<aside> ☝️ From this section, you must know…
There are three general physical features that are important to Southwest Asia and the world.
Before Thanksgiving Break, we already visited how oil is a key export for Southwest Asia…
Saudi Arabia alone produced 7.3 million barrels of oil every day. The vast majority of its GDP came from petrochemical exports. Of its $170 billion GDP, $79 billion (42%) came from the production and export of oil.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year
Saudi Arabia sits on several of the world’s SUPERGIANT oil fields. These are fields that have more than 5 billion barrels of oil. With so much oil in the country, most of its economic development came from oil.
Choke Points are defined as a strategic, narrow waterway between two larger bodies of water. These are also known as straits.
Two of the world’s most important straits are in west Asia. Located in Türkiye (also known as Turkey), the Dardanelles and the Bosporus Straits connect the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Together these are known as the Turkish Straits.
Their location as a crossing point between Europe and Asia has been historically important, including major battles between Russia and Turkey in 1877 and the Allies and the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Due to the Ottoman Empire’s strict control over these waterways, several international treaties have been made to govern the use of the waters.
The Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf with the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. The strait is only 21 to 60 miles wide throughout its length. Iran and Oman are the countries nearest to the Strait of Hormuz and share territorial rights over the waters. Due to its importance, Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz several times in recent history.
The strait has often been the site of conflict and there have been many threats by neighboring countries to close it. Much of the world’s oil passes through here, which is why Iran has threatened to close the strait several times.