Strategically important islands

[sholio]

I have this vague plot idea that involves a strategically important island intermediate between two bigger land masses that are experiencing escalating tensions. (It could also be a small country between two bigger countries, but I'd rather have it be an island for various reasons of plot and also because I want to have my own island, damn it.)

This is going to sound completely ridiculous because the project is still so unformed that I have total carte blanche to do whatever I want with the geography, but I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for why this little island, or country, would be important enough that it would be pivotal and have large nations fighting over control of it. I'm thinking I'd rather have it be something to do with location rather than ancestral land claims or a particular resource that's on the island (the story involves politics and spies and stuff like that) -- but I'm drawing a blank on good ideas for how to set up the geography so that it works out that way, or, for that matter, real-world examples to use as a model. Most of the ones I can come up with are ports occupying a bottleneck point, like Istanbul or various river-mouth port cities. I can't think of anything to do with strategically important, oft-fought-over islands. Cyprus as about the closest thing I can come up with to something vaguely similar to what I'm thinking of, although as I understand it, that's more of a land-claim issue and less of a strategic-location issue (not that I am well educated on Cyprus).

Do any of my history- or geography-minded flistees have any thoughts on this? Suggestions for historical examples I might look at? I'm sure I'm being stupid and overlooking all sorts of real-world examples, since people fighting over islands is NOT A RARE THING, but I'm blanking on ones that are similar to what I want to write. Maybe it's just that I'm defining my terms too narrowly.

Comments

[leonie_alastair]

France and Italy fought over Corsica. Malta was used by a variety of kingdoms and countries as a bulwark against the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean. Cuba has been a bone of contention between the USA and Spain and then USA and the USSR. And the Brits fought Argentina over the Falklands (though I don't think that fits your examples).

[sholio]

Thank you!!! I'll go look up the particulars. I don't know why I've been having trouble coming up with examples, but basically, yeah, this is exactly what I wanted to look at -- the actual locations of strategically fought over islands relative to nations, resources, etc.

[leonie_alastair]

An example based on the both strategic location and resources is the pacific theater of the 2nd world war. Island 1 (Japan) was low in resources so it bombed Island 2 (Hawaii) because of it's strategic location between Island I and Island 3 (Indonesia), which had oil that Island I needed. This grossly simplifies WWII/Pacific but it isn't incorrect.

[sholio]

Thank you! I'll check this out too.

[malnpudl]

Is this on Earth, or a fictional world? Technology level? Do they have air travel or are they dependent on marine shipping/warfare? Need for refueling stops?

[sholio]

It's a fictional world with totally made-up geography. The technology is still kind of up in the air, but I was thinking about making it approximately mid-20th century -- so yes, air travel would be a possibility, potentially, and the idea of a refueling stop is a good one! I had originally wanted the island not to be that isolated, for the sake of plotting simplicity (because having them a short hop from the mainland is a lot less logistically difficult than having them way out in the middle of nowhere) but some of the discussion on the LJ side is making me think that having them isolated would open up other plot possibilities. So yeah, a refueling stop might work well ...

[muccamukk]

(Butting in)

At that tech level, it might do you so good to look at the US/Japanese theatre in World War II. Lots of fighting back and forth over islands there.

[sholio]

Good point, thank you!!

[malnpudl]

Ah, okay. That takes the various Channel Islands between England and France et al out of the picture (as a potentially useful example). Others have already steered you toward WW2 and the Pacific islands, so I'm pretty much tapped out. Best of luck!

[sholio]

Thank you! :) And the mid-20th century tech level is not written in stone, either. Right now I have some character stuff in mind, but a lot of the worldbuilding is still being built around that -- I had actually started off with the idea of the story taking place on a UK + Channel Islands geographical scale rather than a Pacific Ocean scale, so it might go back the other way depending on how things develop.

[malkingrey]

What's the tech level? If your two big countries still have coal-powered navies, then they'll need coaling stations to refuel them. If your strategic island is at a location relative to the two big countries such that a fleet from one of them would need to refuel at about that point in order to reach the other, then you've got a reason for both Big Country A and Big Country B to want control of it.

[sholio]

The technology level is still undecided at this point, though I was thinking mid-20th century, so airplane refueling would be an issue. I didn't actually know that coal-powered ships needed to take on fuel during a trip, though obviously it makes a lot of sense that they would.

Basically I think it's going to make my plot WAY simpler if I make the island more isolated than I was originally thinking -- a refueling stop in the middle of the ocean is easier to justify than an island right off the coast of somewhere (and opens up some new plot possibilities as well).

[anotherslashfan]

I immediately thought of the Senkaku islands/ Diaoyu dao dispute. This might not fit the bill, but maybe it helps?

[mackiedockie]

The Aleutian Islands before and during WWII? They were contested between Japan, Russia and the US as tensions escalated. Kiska, Attu, Unalaska. Or…how about Iceland?

[mecurtin]

Even today, an enormous proportion of world trade travels by ocean: it's pretty much the only way to move bulky stuff (e.g. oil) between continents. Gibraltar, the Panama Canal and the Straits of Malacca are still critically important, and any island that's at such a "choke point" will be well worth fighting over.

eta: and will be worth fighting over for centuries, it's not very technology-sensitive.