Global Maritime Routes with World Map

Sea Routes across the oceans on a map from the World Factbook, CIA, February 2025 (click on the map to enlarge). Robinson projection, standard parallels 38°N and 38°S. Names and border representations are not necessarily official. The sea lanes shown are paths navigated by ships across the oceans, connecting different ports for the transport of cargo and passengers. They are essential to global trade, moving approximately 80% of all goods traded internationally. An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles (370 km) is a maritime area where a coastal state has sovereign rights to exploit natural resources, both on the seabed and in the water column and its subsoil.

Major maritime chokepoints are narrow, strategically vital waterways that significantly impact global trade, facilitating or restricting the movement of goods and resources. Disruptions at these chokepoints, whether due to geopolitical tensions, accidents, or natural disasters, can have severe economic consequences, impacting everything from transportation costs to the availability of goods. These chokepoints include the Strait of Malacca, the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, the English Channel and others.

The historic Port of Salvador, in Brazil's first capital. Brazil's first shipbuilding industry was founded in All Saints Bay in the 16th century. In the 18th century, Bahia's port was the busiest in the Southern Hemisphere, when Salvador was the second most important city in the Lusitanian Empire, after Lisbon. Salvador remained Brazil's largest port until around 1870.

Major historical trade routes, Portuguese (in blue) and Spanish (white) in the 16th century. In the first half of the 16th century, Portugal became the world's greatest trading power, but was overtaken by Spain in the final decades of the same century. Portugal had trading posts along the entire east and west coast of Africa. The Portuguese defeated the Arabs in the Indian Ocean trade in the early 16th century and dominated trade in the East for most of that century. At the time, the Portuguese also dominated the Persian Gulf.