EGYPT: Down With Hoard

The Suez Canal today is a great convenience to the world's shipping but before it was built in 1859, Britain's great Lord Palmerston saw it as a potential menace to the British Empire. On the open seas Britain was supreme. The Suez Canal meant a shortcut waterway from Gibraltar to the Gulf of Aden* requiring, if Britain was to control it, immensely involved politics. It meant that Britain, if she could not block the building of the Suez Canal, must at least partly own and control it and must by hook or crook dominate...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!