This paper examines how, completed sometime between the years of 1858 and 1869, the Suez Canal has played a major role in
the transportation of ships between Europe and the Far East. It looks at how, from the time the passage was first opened until the year it was nationalized by Gamal Abdel Nasser, leader of the Egyptian people, the owners of the canal had been the French and British stockholders, how this nationalization of the Suez Canal caused a
major crisis between the East and the West, and how, ironically, the United States and Russia were not
involved directly. It looks at how the conflict over the Suez Canal served to make the region a hot-spot during the Cold War and attempts to understand why it was such an important event for all countries involved..