Economic history of the United Kingdom once the territories gained independence and were free to negotiate their own trade agreements. Although the '50s were overall a time of great prosperity for Britain, the Suez Crisis of November 1956 precipitated a financial crisis and a run on Sterling which underlined how fragile post-war British finances were. The tripartite invasion of the Suez Canal Zone by Britain, France and Israel following Egypt's nationalization of the canal (before then majority owned by the British government) was a disaster for British prestige and the economy. The United States and the United Nations came out firmly against the occupation, which caused
Suez Crisis a series of challenges to British influence in the region that would culminate in the Suez Crisis. In regard to the Arab leadership, particularly venomous was the feud between Nasser and the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri el-Said, for Arab leadership, with the Cairo-based Voice of the Arabs radio station regularly calling for the overthrow of the government in Baghdad. The most important factors that drove Egyptian foreign policy in this period was on the one hand, a determination to see the entire Middle East as Egypt's rightful sphere of influence, and on the other, a tendency on the part