ABSTRACT
When the British looked at the map of the Middle East, they saw eight strategically valuable stretches of water that cut the region in pieces and gave them, they imagined, the capability to control developments there long before the opening in 1869 of the Suez Canal. Britain used its sea power to anticipate both direct and indirect challenges along the five routes across the Middle East it chose for its rivals. Britain assigned to inland sea power the geopolitical task of supplying the means for an offensive, by turning the Middle East into a springboard from which Britain could jump from the wider world into the Heartland. Goods, especially cotton goods with liberal British values built into them, were asked to earn political as well as commercial returns: to transform the habits, loyalties and focus of attention of Middle Eastern notables by acting sometimes as a magnet, sometimes as leaven.
