History shows that the current confrontation around Hormuz is just the latest version of a centuries-long struggle to control an important commercial center.
Since ancient Persia, many successive powers, including the Greeks, Ottomans and Portuguese, have sought to control the Strait of Hormuz.
This used to be one of the richest regions in the world, when spices, silk and jewels from India passed through this sea area to commercial centers like Baghdad, and then to Europe. 15th-century Chinese navigator Zheng He once visited the Strait of Hormuz and Marco Polo also wrote about the adventurous sailors here.
More recently, the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf have become "red lines" for US presidents, sometimes shaping foreign policy and the level of willingness to use military force.
Analysts believe that Iran is stepping up the confrontation of will in the context of sharply rising energy prices, in order to put pressure on the US to limit combat.
Hormuz is the only shipping route connecting some of the world's largest energy reserves, while Iran is located along the northern coast of the strait.
Immediately after being attacked on February 28, Iran began using firepower and drones targeting oil tankers, cargo ships and ports, in order to prevent ships from advancing towards the strait.
This is an ancient strategy. "Very long before the oil tanker, Hormuz was important for the same deep structural reason as today: It is a narrow maritime gateway between resources, wealth and the vast world" - historian Bianca Nobilo said in the podcast "History Uncensored".
The Portuguese and Ottomans once competed for control of Hormuz. By the 19th century, European merchants called this area "Pirate Coast" because pirate groups attacked goods. Pirates originated from the southern shore of the strait, an area now belonging to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The modern strategic importance of the region originated in the 1930s, when large oil discoveries in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain changed geopolitical calculations. For decades, the US played a secondary role in ensuring Gulf security: initially undertaken by Britain, then by the Shah government pro-Washington of Iran.
The Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 changed the situation. A few months before Iran took US diplomats hostage, causing bilateral relations to plummet, the CIA warned of another risk from this revolution in the report "Hormuz Stream: Vulnerable veins".
The now declassified report outlines a series of potential threats to crude oil flows across the straits, from naval mines to sabotage by small wooden boats called dhows.
US President Jimmy Carter used the 1980 State of the Union Address to present the US's new proactive stance on the region, surrounding the Strait of Hormuz.
Since then, every US president has confronted Iran about concerns related to maritime transport in the Gulf region.
President Ronald Reagan experienced the most similar situation to the current hoarding of Hormuz in the "tanker war" of the late 1980s. At that time, Iran and Iraq attacked oil infrastructure and the US escorted the navy to protect shipments.
