This is the North Sea in the North East of the Atlantic Ocean. Britain Norway Denmark Nether Aidugu has made Europe the richest country in the world.Today’s blog we will see how the North Sea became the lifeline of Europe and what will happen in the coming days. This is going to make it even more important.
It is said that whoever controls the seas rules the world. The North Sea, spread over 570,000 square km, is its biggest example. This sea has been the battle ground of European powers for thousands of years, where But innumerable wars were fought. These wars started in 43 AD when the Roman Empire attacked Britain through ships and captured it and then built ports here for the first time, after which trade started between Britain and Central Europe.
This was the first time. This was the moment when the world and especially the European umpires realized that whoever wanted to rule Europe would have to take control of the North Sea. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the eighth century, the control of the North Sea went to the Vikings present in the Scandinavian countries.
These people, who used to attack and plunder Northern and Central European countries through small boats, had such an advantage over small ships that through them they could even enter the rivers of Europe and from there reach Central Europe and the whole of Europe. He was fed up with them and in response to their looting, some Tajirs present in Germany together formed an organization named ‘ This idea will save us from the looting of Ensitite’.
Gradually, this idea started becoming so popular that businessmen from the rest of Europe also joined this organization. They started building large navy ships and trade posts to protect themselves from the attacks of the Vikings. By the 15th century, the influence of the League of Hansia was so great that they had control over the North Sea, from the top of Estonia to the bottom of the UK and France.
Now it was safe for trade, tremendous ports had been built and Europe had no competition in the whole world in navy. This was the time when the Europeans thought that resources and new continents should be discovered through this navy for this very purpose.
Therefore, European countries sent their explorers from here to the seas of the rest of the world and as a result, America, Africa, India, East Asia and Australia were discovered and from here onwards, through this sea and navy, the British Empire ruled the entire world. The North Sea once again came into the spotlight during the World Wars when the Allies blocked Germany’s supply lines and cut the supply lines of Germany and changed the outcome of both World Wars.
Because of this North Sea, Germany attacked Britain in the World War. Could not capture it even though Hitler was literally unstoppable at that time. After the end of the World War, all the weapons and ammunition were dumped in this North Sea. According to many researchers, even today there are about 1.5 million tons in the bottom of the North Sea.
There is ammunition present here which has been lying under the sea for the last 70 years, but under the North Sea, there was not only ammunition but much more which was going to make Europe a hub of trade communication and economic development before World War 2. The North Sea was an important military strategic component, but after World War 2, all these European countries fighting among themselves came together and became members of NATO.
Every country sharing coastline with the North Sea was given an exclusive economic zone, which According to this, the respective country will have the right on the resources and trade activity coming out within this zone. Now the period of industrialization had come, as industries were coming up, consumer demand was also increasing and along with it the demand for automobiles was also increasing.
And the energy source on which all this activity was being done was oil. At that time in Europe, only a little oil was being produced in the UK and some parts of Germany, but that was not enough to sustain this increasing economic activity. This was insufficient and hence the whole of Western Europe was highly dependent on the Middle East for its energy requirements.
But then something happened that was going to change the entire situation. In 1969, huge natural gas reserves were discovered near Groninger in the Netherlands. After this discovery, all the Northern European countries, especially UK and Norway, started exploring oil and gas in the North Sea very aggressively because these two countries had the largest economic resources in the North Sea.
A tremendous exploration campus was launched and extensive drilling was done. But despite 200 attempts, nothing came out, everyone was disappointed, but then in 1969, a company named Phipps Petroleum decided to make one last try and this time it tried right here at the corner of Norway’s EEG zone where the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark’s EEG is found, they started drilling there and luckily huge oil reserves were discovered here.
This discovery changed the fate of Norway. A poor country exporting fish and wood had now become the world’s largest oil producer. Within a short time, UK had also discovered oil and gas reserves here. After these discoveries, UK was fulfilling 90% of its oil requirement from this North Field and it had to import oil from outside only 10% of these oil reserves.
Because of this, today in comparison to other European countries, the UK is not dependent on any external country for its energy requirements and that is why even after the Russia-Ukraine War, it did not have to face the energy crisis as severe as Germany and other European countries. If we look at it in a nut shell, the North Sea serves as the back bone for the economy of these European countries, but extracting these resources from the North Sea is not an easy task because many storms occur here due to which the sea levels deteriorate. Attitudes are also often bad. In the last 60 years, many accidents have happened here and thousands of people have lost their lives. Often, due to the waves coming from the Atlantic Ocean, the waves in the North Sea become dangerously high. And it is very difficult for the ships passing through here. Similarly, the reserves of oil and gas in the North Sea are also depleting rapidly and it is possible that after a few years the dynamics of the North Sea may change completely.
Whatever happens in time, one thing is very clear that this North Sea has a big role in shaping today’s world map. It is said that the Mediterranean Sea defined the classical world map while the Atlantic Ocean created the modern world map and Now the Pacific Ocean is going to redefine the world map of the future because three big powers of the world are rapidly increasing their control over the Pacific, one is China, the second is Russia and the third is America.
This ocean is the future of our world and that is why World Super Powers are trying to take control of them very fast.
