Wars for the Waterways: Historical Struggle for World’s Strategic Straits and Canals
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Donald Trump’s threat to seize the Panama Canal and the Houthis’ disruption of commercial shipping via the Suez to the tune of $7 billion in 2024 reminded the world of the significance of these and other strategic maritime choke points to global trade. What have the competing claims to key trade arteries been through history? Sputnik explores.
Suez Canal
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:
Ottoman forces tried to seize the Suez in 1915 and 1916 during WWI, looking to cut the Entente off from its speediest maritime route to Asia.
In 1942 during WWII, Rommel’s Africa Corps approached to within 350 km of the canal before being driven back. Had the canal been captured, Allied naval operations in the Mediterranean would have been severely hampered, and Axis forces could have driven on to the oil fields of the Middle East.
In 1956 during the early years of the Cold War, Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal triggered an invasion by France and the UK, seeking to return colonial control, and by Israel, incensed by Nasser’s anti-Zionist stance. The aggression was foiled by threats of Soviet intervention, and the surprise US refusal to support its allies.
Fast forward to today, and the Suez has become a victim of the Israel-Houthi conflict, with Egypt losing billions in transit revenues in 2024 alone.
31 December 2024, 08:00 GMT
Panama Canal
Panama was part of Colombia until 1903, when pro-independence forces (conveniently) backed by US warships declared independence. “I made Panama,” President Teddy Roosevelt would later boast. Construction of the modern-day Panama Canal began shortly after in 1904.
In 1989, the US invaded Panama to oust erstwhile ally Manuel Noriega. Officially, the invasion was about “defending democracy” and fighting drug trafficking. In reality, Washington feared Noriega might scrap provisions to a treaty ensuring permanent US military presence in the region.
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.
26 December 2024, 18:45 GMT
Hormuz Strait
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.
The Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988 showed just how important the Hormuz Strait is, with Saddam Hussein trying to provoke Tehran into closing the strait to trigger a full-scale US intervention.
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.
Turkish Straits
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.
Under the secret 1916 Constantinople Agreement, Britain and France vowed to transfer Constantinople (Istanbul) and the Straits to the Russian Empire if the Entente won the war. The promises were forgotten immediately after the Russian Revolution.
After WWII, the USSR proposed joint military control over the Straits, mirroring US control of the Panama Canal and Britain's over the Suez.
Concerned by the unmolested passage of Axis warships through the Straits during the war, and by Ankara’s cozying up to Washington immediately afterwards, the USSR demanded joint military control over the Straits. Turkiye refused, ultimately joining NATO.
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.
Malacca Strait
The importance of this international shipping lane became clear all the way back in the 1500s, when the Portuguese conquered it from the Aceh Sultanate. In the 1640s, Portuguese control was replaced by Dutch, who maintained a grip on the strait until WWII.
During the war, the Japanese invasion and occupation of Malaya and the Dutch East Indies gave Tokyo total control of the Malacca Strait between 1942-1945.
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.
11 August 2024, 17:10 GMT
