What is the Suez Canal? A ship canal, about 166 km (103 miles) long, traversing the Isthmus of Suez and linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez with the Mediterranean Sea. Built under the supervision of Ferdinand de Lesseps, it was opened in 1869 and came under British control after 1875.

Why is the Canal important? By 1955 approximately two-thirds of Europe's oil passed through the canal. About 7.5% of world sea trade is carried via the canal today. Receipts from the canal July 2005 to May 2006 totaled $3.246 billion. In 2005, 18,193 vessels passed through the canal. Egypt's Suez Canal Authority (SCA) reported that in ,224 ships passed through the canal. The canal averages about 8% of the world shipping traffic. The canal has no locks because the terrain through which it passes is flat, and the minor difference in sea level at the ends is easily coped with through the length of the canal.

In 1956, a crisis started in the Suez Canal, Egypt. At the time the canal was owned by a French/British company and it was the busiest ocean to ocean water way in the world. Egypt however wanted to control the canal. In 1956 the Egyptian government nationalized the canal taking ownership of it. The British/French wanted to regain control of the canal. They encouraged Israel to attack Egypt promising they would back them up. This created an emergency. The Soviet Union did not like the British/French actions and threatened nuclear strikes against, London and Paris if their aggression continued. Now the U.S.A. was in a difficult situation. They did not know about nor supported the plan to attack Egypt, but because they were founded by the NATO alliance to assist Britain and France if they were attacked by the Soviet Union.

The Solution Lester.B.Pearson who was Canada’s Minister of External Affairs at that time came up with a plan to calm the situation. He suggested to the U.N. that the members create a U.N. force that would be a “truly international peace and police force”. As a result a U.N. peace keeping force with troops from ten countries took up a position between the combatants, keeping them apart while a peace settlement was negotiated. Now the role of U.N. peace keeping had begun.

Lester.B.Pearson Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario. A Canadian Professor, historian and politician. 8 th Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada ( ) In 1957, Pearson created the United Nations Emergency Force to help solve the Suez Crisis, for this he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Today he is considered the father of the modern concept of peacekeeping.