- 【Preface】
In maritime warfare, offshore islands are generally the first bastion of national maritime defense, so countries around the world attach great importance to islands close to their own countries, such as Argentina coveting Horse Island, and the United States guarding Midway.
But one island has become an exception, and neighbors have not fought for each other, but have humbled each other.
This island is the island of Tiran between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Located in the southern part of the Gulf of Aqaba, Tiran Island covers an area of about 80 square kilometers and is not a small island. Bordered to the east by Saudi Arabia and to the west by Egypt, it is an important island at the junction of Central Asia and Africa.
Since Egypt and Saudi Arabia belong to the Arab culture in terms of culture, the history of war in the Middle East since ancient times is a confused account, and the Arab cultural countries have been fighting for many years, so Tiran Island is theoretically a place where soldiers must fight. Simply put, which country can have de facto control of Tilan Island, which country can control the important throat of the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
If Egypt controlled Tiran Island, it could economically become a second barrier for the Suez Canal, controlling the important European route to Asia. At the same time, militarily, it can also resist the aggression of Middle Eastern countries and have stronger international influence.
Conversely, if Saudi Arabia gets the island, it will have the same advantage.
The island is, by common sense, an important part of the country's military economic development.
However, with such unique geographical conditions, there has been no real problem of ownership of Tiran Island, and Egypt wants to give Itlan Island to Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia also wants to divide the island to Egypt.
The two countries have yielded to each other, and this humility is humility for 66 years.
Finally, in 2016, Egypt once again proposed at the United Nations to return Tiran Island and recognize Saudi Arabia's ownership of Tiran Island, Saudi Arabia accepted the terms, and the 66-year-long "Kong Rong Let Pear" finally ended.
Some people may wonder, why do both countries have to be humble about such a good island? Is there any secret inside?
To answer the above questions, we must also start from the history of Tilan Island.
- 【 The Abacus of the Empire That Never Sets】
When it comes to Egypt, people's first reaction is that Egypt is one of the four ancient civilizations, but few people know that the splendor and splendor of Egyptian civilization only stayed in the ancient period.
Since the rise of the Roman Empire, Egypt has been successively ruled by many surrounding countries, before the Roman Empire occupied Egypt by force, and then by the Ottoman Turkish Empire for many years of power. Before the opening of the new route, Egypt, as an important pass connecting the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, can be said to be more convenient for whoever controls Egypt can do trade.
However, after the arrival of the British, the original balance was broken, and after the beginning of the age of navigation, the British defeated the Spanish Armada, became the true hegemon of the sea, and began to expand colonies around the world with the advantage of navigation.
Among them, Egypt was the first echelon of British colonial aggression.
At that time, Egypt was still under the control of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, unlike the British colonial rule, the Ottoman Empire really treated Egypt as part of the country to govern, but the Ottoman Empire's military strength was far inferior to britain, in the face of British giant ships and cannons, the Ottoman Empire could only give up Egypt.
The British, who had extensive seafaring experience and naturally knew the value of the islands, took Egypt from the Ottoman Empire and incidentally included the island of Tiran.
British colonial rule was to do better trade, compared with the large area of the desert egyptian mainland, the British valued and cared more about the Suez Canal and Tiran Island. Therefore, Tiran Island, as an island actually controlled by the United Kingdom, will inevitably become the focus of British attention.
However, the good times did not last long, and the First World War plunged Britain into a quagmire, and British rule over the colonies began to weaken further.
By this time the Roman Empire had long ceased to exist, the Ottoman Empire had suffered in World War I, and Egypt had no great powers to threaten them, and the call for independence in Egypt was growing.
But the British did not want to completely leave the rule of Egypt, so a plan of "breaking the wrists of the heroes" was born in the British Parliament.
The British government believes that we can not actually control the Egyptian government, but the Suez Canal, the economic artery in Egypt, must not be lost. The actual control of the Suez Canal must be the British Suez Canal Company, and of course, Tiran Cannot be ceded to Egypt.
As for Egypt, let them make trouble for independence.
So in the early and mid-20th century, the British began to withdraw their troops from Egypt one after another, and used their economic power to support a puppet regime, the Farouk dynasty. The Farouk dynasty was nominally an independent constitutional monarchy in Egypt itself, but in fact the Farouk dynasty was able to ascend to the throne and accepted many British conditions, such as the Suez Canal must be owned by British companies, and tiran Island must be assigned to Saudi Arabia, which was still in British hands at the time.
Perhaps the foundations of the Farouk dynasty were not too solid, and Farouk I gladly accepted this condition.
Farouq style with queen of England
At this point, the question of the ownership of Tiran Island came into the hands of Saudi Arabia from this moment.
However, Saudi Arabia's ownership of Tiran Island is only nominal, because Tiran Island is an important pass of the Suez Canal, and the British will never give up Tiran Island, after all, for the British, making money is the last word, and allocating Tiran Island to Saudi Arabia is only not to give to Egypt, and the real controller of Tiran Island is still Britain.
The King of Saudi Arabia also understood this truth, so he acquiesced.
- "We're going to retake Tiran!" 】
The establishment of the Farouq dynasty in Egypt was a deal with the British. At that time, some people in Egypt also realized that britain had not actually left Egypt, and one day the Suez Canal and Tiran Island did not return to Egypt, and Egypt would never emerge.
In the first Middle East war, there was an officer in Egypt who went to the front every day, but his action was more special, he charged not to fight, but to rush into enemy camps to chat with Israeli soldiers.
Every day he went to the Israeli soldiers and asked a question: "How did you Israel get out of British rule?" ”
This frenzied move soon caught the attention of Egypt's top generals, who, without hesitation, said that his name was Nasser when the senior general asked for his name.
Nasser
Nasser was born in the slums of Egypt, and under the rule of Farouq I, the gap between rich and poor in Egypt was widening, and Nasser, as the smartest child in the family, was admitted to the Egyptian military academy on his own.
During his studies at the military academy, Nasser studied hard, and he realized from the book that the nature of Egypt's poverty, ninety percent of Egypt's economy is agriculture, which can not make the Egyptian people live a good life, if you want to get rich, you must control the shipping.
The Sale of the Suez Canal and Tiran Island to the British by the Farouq Dynasty could not be compromised.
Although he was only an officer, Nasser's astonishing ambitions infected many high-ranking Egyptian generals, who knew that Farouq I was a dimwitted monarch, a puppet of the British, who had to overthrow the Farouk dynasty.
So in 1952, Nasser led the Egyptian army in a coup d'état, Farouq I fled to Italy, and the Farouq dynasty was completely overthrown. Nasser, who was in power, immediately began the second step of his plan to recover Tiran.
During British rule, in order to reduce the navigation mileage, the British forcibly conscripted millions of Egyptian laborers and dug up the Suez Canal at the cost of 160,000 lives.
The Egyptian government does not have any stake in the Suez Canal, and the British also charge a large number of "tolls" on the Suez Canal.
After Nasser came to power, he made representations with the Suez Canal Company, hoping that britain could return the Suez Canal to Egypt.
Britain, as an established businessman, ignored Egypt's demands and said that according to British law, the Suez Canal and Tiran Island are protected by British law, which are private property, private property is sacrosanct and inviolable, and Nasser's unjustified return to suez Canal and Tiran Island is not constitutional.
Nasser, who received a reply, was very angry, and various demonstrations also appeared in Egypt. Under nasser's soft and hard bubble, the British government decided to give Nasser's government a 3% stake in the Suez Canal Company.
Hearing the 3% figure, Nasser was even angrier, it was not doing business at all, it was simply a robbery!
So in July 1956, Nasser gave an important speech in Cairo, with only one: It was time for us to return the Suez Canal and the Strait of Tiran to Egypt.
The speech was a huge success, the streets of Cairo were crowded, and amid the cheers of the people, Nasser led his elite troops to smash the Yellow Dragon and took control of the Suez Canal Company and the Tiran Strait in less than 3 days.
Upon learning that Nasser had led an army to sneak up on the Suez Canal Company, the British Parliament decided to take it back by force. But the British found that they had exhausted their family in the Second World War, so they began to look for support from European countries such as France and the United States.
This time, however, international public opinion is all on Egypt's side. Nasser used his astonishing diplomatic skills to level all Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, all supporting the return of the Suez Canal and the Strait of Tiran to Egypt.
Because Nasser's offer was that after Egypt took control of the Strait of Tiran, Arab ships could reduce their tolls more than they did for Britain.
Britain, which had failed diplomatically, was helpless and had to surrender the Suez Canal to the Strait of Tiran.
At the same time, the British also left a back hand, the British let all the employees of the Suez Canal Company evacuate Egypt, giving Nasser an empty shell, without the help of talents, the Suez Canal could not operate at all.
Before the military operation began, Nasser personally trained more than 80 ship engineers in Egypt, and the Egyptians operated the Suez Canal normally, and even the annual number of ships was growing.
Since then, The island of Tiran has once again returned to Egyptian hands.
Saudi Arabia, which nominally owns the island of Tiran, also acquiesced to Egypt's actions, believing that the Arabs were their own people compared to the British, and that it was better to fall into their own hands than to the British.
- 【 The Afterglow of the Three Wars】
Nasser's boldness and boldness won the respect of most Arab countries, but the Arab region has been a place of contention for the great powers since ancient times, and the fate of this land is not within the control of the Arab countries themselves.
Nasser asked Israel how to get rid of Britain in the first Middle East war, and Israel replied: Find a new patron, such as the United States.
So Nasser, after recovering the Suez Canal and the Tiran Strait, began to make peace with the United States, hoping that the United States could provide military assistance and invest in Tiran Island, but the United States refused.
After all, the United States and Britain wore a pair of pants, and the United States could not give the Egyptians weapons against Britain and France.
So Nasser turned around and asked China for help, and Nasser approached Premier Zhou, hoping that China would provide some weapons. In this regard, Premier Zhou regretted that China could not help, because many of China's weapons at that time were also supported by the Soviet Union, but he could introduce Khrushchev to Nasser to see if the Soviet Union could help Egypt.
Premier Zhou received Nasser
Khrushchev, who heard the news, was very pleased, he welcomed Nasser to visit the Soviet Union, gladly agreed to Nasser's terms of purchase of arms, and said that he did not want money, and could repay the debt in batches through Egyptian cotton and corn, at a price of only one-tenth of that of the United States, which can be said to be a trade of absolute conscience.
However, correspondingly, Egypt will support the Soviet Union unconditionally in the international situation in the future.
Nasser's move put Egypt in the Soviet bloc, while Israel in the Middle East was in the U.S. camp.
The contradictions and differences in nature naturally lead to contradictions between Egypt and Israel.
In October 1956, the Second Middle East War broke out, and Israel, the vanguard of Britain and France, began to seize Tiran Island and the Suez Canal, both sides suffered heavy losses, and finally Egypt won a political victory.
Then, in 1967, the third Middle East war broke out, this time Israel declared war, Israel with modern weapons and equipment to Egypt, Syria, Iraq to sweep a comprehensive sweep, and finally the Arab countries failed, the economic lifeline also fell back to the hands of Western countries.
Subsequently, in 1973, Egypt carried out a surprise attack on Israel, and the fourth Middle East war broke out, although Egypt was very brave in the early stage, once forced Israel to the brink of subjugation, but due to the decline of the Soviet Union at this time, logistics could not keep up, And Egypt's attack turned into being surrounded by Israeli troops, and finally ended in failure.
It is not difficult to see that the three wars revolved around the Suez Canal and Tiran Island, and although Egypt fought hard for sovereignty, after three wars, Egypt no longer had the strength to compete with the West.
Today' Tiran Island, apart from the outposts established during the Egyptian occupation, is still very barren. Finally, in 2016, Egypt announced the return of Tiran Island to Saudi Arabia.
The island has nothing, but it carries Egypt's history of independence and struggle in the 20th century, and although it seems to have failed, it began investing $12 billion in tourism after saudi Arabia took ownership of Tiran Island.
Perhaps in the future, Tiran Island will no longer be a place of contention, but a symbol of the happiness of the people of the Middle East.