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tnrkitectAs oil insinuated itself into every nook and cranny of industry, the rulers of the various nations began to take notice. As the profits flowed, so too did power. The oil of the world was controlled by only a handful of private companies, yet governments came to the opinion that oil was too important to be left alone, or to the whims of the market.
Oil, more so than any energy source before it, had become so central to the economies of the world that its value went far beyond mere economics. It became a political commodity, subject to the whims and needs of a nation’s perceived best interest. Access to oil became paramount for the nations vying for leadership in the world order.
This first became evident when in 1908 England made the bold move of converting its entire navy from coal to oil. Coal was still plentiful in the mountains of England, but it had nary a drop of oil within its borders. Yet the British determined that the advantage oil gave over the German fleet, girding itself for the first of two world wars, was worth it.
This switch made the British dependable upon a resource that they did not control. Supply lines now stretched beyond the English borders, into the sands of the Middle East. This need to maintain security over supply lines led to the English keeping a fleet in the Mediterranean. Their national security was now dependent upon access to foreign oil.
In the 8 years since Spindletop gushed the oil age into existence, oil had quickly supplanted coal as the energy choice of nations. The new rotary drill was quickly used all over the world in the search for new sources, guided by the nascent science of geology. Major finds occurred in the Middle East, Sumatra, Borneo, Venezuela, and Mexico.
The 19th century imperial expansion of the great powers continued to skirmish as they vied for control of these oil states. The Middle East was especially argued over though the skirmished were battles of words, not swords. The resultant divvying up of the lands resulted in national borders based maintaining and solidifying access to order irregardless of any natural or societal boundaries.
Of course, the machinations and agreements of a bunch of diplomats had no real meaning to the peoples whose fate was being determined. If anything, this collaboration between the industrialized governments and the new international oil companies to control the resources of these less advanced countries led to resentment and unrest, even out right political chaos.
In 1938, the U.S. established a political precedent towards appeasement of rouge oil nations against the advice of the industry leaders. Mexico’s government’s ire at the cronyism went so far as to expel Standard Oil, Shell and other smaller players from its oil fields, and nationalized their assets. Washington refused to intervene militarily in the matter, as the corporations pressed for, afraid that doing so would push Mexico into alliances unfavorable to its northern neighbor, and divert it’s oil to the “Axis of Evil” nations of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Oil became intertwined with diplomacy, as well as being linked to war as well. The modern, mechanized armies of the powers included airplanes, ships, tanks, trucks and so on, all dependent upon oil. Increasingly, nations went to war for oil. Germany and Japan both lack domestic oil reserves, yet their industrial and military might was increasingly dependent upon this black gold.
Germany needed access to the oil fields of the Middle East and Russia for victory. Japan needed to secure the Indonesian oil fields to fuel its Asian Empire. Germany launched a pre-emptive strike against the powers of Western Europe. Japan attempted to destroy the only major obstacle to its controlling the East Indies, the American Pacific fleet based out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
World War II was fought over oil. Yet even then, public attention was guided towards the atrocities the German and Japanese armies were committing. Yes, they were horrendous, but they were not the reason the war was being fought.
The U.S. entry into the war, sold to the public by Roosevelt as retribution against the Japanese attack on Pearl, proved to be the lynchpin upon which the outcome of the war hinged. The oil fields of Oklahoma and Texas turned the spigots wide open, and fed the forces of not just the U.S., but its British allies. Hitler’s attempt to secure the oil fields of southern Russia brought the Russian communist government into the battle on the Allies side. Capitalism and Communism, political opposites, were now unified to secure the oil.
Unfortunately for them, Germany’s lunge for the oil fields of Russia and the Middle East were stymied by the Russians (who fought using equipment ferried to them from U.S. factories) and the British in Egypt. Rommel’s legendary “Desert Rats” were rendered legless due to lack of fuel.
Japan fared little better. Their surprise attack did not immobilize the U.S. carriers, who formed the backbone of the new naval power. The Americans needed time to replace the ships they had lost, but wasted little time rolling back up the advances through the oil rich islands of Indonesia. By the time we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, the fuel tanks of the Japanese army and navy were dry.
The war proved the industrial might afforded by oil. It proved that oil fed militaries were essential. It proved that oil was a political issue. Oil became the lynchpin of postwar prosperity.
By 1960, worldwide consumption had risen to 21 million barrels from its 1945 level of 6 million barrels. The world oil markets were controlled by a handful of companies, mostly based in the U.S.
Oil became a geopolitical commodity, a status symbol. To be a world power required a nation to either have oil, or to buy it. World powers without oil, such as Britain, never fully recovered from the war. Previously second tier nations with oil, such as Venezuela, and most notably Russia and Saudi Arabia rose to prominence.
Yet the United States, with its huge oil fields in Texas and Oklahoma, and its lack of damage to the industrial infrastructure, ruled supreme. By 1955, the U.S. was using more than a third of all the energy produced in the world. By 1960, it was producing one third of the world’s oil, with a national output of 7 million barrels a day.
The U.S. used this power, and the industrial knowledge it gained from being the largest and most advanced commercial market in the world, to increase its influence politically. We became the policeman of the world, ostensibly protecting democracy and freedom, but we actually were extending our protection of oil, and denying it to the opposition. In Saudi Arabia, we protected the nation militarily, in exchange for drilling rights for U.S. companies.
Our economy continued to expand at a breakneck pace. Our per capita energy use was 6 times that of any other nation. We used more energy than anyone else to not only produce more goods and wealth, but also to increase our standard of living. We began to heat our homes, cool our offices and drive that nice shiny new car we parked in the driveway. From 1945 to 1955, the number of privately owned passenger cars in the U.S. went from 25 million to 48 million. Gasoline consumption doubled. Los Angeles became the crown city of the automotive age, being the site of the first freeway, and the epitome of the outlying suburb and bedroom community. It also gained a reputation for horrendous traffic jams and smog.
There was a dark lining to this energy prominence however. The surging economy soon outstripped the production ability of U.S. oil fields. America became a net importer of oil in 1946. We fueled the world through the two world wars, yet we were now dependent upon oil from abroad to heat our homes in winter. Politicians now understood implicitly the uncertainty and anxiety over oil that afflicted Japan, Europe and Britain. We were the greatest nation in the world, yet the lifeblood of our economy depended upon other nations of the world.
The worst fears of the oil corporations were realized. The strife and dissention that led to Mexico nationalizing its oil fields spread to other nations, aided by the knowledge that the Americans were too dependent upon the oil to intercede. Oil nations realized the power and profits to be had form oil, and, if the oil corporations were lucky, merely “renegotiated” their contracts to retain a larger cut of the wealth.
The supply from the Middle East was not free from worries either. The creation of Israel in 1948 enraged the Arab world, and began to turn the tide of opinion against the United States and any other nation that supported the new Jewish state. Iran nationalized its oil fields in 1951, setting off a domino effect amongst the nations of the region. By 1961, the Middle Eastern nations controlled their oil fields and their production now known to contain over half of the world’s oil, and joined together to create the first oil cartel.
At the urging of Venezuela, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known by its initials OPEC was created. Ancient tribal feuds were laid aside, and the frictions between sects were eased, lubricated by the wealth and prosperity oil provided. In a few scant years, the handful of giant oil corporations went from controlling the world’s oil to fighting over the remnants outside of OPEC control. The oil map suddenly paralleled the map of political instability, and the world quaked at the uncertainty.
Yet in truth, the political dangers were the least worrisome aspect.
Oil, more so than any energy source before it, had become so central to the economies of the world that its value went far beyond mere economics. It became a political commodity, subject to the whims and needs of a nation’s perceived best interest. Access to oil became paramount for the nations vying for leadership in the world order.
This first became evident when in 1908 England made the bold move of converting its entire navy from coal to oil. Coal was still plentiful in the mountains of England, but it had nary a drop of oil within its borders. Yet the British determined that the advantage oil gave over the German fleet, girding itself for the first of two world wars, was worth it.
This switch made the British dependable upon a resource that they did not control. Supply lines now stretched beyond the English borders, into the sands of the Middle East. This need to maintain security over supply lines led to the English keeping a fleet in the Mediterranean. Their national security was now dependent upon access to foreign oil.
In the 8 years since Spindletop gushed the oil age into existence, oil had quickly supplanted coal as the energy choice of nations. The new rotary drill was quickly used all over the world in the search for new sources, guided by the nascent science of geology. Major finds occurred in the Middle East, Sumatra, Borneo, Venezuela, and Mexico.
The 19th century imperial expansion of the great powers continued to skirmish as they vied for control of these oil states. The Middle East was especially argued over though the skirmished were battles of words, not swords. The resultant divvying up of the lands resulted in national borders based maintaining and solidifying access to order irregardless of any natural or societal boundaries.
Of course, the machinations and agreements of a bunch of diplomats had no real meaning to the peoples whose fate was being determined. If anything, this collaboration between the industrialized governments and the new international oil companies to control the resources of these less advanced countries led to resentment and unrest, even out right political chaos.
In 1938, the U.S. established a political precedent towards appeasement of rouge oil nations against the advice of the industry leaders. Mexico’s government’s ire at the cronyism went so far as to expel Standard Oil, Shell and other smaller players from its oil fields, and nationalized their assets. Washington refused to intervene militarily in the matter, as the corporations pressed for, afraid that doing so would push Mexico into alliances unfavorable to its northern neighbor, and divert it’s oil to the “Axis of Evil” nations of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Oil became intertwined with diplomacy, as well as being linked to war as well. The modern, mechanized armies of the powers included airplanes, ships, tanks, trucks and so on, all dependent upon oil. Increasingly, nations went to war for oil. Germany and Japan both lack domestic oil reserves, yet their industrial and military might was increasingly dependent upon this black gold.
Germany needed access to the oil fields of the Middle East and Russia for victory. Japan needed to secure the Indonesian oil fields to fuel its Asian Empire. Germany launched a pre-emptive strike against the powers of Western Europe. Japan attempted to destroy the only major obstacle to its controlling the East Indies, the American Pacific fleet based out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
World War II was fought over oil. Yet even then, public attention was guided towards the atrocities the German and Japanese armies were committing. Yes, they were horrendous, but they were not the reason the war was being fought.
The U.S. entry into the war, sold to the public by Roosevelt as retribution against the Japanese attack on Pearl, proved to be the lynchpin upon which the outcome of the war hinged. The oil fields of Oklahoma and Texas turned the spigots wide open, and fed the forces of not just the U.S., but its British allies. Hitler’s attempt to secure the oil fields of southern Russia brought the Russian communist government into the battle on the Allies side. Capitalism and Communism, political opposites, were now unified to secure the oil.
Unfortunately for them, Germany’s lunge for the oil fields of Russia and the Middle East were stymied by the Russians (who fought using equipment ferried to them from U.S. factories) and the British in Egypt. Rommel’s legendary “Desert Rats” were rendered legless due to lack of fuel.
Japan fared little better. Their surprise attack did not immobilize the U.S. carriers, who formed the backbone of the new naval power. The Americans needed time to replace the ships they had lost, but wasted little time rolling back up the advances through the oil rich islands of Indonesia. By the time we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, the fuel tanks of the Japanese army and navy were dry.
The war proved the industrial might afforded by oil. It proved that oil fed militaries were essential. It proved that oil was a political issue. Oil became the lynchpin of postwar prosperity.
By 1960, worldwide consumption had risen to 21 million barrels from its 1945 level of 6 million barrels. The world oil markets were controlled by a handful of companies, mostly based in the U.S.
Oil became a geopolitical commodity, a status symbol. To be a world power required a nation to either have oil, or to buy it. World powers without oil, such as Britain, never fully recovered from the war. Previously second tier nations with oil, such as Venezuela, and most notably Russia and Saudi Arabia rose to prominence.
Yet the United States, with its huge oil fields in Texas and Oklahoma, and its lack of damage to the industrial infrastructure, ruled supreme. By 1955, the U.S. was using more than a third of all the energy produced in the world. By 1960, it was producing one third of the world’s oil, with a national output of 7 million barrels a day.
The U.S. used this power, and the industrial knowledge it gained from being the largest and most advanced commercial market in the world, to increase its influence politically. We became the policeman of the world, ostensibly protecting democracy and freedom, but we actually were extending our protection of oil, and denying it to the opposition. In Saudi Arabia, we protected the nation militarily, in exchange for drilling rights for U.S. companies.
Our economy continued to expand at a breakneck pace. Our per capita energy use was 6 times that of any other nation. We used more energy than anyone else to not only produce more goods and wealth, but also to increase our standard of living. We began to heat our homes, cool our offices and drive that nice shiny new car we parked in the driveway. From 1945 to 1955, the number of privately owned passenger cars in the U.S. went from 25 million to 48 million. Gasoline consumption doubled. Los Angeles became the crown city of the automotive age, being the site of the first freeway, and the epitome of the outlying suburb and bedroom community. It also gained a reputation for horrendous traffic jams and smog.
There was a dark lining to this energy prominence however. The surging economy soon outstripped the production ability of U.S. oil fields. America became a net importer of oil in 1946. We fueled the world through the two world wars, yet we were now dependent upon oil from abroad to heat our homes in winter. Politicians now understood implicitly the uncertainty and anxiety over oil that afflicted Japan, Europe and Britain. We were the greatest nation in the world, yet the lifeblood of our economy depended upon other nations of the world.
The worst fears of the oil corporations were realized. The strife and dissention that led to Mexico nationalizing its oil fields spread to other nations, aided by the knowledge that the Americans were too dependent upon the oil to intercede. Oil nations realized the power and profits to be had form oil, and, if the oil corporations were lucky, merely “renegotiated” their contracts to retain a larger cut of the wealth.
The supply from the Middle East was not free from worries either. The creation of Israel in 1948 enraged the Arab world, and began to turn the tide of opinion against the United States and any other nation that supported the new Jewish state. Iran nationalized its oil fields in 1951, setting off a domino effect amongst the nations of the region. By 1961, the Middle Eastern nations controlled their oil fields and their production now known to contain over half of the world’s oil, and joined together to create the first oil cartel.
At the urging of Venezuela, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known by its initials OPEC was created. Ancient tribal feuds were laid aside, and the frictions between sects were eased, lubricated by the wealth and prosperity oil provided. In a few scant years, the handful of giant oil corporations went from controlling the world’s oil to fighting over the remnants outside of OPEC control. The oil map suddenly paralleled the map of political instability, and the world quaked at the uncertainty.
Yet in truth, the political dangers were the least worrisome aspect.
