The History of the Strait of Hormuz, the World's Most Volatile Waterway

Описание: It's only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, yet 20% of the world’s oil and LNG—and 30% of global fertilizer—passes through this single gateway. Today, the Strait of Hormuz is a geopolitical powder keg involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, but this isn't a new story. For over 5,000 years, this narrow stretch of water has been the jugular vein of empires.

In this video, we trace the long history of the Strait of Hormuz. We’ll go back to the Bronze Age, when the "Lower Sea" connected the merchants of Mesopotamia (Ur and Lagash) to the Indus Valley Civilization. We explore how the Achaemenid and Sasanian Persians turned it into an imperial lifeline, why the Roman Emperor Trajan gazed at its waters with envy, and the rise of the legendary "Kingdom of Hormuz"—a medieval island city so wealthy and decadent it was called the "Sodom and Gomorrah" of the East.

From the arrival of the Portuguese and the British Empire to the "Tanker Wars" of the 1980s and today’s current energy crisis, we look at why this tiny passage remains the most strategic maritime crossroads on Earth.

Contents:

00:00 Introduction
00:29 Hormuz during the Bronze Age
02:06 Antiquity and the Age of Empires
04:29 The Kingdom of Hormuz
05:49 Marco Polo visits Hormuz
06:31 The Portuguese in the Persian Gulf
09:07 The Modern Age
11:30 Thank You and Patrons

Sources and Suggested Reading:

The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present - Allen Fromherz
The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier - Henry James Coleridge
The Medieval Persian Gulf - Brian Ulrich
Cambridge History of Iran (Vol. 6) - Ed. by Peter Jackson and Laurence Lockhart

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Music:

Epidemic Sound

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