Historical Struggle for World’s Strategic Straits and Canals

Built in the 1860s during the European imperial campaigns of conquest of wide swathes of Africa and Asia, the Suez Canal would go on to play a key role in the global conflicts of the following century:

35 years later, President-Elect Trump has threatened to seize the Canal, sparking condemnation both among Panamanian leaders and officials in Washington concerned about him saying the quiet part out loud again.

Situated at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and accounting for the shipment of a quarter of the world’s oil, the Hormuz Strait has proven the key maritime chokepoint of the industrial age – something undoubtedly foreseen by Britain when it subjugated the Arab states adjacent to the Strait in 1820.

Today, Iran says its military strategy includes closing the Strait in the event of major US or Israeli aggression to force trigger-happy planners in Washington and Tel Aviv to think twice before starting a war that could trigger a global depression.

From the imperial age through the Cold War and into the present, the Turkish Straits have been a key prize in the competition for access between the Black and the Mediterranean seas.

Today, the Turkish Straits remain a key node for global trade – especially grain shipments from Russia and Ukraine. The straits were closed to warships after the start of the Russia-NATO proxy war in Ukraine in 2022.

Fast forward to the present, and US threats to close the strategic strait to China and its Middle East oil sources have prompted Beijing to search for backup routes, such as Myanmar.