How Portugal, the Dutch and the British Fought Over Hormuz and Bab el‑Mandeb — and Why Control Slipped Away

Bab el‑Mandeb are narrow waterways that connect the Arabian Sea and Red Sea to the wider Indian Ocean. Control of these choke points has mattered for centuries because they sit astride major maritime trade routes.

Early extra‑regional presence: Ming China

In the early 1400s, Ming China dispatched large fleets under the Muslim admiral Zheng He. His expeditions reached Hormuz and Aden and passed through Bab el‑Mandeb into the Red Sea. Those voyages established a strong trading presence through demonstrations of naval power, diplomatic gifts, and commercial ties rather than formal colonies.

The Ming state stopped the voyages in the 1430s when priorities shifted and it declined to sustain the naval program. The expeditions therefore show both the reach and the limits of projecting maritime influence across long distances.

Portuguese coercion and the cartaz system

Europe's entry changed the dynamic. Portugal adopted oceangoing warships fitted with heavy cannons and used them to try to dominate maritime trade. In 1513 Afonso de Albuquerque attacked Aden but failed to capture the fortified city. He succeeded in 1515 by taking the town of Hormuz and imposing the cartaz system — a paid permit that regulated merchant shipping through the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

The cartaz is a concrete example of how naval power translated into commercial control: by forcing merchants to buy passage rights, the Portuguese monetized control of the sea lanes. Physical traces remain: ruins of a 16th‑century Portuguese fort still stand on Hormuz Island.

Resistance and the limits of naval rule

Dutch and British commercial strategies

After Portugal's ouster, competition widened. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) entered the region in 1614 and established itself at Mokha in Yemen. The VOC obtained commercial privileges in 1623 and competed with British traders in Bandar Abbas opposite Hormuz.

The Dutch showed how trade policy and agricultural transfer could reshape commercial power. By smuggling Arabica coffee plants to Java and cultivating them at scale, the VOC broke Yemen's coffee monopoly without needing permanent military control over Mokha.

el‑Mandeb clarifies why control over these straits remains contested today. Military actions can create temporary leverage over trade, but sustaining that leverage depends on logistics, political alignment with local rulers, and economic strategies that go beyond guns and ships.