288. Suez Crisis: The End of The British Empire (Part 5)

Empire

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How did the Suez Crisis end? Why did the Suez Crisis mark the end of the Anglo-American “special relationship”? And was it Egypt or India that marked the nail in the coffin of the British Empire? William and Anita are joined for the final time by Alex Von Tunzelmann, author of Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, & The Crisis That Shook The World, to discuss the end of the Suez Crisis, and how its legacy continues to shape global attitudes today. Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: [email protected] Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community.
0:06.7	Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter,
0:12.0	sign up to Empire Club at www.empowerpod.ukuk.com.
0:32.5	Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnhann.
0:34.9	And me, William Durhampool.
0:43.2	Episode 5 of our Suez Crisis series and again, our guide to this really labyrinthine moment in history where we were on the brink of Armageddon and we really, really were, is Alex von Tinselman.
0:49.3	Thank you very much for coming back to speak to it.
0:51.6	Armageddon correspondent.
0:53.8	Indeed.
0:55.9	Never thought I'd have to know the plural of apocalypse.
0:58.8	Well, it's always a useful thing, it seems, looking at this series.
1:03.5	Now, look, we left the last episode on Eden standing before his people saying,
1:09.0	look, I'm a man of peace, I haven't changed, you've changed,
1:12.3	they've all changed. I'm the same guy. I'm a lover, not a fighter. What we didn't say,
1:18.6	this is Saturday, the 3rd of November, 1956, but something monumental happens at midnight
1:24.8	on the same day, the same day that Eden is talking about, wasn't me, Gov.
1:29.8	What happens, Alex? Yes, a bit of a spanner in the works. So Abba Eban, who's Israel's ambassador to the UN,
1:36.7	pulls a bit of an unexpected move, stands off at the UN and says, actually Israel agrees to an immediate
1:42.7	ceasefire of Egypt does too. Egypt had already accepted
1:46.0	the call for the ceasefire. So what that meant is that there's a ceasefire. Israel and Egypt are no
1:52.5	longer at war. In fact, there are two nations holding out against peace, and they are Britain and
1:57.3	France who've said that they are intervening in a police action as peacekeepers.
	...

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