The list of blockades informs about blockades that were carried out either on land, or in the maritime and air spaces in the effort to defeat opponents through denial of supply, usually to cause military exhaustion and starvation as an economic blockade in addition to restricting movement of enemy troops.
Ancient era +OpponentsBlockaderConflictDetails458–457 BCEAegina (Saronic Gulf)AthensFirst Peloponnesian War431–404 BCEAthensSpartaPeloponnesian WarSpartan forces surrounded Athens on land. Athens withstood the landward attack, and subsisted on food imported by ship. In the Battle of Aegospotami, the Spartan navy destroyed the Athenian navy and implemented a sea blockade, forcing Athens to surrender.Boardman, John & Griffin, Jasper & Murray, Oswyn. 2001. The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World, p. 166. .42–36 BCERoman ItalySupporters of Sextus PompeyBellum SiculumSextus Pompey blockades the Grain supply to Rome.31 BCESupporters of Mark AntonyPtolemaic EgyptSupporters of OctavianWar of the Second Triumvirate(Battle of Actium)Octavian blockaded Mark Antony's ships in the Gulf of Actium.
Medieval era +Blockaded TerritoryBlockaderConflictDetails1068–1071Robert GuiscardNorman conquest of southern ItalyRobert Guiscard's Norman forces blockaded Byzantine cities in southern Italy, most notably in the siege of Bari.1084Norman-occupied CorfuByzantine-Norman WarsAfter the Normans occupied Corfu, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos blockaded the island with Venetian naval support gained in exchange for commercial privileges.1102Crusades1104–1108Tripoli Antioch Edessa Toulouse CerdanyaSiege of TripoliBlockade of the Lebanese coast leading by the Outremer and Genoa leading to the establishment of the County of Tripoli1110Sidon NorwayNorwegian Crusade1337 Cadzand, Flanders EnglandHundred Years' War1379–1380War of Chioggia1394–1402 Constantinople, Byzantine EmpireByzantine–Ottoman warsOttoman blockade of ConstantinopleRobert Cowley, Geoffrey Parker. The Reader's Companion to Military History New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. on Google Books.
Early-modern era Duration of BlockadeBlockaded TerritoryBlockaderConflictDetails1585–1792 Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands(later Austrian Netherlands)Aftermath of Eighty Years' War1601 BantenDutch–Portuguese War1639–1646 Spanish NetherlandsThirty Years' War1653First Anglo-Dutch War1656–1657(Dardanelles)Cretan War1726–1728 Portobelo, Province of Tierra FirmeAnglo-Spanish War (1727–1729)1775–1778 Thirteen Colonies( from 1776 onwards)American Revolutionary WarThe British Empire declared the American colonies to be in a state of rebellion after the First Continental Congress and refused to recognize their Declaration of Independence. The blockade ended with the Treaty of Paris recognizing U.S. independence and ending the war.1788–1790Second Russo-Swedish War1793–1797War of the First Coalition1794 Dutch East Indies British East India Company1797Anglo-Spanish War1798–1802 Order of St. JohnWar of the Second Coalition1798–1800 French-occupied Egypt1798–1800 French-occupied Malta18011806–1814Napoleonic Wars and its client states1808–1809Finnish War1808–1813Dano-Swedish War of 1808–09Gunboat War1812–1815War of 18121807–1866Africa (after 1841)Blockade of AfricaThe blockade suppressed the Atlantic slave trade.1825–1828Cisplatine War1827–1830French blockade of AlgiersThe blockade failed to suppress Algerian corsair activities or restrict Algerian trade, and was consequently superseded by the French invasion of Algiers in 1830.
Modern era Duration of BlockadeBlockaded TerritoryBlockaderConflictDetails1838–1840 Rio de la Plata, Argentine ConfederationWar of the Confederation1840 Kingdom of the Two SiciliesSulphur Crisis1845–1850 Rio de la Plata, Argentine ConfederationUruguayan Civil War1846–1848Mexican-American War1848–1851 GermanyFirst Schleswig War1854–1856Crimean War1861–1865American Civil War1854–1856Chincha Islands War1873–1881Aceh War1886 GreeceGreat Powers (excluding France)Eastern Rumelia Crisis1894–1895First Sino-Japanese War1897 Constantinople, Ottoman EmpireGreat Powers1898 Spanish Cuba San Juan, Spanish Puerto RicoSpanish-American War1902–1903Venezuelan crisis of 1902–19031908Dutch–Venezuelan crisis of 19081914–1919World War I and its aftermathIncluded mainly Germany but also the entire Central Powers. The Allied blockade of Germany continued for a year after the Armistice until it signed the Treaty of Versailles.Osborne, Eric W., Britain's economic blockade of Germany, 1914–1919, Frank Cass, London, 2004, p.2301915–1918Middle Eastern theatre of World War I"World War I" on Countrystudies.us1936 Spanish Morocco SpainSpanish Civil WarThe Spanish Republican Navy blockaded the Strait of Gibraltar to hamper the transport of Francisco Franco's Army of Africa to Peninsular Spain1936–1939 Republican-controlled Spain Nationalist factionThe Nationalists blockaded northern and southeastern Spain1937–1945 ChinaSecond Sino-Japanese War1939–1945 and its occupied territories (after 1940) and its colonies (after 1940) (until 1940) (after 1941) (after 1941)World War IIThe Allied Powers carried out a blockade to prevent the Axis Powers from acquiring materials. Although the blockade was initially ineffective due to the use of neutral ports in the Soviet Union and Francoist Spain, it grew more severe when the Soviet Union and the United States entered the war in 1941 and when the Germans lost control of their occupied territories in France and Eastern Europe in 1944.1940–1945The Nazi German Kriegsmarine attempted to block shipping to Britain and Russia through the use of U-boats.1941–1945 Leningrad, Soviet UnionEastern Front of World War II1944–1945Pacific Front of World War II1948 Changchun, Republic of China Chinese Red ArmyChinese Civil WarChangchun was one of the largest cities in Manchuria and was a strategic ROC Army base in Northeast China. The fall of the city led to Communist victory in the Liaoshen campaign.1948–1949Berlin BlockadeThe Soviet occupation forces in Germany blockaded West Berlin at the beginning of the Cold War, but it became ineffective due to an American-led airlift.1949–1958Cross-Strait conflict1950–1953 United Nations CommandKorean War1956 IsraelSuez CrisisEgypt blockaded the Straits of Tiran before the Suez Crisis.1962Cuban Missile CrisisThe United States declared a "quarantine" of Cuba in reaction to the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles.1965–1975Vietnam War1966–1975Beira PatrolThe British government, along with most of the international community, did not recognize Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence due to its policy of no independence before majority rule.1967Six-Day WarEgypt resumed its blockade of the Straits of Tiran shortly before the war. Israel responded by invading and occupying the Sinai Peninsula.1968–1970Nigerian Civil WarNigeria blockaded the secessionist republic of Biafra, creating an international humanitarian crisis that resulted in Biafrans receiving aid from volunteers around the world during the Biafran airlift and inspired the formation of Doctors Without Borders.1971 East PakistanIndo-Pakistani War of 19711973October war 19731982(Occupied by making it Islas Malvinas)Falklands War1982–20001982 Lebanon War South Lebanon conflictThe blockade was first imposed during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. However, it was sporadically renewed after the Israel Defense Force was forced to withdraw to the South Lebanon security belt due to its continuing conflict with Hezbollah.1990–2003Gulf WarIraq disarmament crisisEnforcement of sanctions against Iraq. The U.S. Air Force, the Royal Air Force, and the French Air Force also enforced no-fly zones in the northern and southern halves of the country.1990Singing RevolutionThe Soviet government refused to recognize Lithuania's independence.1992–1993Croatian War of IndependenceYugoslavia refused to recognize Croatia's independence. The Yugoslav Navy blockaded the Adriatic coast until it was defeated by Croatian artillery in the Battle of the Dalmatian Channels.1993–1996 United Nations Protection ForceBosnian WarNATO imposed a blockade on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to enforce the UN sanctions on the country and enforced no-fly zones.1996Third Taiwan Strait CrisisThe PRC launched ballistic missiles at ROC territorial waters near the important ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung, forcing lengthy travel and shipping delays. The missile launches were believed to be intended to intimidate the Taiwanese public before the 1996 presidential election.2001–2007Maritime protection program to prevent arrivals of unauthorized "boat people."20062006 Lebanon War2009 Mullaitivu, Sri LankaSri Lankan civil war2011 LibyaLibyan Civil WarThe U.N. Security Council approved a no-fly zone over Libya.20152015 Nepal blockadeNepal accused India, on which it is reliant for petroleum and medicine imports, of imposing a blockade.2017–2021Qatar diplomatic crisisSeveral Arab League countries accused Qatar of funding terrorism in violation of a Gulf Cooperation Council agreement. Qatar denied these accusations but Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s only land neighbor, sealed its border, imposing a “land blockade“ and shutting down all land based trade to and from Qatar. Qatar was also criticized for its close relations with Iran and the management of Al Jazeera. Qatar claims it never funded terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and also shares a strategic alliance with the United States in the war on terror and the international intervention against ISIL. The conflict was resolved after a diplomatic agreement brokered by the United States and Kuwait.2020–2022, EthiopiaTigray warMartin Griffiths spoke of a "de facto blockade" against Tigray. The blockade was lifted with the Ethiopia–Tigray peace agreement.2022–2024Nagorno-Karabakh conflictStarting in December 2022, Azerbaijan launched an illegal blockade of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, trapping the 120,000 residents within the region, blocking transport of food, medicine, and other supplies, and cutting off electricity and natural gas to the region. The blockade has remained in place despite calls from the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights for the blockade to be lifted.2023–2025Red Sea Houthi YemenMiddle Eastern crisis (2023–present)The Houthis closed the Red Sea and attacked commercial vessels. The attacked ended with the Gaza peace plan. A new crisis began with their entry into the resumed during the 2026 Iran war.20252025–2026 Southern Yemen campaignOn 30 December 2025, the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council declared a 72h long air, sea, and land blockade. The blockade coincides with the Saudi-Blockade of Yemen.2026Strait of Hormuz2026 Iran warIran closed the Strait of Hormuz during the war starting the 2026 Iran war fuel crisis.2026The US carried out the 2026 Strait of Hormuz campaign in an attempt to reopen the Strait of Hormuz before announcing a blockade of Iran after Iran failed to reopen it.
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