<P> After the opening, the Suez Canal Company was in financial difficulties . The remaining works were completed only in 1871, and traffic was below expectations in the first two years . De Lesseps therefore tried to increase revenues by interpreting the kind of net ton referred to in the second concession (tonneau de capacité) as meaning a ship's cargo capacity and not only the theoretical net tonnage of the "Moorsom System" introduced in Britain by the Merchant Shipping Act in 1854 . The ensuing commercial and diplomatic activities resulted in the International Commission of Constantinople establishing a specific kind of net tonnage and settling the question of tariffs in its protocol of 18 December 1873 . This was the origin of the Suez Canal Net Tonnage and the Suez Canal Special Tonnage Certificate, both of which are still in use today . </P> <P> The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade . Combined with the American transcontinental railroad completed six months earlier, it allowed the world to be circled in record time . It played an important role in increasing European colonization of Africa . The construction of the canal was one of the reasons for the Panic of 1873, because goods from the Far East were carried in sailing vessels around the Cape of Good Hope and were stored in British warehouses . As sailing vessels were not adaptable for use through the canal, because the prevailing winds of the Mediterranean blow from west to east, British entrepôt trade suffered . External debts forced Said Pasha's successor, Isma'il Pasha, to sell his country's share in the canal with the help of both Yacoub Cattaui and Lionel de Rothschild both of whom he was personal friends with for £ 4,000,000 (about £ 89.1 million in 2017) to the United Kingdom in 1875, but French shareholders still held the majority . Lionel de Rothschild agreed to underwrite the loan for the British government after Yacoub Cattaui negotiated the terms and financially engineered the transaction on behalf of Egypt with Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who was a personal friend of both Yacoub Cattaui and Lionel de Rothschild . However, the Prime Minister was later accused by William Ewart Gladstone of undermining Britain's constitutional system, because he had not referred to, or obtained consent from Parliament when purchasing the shares with funding from the Rothschilds . </P> <P> The Convention of Constantinople in 1888 declared the canal a neutral zone under the protection of the British, who had occupied Egypt and Sudan at the request of Khedive Tewfiq to suppress the Urabi Revolt against his rule . The revolt went on from 1879 to 1882 . As a result of British involvement on the side of Khedive Tewfiq, Britain gained control of the canal in 1882 . The British defended the strategically important passage against a major Ottoman attack in 1915, during the First World War . Under the Anglo - Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the UK retained control over the canal . The canal was again strategically important in the 1939--1945 Second World War, and Italo - German attempts to capture it were repulsed during the North Africa Campaign, during which the canal was closed to Axis shipping . In 1951 Egypt repudiated the treaty and in October 1954 the UK agreed to remove its troops . Withdrawal was completed on 18 July 1956 . </P> <P> Because of Egyptian overtures towards the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew their pledge to support the construction of the Aswan Dam . Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser responded by nationalizing the canal on 26 July 1956 and transferring it to the Suez Canal Authority, intending to finance the dam project using revenue from the canal . On the same day that the canal was nationalized Nasser also closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli ships . This led to the Suez Crisis in which the UK, France, and Israel invaded Egypt . According to the pre-agreed war plans under the Protocol of Sèvres, the Israelis invaded the Sinai Peninsula, forcing Egypt to engage them militarily, and allowing the Anglo - French partnership to declare the resultant fighting a threat to stability in the Middle East and enter the war - officially to divide the two forces but in reality to regain the Canal and bring down the Nasser government . </P>

When was the suez canal taken by egypt