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 "betrayed" by what they considered to be the spineless politicians in Paris when they were on the verge of victory just as they believed they had been "betrayed" in Vietnam in 1954, and accordingly become more determined to win the war in Algeria, even if it meant overthrowing the Fourth Republic to do so. The Suez crisis thus help to set the stage for the military disillusionment with the Fourth Republic, which was to lead to the collapse of the republic in 1958. According to the protocol of Sèvres agreements, France secretly transmitted parts of its own atomic technology to