... Moving away from just focusing on the effects of Suez one must also discuss the other factors and causes of decolonisation, including the established nationalist, international and metropolitan explanations and how they were represented in the Suez crisis. Firstly I will look at the arguments supporting the opinion that Suez did hasten the end of the British Empire to which Lapping is an advocate. He argues that the effect of Suez spread widely, particularly in Africa, and in the three years following the crisis Britain's pre-Suez policy of gradually introducing self-government to the indigenous population leading on to independence, 'was replaced by one of rapid scuttle.'2 Lapping continues saying that Suez was, 'an imperial cataclysm; the principle cause of the suddenness with which decolonisation broke across Africa in 1960.'3 He also argues that until 1956, despite some decolonisation in the Far East and parts of North and West Africa, the ...

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