History Main / NavalBlockade

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E05WingsOfTheMaster Wings of the Master]]", the Empire has established a blockade around the planet Ibaar, whose people are being starved into submission. The Rebels attempt to [[RunningTheBlockade break through the blockade]] in order to deliver supplies to the starving people, but they fail in their first attempt and take heavy losses before finally retreating. Thankfully, the Rebels manage to get their hands on a new prototype B-wing class starfighter colloquially known as a "Blockade Buster". With the help of the B-wing and its [[ConvergingStreamWeapon main cannon]], the Rebels are able to smash the blockade by destroying one of the Imperial light cruisers, opening a gap for the ''Ghost'' to break through and deliver the supplies to the planet's surface.

* The US Navy implemented one during UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis, though [[InsistentTerminology it was termed a quarantine]] and limited to missile parts for political reasons like the fact that a blockade is legally an act of war. It was a compromise action between doing nothing (the missiles did little to upset the military balance but would have been catastrophic for American diplomacy) and something more drastic like sudden air strikes (a much more aggressive action which would have destabilized the situation much more than the Crisis did historically).

* One of the most effective large-scale blockades ever was during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, where this was a key part of the Union's strategy to defeat the Confederacy; the blockade strategy was part of the greater Union strategy that became known as the Anaconda Plan. At full effect, approximately 95% of pre-war traffic in Confederate ports was cut off. However, it was less effective in preventing the hundreds of thousands of war supplies slipped into Southern ports by blockade runners mainly out of Britain, and thus the war was extended by two years, killing an additional 400,000 Americans.

* One of the most effective large-scale blockades ever was during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, where this was a key part of the Union's strategy to defeat the Confederacy; the blockade strategy was part of the greater Union strategy that became known as the Anaconda Plan. At full effect, approximately 95% of pre-war traffic in Confederate ports was cut off. It didn't help the Confederates that many of the blockade runners that managed to slip past the US Navy were carrying luxury goods rather then war supplies, since the former were worth a lot more.

* In the first months of the UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} in 2022, UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} closed off access to the Black Sea so no Russian military ship would enter it. The Russian Black Sea fleet itself, after occupying most of Ukraine's coasts save for the South-Western one with Odesa, started blockading Odesa. Agreements were reached, with UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}'s mediation, in order to let grain shipments from Odesa cross the Black Sea and ensure grain supplies to many countries, though that hasn't stopped Russians from attacking Odesa's port facilities with ballistic missiles. The fleet has since reduced its blockade attempts due to the increased capacity of Ukrainians to strike them (such as Western-delivered Harpoon missiles).

* In the first months of the UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} in 2022, UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} closed off access to the Black Sea so no Russian military ship would enter it. The Russian Black Sea fleet itself, after occupying most of Ukraine's coasts save for the South-Western one with Odesa, started blockading Odesa. Agreements were reached, with UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}'s mediation, in order to let grain shipments from Odesa cross the Black Sea and ensure grain supplies to many countries, though that hasn't stopped Russians from attacking Odesa's port facilities.

** Lampshaded in ''Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies'': during Bolivar's revolution in Central America, an extremely daring rebel privateer uses one ship [[note]]which is, to be sure, a former British ship of war that he bought and converted into his private yacht[[/note]] and a forged proclamation to fool the Spanish into thinking the Royal Navy is blockading the Panamanian coast.

* The ''Literature/LostVoices'' novel ''The Twice Lost'' has an unusual example. [[spoiler:Hundreds of mermaids in the San Francisco Bay, working together with their voices, raise a wall of water hundreds of feet tall that touches the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge. This forces the government agents to stop shooting at them - if enough of them die, the tsunami will swamp San Francisco. The plan is not only to stop the killing of mermaids, but also to attract media attention and force the government to negotiate with them. As news spreads, other tribes of mermaids also renounce the murder of humans and form their own blockades in different harbors.]]

** Late in the fourth season, Earth Force ships have a blockade going around the colony of Proxima III. One ship participating in it ruthlessly destroys two passenger liners attmpting to escape, killing over ten thousand civilians, and [[BerserkButton provoking]] Sheridan into going on the offensive.

* ''Manga/GunkaNoBaltzer'': Holbeck deploys one on the Norden-Trade Duchy after it is invaded which leads to a war.

* ''Manga/GunkaNoBalzer'': Holbeck deploys one on the Norden-Trade Duchy after it is invaded which leads to a war.

* ''Fanfic/ThisBites'': The World Government blockades Saobody with naval and privateer ships in an attempt to stop any of the Supernovas (but especially the Straw Hats) from managing to get to Fishman Island and from there to the New World. Cross organizes a Dead End Race for the Supernovas and the other pirate crews on Skelter Bite at the time as a way to fight their way through the blockade, with the Thousand Sunny's [[WaveMotionGun Goan Cannon]] delivering the final punch needed.

* The Citadel Council tries this in ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''/''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover against the Terminus Systems (the source of an AlienInvasion), but it doesn't work. Also kind of inverted when the Council pulls the opposite of the trope, blocking everything ''in'' to try to keep an area safe as the war expands. Still doesn't work though.

* One of the most effective large-scale blockades ever was during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, where this was a key part of the Union's strategy to defeat the Confederacy; the blockade strategy came to be known as the Anaconda Plan. At full effect, approximately 95% of pre-war traffic in Confederate ports was cut off. It didn't help the Confederates that many of the blockade runners that managed to slip past the US Navy were carrying luxury goods rather then war supplies, since the former were worth a lot more.
* As noted above, was also employed to deal with Soviet ships bearing missiles to Cuba during the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis. It was a compromise action between doing nothing (the missiles did little to upset the military balance but would have been catastrophic for American diplomacy) and something more drastic like sudden air strikes (a much more aggressive action which would have destabilized the situation much more than the Crisis did historically).
* During the American Revolutionary War, the British forces under Cornwallis were holed up in the city of Yorktown. When a French fleet blockaded Yorktown and prevented the Royal Navy from re-supplying the British forces, the troops were forced to surrender.
* Britain and Germany did this to each other simultaneously during both UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII as a way to choke off trade. Britain's surface fleet was unparalleled, so Germany had to resort to submarines in order to try to isolate the British Isles. This was a major problem for Germany, as the only effective way they could use submarines as a blockade was to sink all ships suspected of carrying war material, which inevitably brought international condemnation and dragged neutral nations deeper into the war on the opposing.
** Also during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Italy and Britain blockaded each other in the Mediterranean Sea. Both blockades were ineffective at first: the British re-routed their merchant shipping around the Horn of Africa, while Italian merchant captains quickly figured out that the Royal Navy knew their usual routes. But over time, the larger British navy was able to whittle down the Italian navy and merchant marine, cutting off Axis supply lines into North Africa and giving their own ships relative freedom to operate in the Mediterranean again.
*** The British had better luck blockading Italian East Africa; they controlled both routes out of the Mediterranean, and Italy had no meaningful fleet (merchant or military) south of the Suez Canal.
** Toward the end of the Pacific War, the US blockaded Japan, dropping mines in their ports and vital routes and sinking cargo ships with submarines, which severely disrupted logistics and transport. It is said that had the campaign started earlier, the war would have ended much sooner.
* Napoleon tried to put this on the British with the Continental System, which was designed to starve Britain of the trade and resources needed for its burgeoning Industrial Revolution. While Britain did see a significant drop in exports, the Continent suffered at least as much; numerous smugglers evaded the ban (which Napoleonic France's land-based customs agents had a hard time policing), and some countries openly defied the blockade/embargo and traded with Britain. In particular, Russia continued its trade with the British; this brought about Napoleon's doomed invasion.
* French and British attempts at intercepting merchant ships carrying goods destined for (or coming from) each others' countries resulted in two wars with the United States, the Quasi-War in 1798 against France and the War of 1812 against Britain. The War of 1812 also included a British blockade of American ports, which basically shut down trade among the US states, and which devastated the country's (unusually trade-centric on account of its good access to the sea) economy since their merchant ships could no longer take to the sea. The US Navy was too weak to try to lift it, hence the lack of important naval battles during a three-year war involving two trade-oriented countries. The few times that American light-warships did manage to sneak past the blockade they were able to cause disproportionate damage to British merchant shipping, with USS ''Essex'' being probably the most successful example and USS ''Constitution'' being the most iconic.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Wonsan The Blockade of Wonsan]] in the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar, the successful denial of a strategic port to the North Korean navy.