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Blockade
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A blockade is an effort to cut off the communications of a particular area, by force. It is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually directed at an entire country or region, not a fortress or city. Also, a blockade historically took place at sea, with the blockading power seeking to cut off all maritime transport to the blockaded country. Stopping all land transport to and from an area may also be considered a blockade.
Blockades are often partial, with the object of denying the other side its major form of communication, or usable access to key resources.
Close patrol of a hostile port, to prevent naval forces from putting to sea, is also referred to as "blockade".
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A blockade is an effort to cut off the communications of a particular area, by force. It is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually directed at an entire country or region, not a fortress or city. Also, a blockade historically took place at sea, with the blockading power seeking to cut off all maritime transport to the blockaded country. Stopping all land transport to and from an area may also be considered a blockade.
Blockades are often partial, with the object of denying the other side its major form of communication, or usable access to key resources.
Close patrol of a hostile port, to prevent naval forces from putting to sea, is also referred to as "blockade". When a coastal city or fortress was besieged from the landward side, the besiegers would often blockade the seaward side as well.
In the twentieth century, blockades sometimes include stopping all air traffic with the blockaded area. Most recently, blockades have sometimes included cutting off electronic communications by jamming radio signals and severing undersea cables.
The International Criminal Court plans to include blockades against coasts and ports in its list of acts of war in 2009.
Blockades should not be confused with embargos or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade.
History
Blockades have been a part of war whenever seaborne commerce or naval action was important.
During the Peloponnesian War (431 BC–404 BC), Spartan forces surrounded Athens on land. Athens withstood the landward attack, and subsisted on food imported by ship. After the battle of Aegospotami, Sparta also blockaded Athens by sea, and Athens surrendered.
When Alexander the Great sought to take the city of Tyre in 332 BCE, he first blockaded the city for several months.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain blockaded France and its allies, denying them access to overseas commerce.
In the American Civil War, the Union blockaded rebel ports.
During World War I and World War II, Britain and its allies blockaded Germany and its European allies. Germany declared a submarine blockade of Britain in both wars.
In 1948-1949, the Soviet Union made a land blockade of West Berlin.
In 1962, the United States placed a naval blockade around Cuba.
Close and distant blockade
Close blockade is placing warships in sight of the blockaded coast or port, to insure the immediate interception of any ship entering or leaving. It is the most effective and the most difficult form of blockade. It is difficult because the blockading ships must remain continuously at sea, exposed to storms and hardship, vulnerable to sudden attack from the blockaded side, whose ships may stay safe in harbor till they choose to come out, and usually far from any support.
In a distant blockade, the blockaders stay well away from the blockaded coast, and try to intercept any ships going in or out. This may require more ships on station, but they can usually operate closer to their bases, and are at much less risk from enemy raids.
Loose blockade is a close blockade where the blockading ships are withdrawn out of sight from the coast (behind the horizon) but no farther. The object of loose blockade is to get the enemy to venture out, while staying close enough to strike.
British admiral Horatio Nelson applied a loose blockade at Cádiz in 1805. The Franco-Spanish fleet under Villeneuve then came out, resulting in the battle of Trafalgar.
Pacific blockade
Until 1827, blockades were always a part of a war.
This changed when France, Russia, and Britain came to the aid of the Greek rebels against Turkey. They blockaded the Turkish-occupied coast, which led to the battle of Navarino. But no war was declared, so it is considered the first "pacific" blockade. The first truly pacific blockade (no shooting at all) was the British blockade of the Republic of New Granada in 1837, established to compel New Granada to release an imprisoned British consul.
Legal status
Act of War
A blockade is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as an "an act of war by which a belligerent prevents access to or departure from a defined part of the enemy’s coasts."
Governing laws
Whether or not a blockade was seen as lawful depended on the national laws of the nations whose trade was influenced by the blockade. The Brazilian blockade of Río de la Plata in 1826, for instance, was considered lawful according to British law, but unlawful according to French and American law. The latter two countries announced they would actively defend their ships against Brazilian blockaders, while Britain was forced to steer for a peaceful solution between Brazil and Argentina.
Blockades were first defined in international law at the Congress of Paris in 1856. One of the agreed rules was that a blockade had to be effective to be lawful. This banned so called paper blockades, blockades that were declared to the blockaded nation, but were not actively enforced. Such a blockade did however allow the blockading party to seize the cargo of neutral states trading with blockaded harbors. At the Declaration of London in 1909 another attempt was made to further protect the rights of neutral traders. The treaty was only ratified by a few nations, preventing any application of the agreements. Parts of it were however applied during blockades in World War I.
Since 1945 the UN Security Council determines the legal status of blockades and by article 42 of the UN Charter the Council can also apply blockades.
Blockade planning
Blockades are planned around four general rules:
- Value of thing to become blockaded
- Blockading strength is equal to or greater than the opposing force
- Suitability of terrain to aid in the blockade
- Willpower to maintain the blockade
First, the value of the item being blockaded must warrant the need to blockade. For example, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the items to be blockaded (or "quarantined", the more legally- and politically-neutral term selected by President John F. Kennedy) were medium-range missiles, capable of delivering nuclear weaponry, bound for Cuba. The need for the blockade was high because of the value of the missiles as a military threat against the United States.
Second, the strength of the blockading force must be equal to or greater in strength than the opposition. The blockade is only successful if the 'thing' is prevented from reaching its receiver. Again the Cuban blockade illustration shows that the United States put to sea a number of warships to inspect and blockade the waters around Cuba. This show of strength showed the U.S. Navy forces were much larger and stronger in the area compared to their Soviet Navy counterparts.
Third, in the case of land blockades, choosing suitable terrain. Knowing where the force will be travelling through will help the blockader in choosing territory to aid them: for example, forcing a garrison between a high mountain pass in order to bottleneck the opposing force.
Fourth, willpower to maintain a blockade. The success of a blockade is based almost entirely on the will of the people to maintain it. The Cuban blockade is an example of maintaining willpower to block the missiles from reaching Cuba despite the risk of starting a world wide nuclear war.
Types
Historical blockades
Historical blockades include:
Blockade running
Blockade running is the practice of delivering cargo, for example food, to an area in blockade. It has mainly been done by ships, called blockade runners, across ports under naval blockade. Blockade runners were typically the fastest ships available, and often lightly armed and armoured.
However, in the modern age, it has also been done by aircraft, forming airbridges, such as over the Berlin blockade after World War II.
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