Strategic barriers or closures that prevent people or goods from entering or leaving a place, usually during a conflict or protest.
From French 'blockade' (1688), combining 'bloc' (block) and the suffix '-ade' (similar to 'barricade'). The term emerged during naval warfare when ships would surround ports to cut off supply lines.
During the American Civil War, the Union's Anaconda Plan used a massive blockade to strangle Confederate ports—it was so effective that it became one of history's largest military blockades, strangling an entire economy.
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