Sim 2

Egypt is a country situated in a strategic location because of a vital waterway that was constructed in the late 19th Century called the Suez Canal. Throughout most of the 19th and 20th Centuries Egypt was a British colonial outpost. The Suez canal was a joint British-French commercial construction project and its significance as a vital international waterway still holds true, as much of Europe’s oil and other important resources pass through the canal every day. Before the canal was built ships carrying cargo had to sail around Africa in order to reach their destinations in European ports. Since the British and French put up most of the money to finance and build the canal, the administrators and harbor pilots who helped run the place on a day-to-day basis were Europeans, not Egyptians. This was the reality until the end of World War II when things started to change, and those changes led to the crisis described below.