Fertiliser: The forgotten history linking the agricultural commodity and empire in wartime

Fertilisers are not just an agricultural input: they are a strategic resource hidden at the centre of geopolitical conflict. The US and Israel’s war on Iran and the related disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz are sending shockwaves through the global farming system. A large share of the world’s traded chemical fertilisers normally passed through this strategic chokepoint, alongside key feedstocks needed to produce fertilisers elsewhere, such as gas, ammonia and sulphur. The rise in fertiliser prices will push up food costs across the globe. This may seem like a recent vulnerability. In reality, fertilisers have been entangled with war and imperialism for more than a century. As shown by my recent research, fertilisers were one of the factors contributing to shape colonial expansion, economic policy and even military strategy in the first half of the 20th Century.