Mid Theme Visit: Country Links - France and Canada

 

Mid-Theme Visit: Country Links

France and Canada

Greetings, and I hope you have a leisurely time reading this country links article. This time, we will view France and Canada. Now, even though the biggest link between France and Canada is colonial, as France colonised part of Canada, we will not be exploring the French empire. But it has been covered in other articles, therefore please see these in the history CAM blog.

This article will be modern, and involve recurring 1900s themes. Here, we will venture into an event on an international scale, west and east – The Suez Crisis…

Regarding the Suez Crisis, for some standard background, the canal was built in Northeast Egypt, in Northwest Africa, by a French company under Ferdinand De Lesseps in 1858. This optimised the area for trade connections between Asia and Europe. Since it was Middle Eastern, it was an ideal location for linking both continents.

The French and British controlled it since the French built it. However, a century later, there was an incident that threatened to disrupt the whole system that would have massive economic implications…

International Argumentation

This disruption occurred in 1956, when France and Britain refused to provide Egypt with financing it required for a dam in the canal, the Aswan High Dam. This was to keep an eye on water levels, which would aid Egypt’s farming efforts, as its economy needed farming to keep going smoothly. However, Egypt had been cosying up to the Soviet Union for a while now, due to Soviets’ admiration of the way of governance Nasser, the Egyptian president adopted, being against expansionism. You may be confused as the Soviet Union derived from Russia expanding into countries bordering it in Europe and Asia. However, the Soviets considered this reclaiming lost territories, instead of expanding into foreign ones.

This allying situation even extended to the Soviets aiding Egypt militarily, by providing the army with eastern style tactics. France and Britain were therefore discomforted with this closeness, considering the Soviets’ communist state, which conflicted with their own ideals. This situation exploded when Egypt even seized the Suez Canal from French and British ownership, prompting the west to deploy soldiers to the region.

This is where Canada finally comes in. Canada wanted peace involving all anglosphere countries (English speaking countries formerly colonised by UK, such as Canada, US, and New Zealand). Specifically, Canada’s future president, Lester Pearson, suggested that for peace to be achieved in this situation, a faction later known as the United Nation Emergency Force should be placed in the Suez area, for stability in the interim, while comprises and alternatives could be discussed, benefitting all conflicting countries. The United Nations, which had been established at the end of the Second World War to fix such international issues, received this proposal.

However, France, under President Coty, and Britain, under Prime Minister Eden, disagreed, perhaps viewing this idea as not forceful and effective enough in realising their aims. Even though Europe opposed this strategy, the USA were open to it, as they also desired peace. Therefore, the faction, UNEF was positioned in the Suez area.

The dam Egypt wanted was built the following decade, between 1960 and 1970.

It is important to remember that the link here between France and Canada was diplomatic, as France disliked the way Canada wanted to handle the Suez crisis.