July 26, 1956

Suez Crisis

Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal Company

"De Lesseps" sounded like a historical flourish in Nasser's speech. To Egyptian takeover teams, it was the signal to begin.

Two and a half hours in Alexandria

On 26 July 1956, in a public speech the U.S. embassy timed at about two and a half hours, Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that Egypt was nationalizing the Universal Company of the Suez Maritime Canal. He said the company's income — £E35 million a year — would help finance the Aswan High Dam.

Seven days earlier, on 19 July, the United States had withdrawn its offer to help fund that dam, with Britain also withdrawing support.

Nasser used Ferdinand de Lesseps's name repeatedly as a prearranged signal, and Egyptian personnel were taking control of the company's installations while he was still speaking.

What the decree actually transferred

Strictly, the decree nationalized the company, not the waterway. It moved the company's money, rights and obligations to the Egyptian state, dissolved its management bodies, and assigned canal operations to an independent Egyptian authority under the Ministry of Commerce.

It promised shareholders compensation based on the shares' Paris Stock Exchange value on the day before the law took effect, rather than announcing confiscation without payment.

It also froze company assets and ordered existing employees — including foreign staff — to remain at their posts so ships could keep moving.

Not condemned everywhere, and not closed

Britain and France were outraged, and British financial restrictions on Egyptian sterling balances and company assets took effect the next day. But the reaction was not uniform: within five days U.S. intelligence assessed that the move had drawn intense popular acclaim in Egypt and strengthened Nasser across much of the Arab world.

The canal did not close in July. Traffic continued until the October–November war and deliberate blockages shut it, and it reopened to full traffic on 10 April 1957.

The 26 July decree and the October invasion were separate events, months apart.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 8 sources not yet audited

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