eden, who lost the support of the people, was forced to resign. This talented prime minister was forever nailed to the pillar of shame in history-he was rated by historians as the most incompetent British prime minister in the 20th century.

Now Churchill knows the importance of the Suez Canal and is determined to defend the Suez Canal at all costs.