The following factors made Nasser to take this provocative measures:

1. Nasser had begun a multi-purpose project to build the Aswan High Dam along the Nile. The Aswan project was seen by him as a glorious idea that would help change the standard of living of the Egyptians.

2. Nasser wanted to safeguard and raise his personal prestige in the Arab world in general and Egypt in particular.

3. Before the nationalization of the canal, the profits from it were not benefiting the Egyptians, as it should have been.

4. Nasser nationalised the canal in order to reduce the dependence on France and Britain so as to complete the task of setting Egypt free from western domination.

5. Nasser's link to non-alignment can also explain why the Suez Canal was nationalised.

6. The Constantinople Convention of 1888 also empowered Nasser to put the Suez Canal under state control in 1956.

7. By 1956, Nasser had already embraced socialist ideas. He had even gone ahead to put in practice what socialism stood for.

8. Nasser was confident of Egypt's military power which he himself had created.