To this day, tensions with the Middle East and the United States haven't been on the best terms. In class, the most we have talked about it relation to the Middle East is the meetings between Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt which take place in Tehran, Iran. But in the readings, we get to understand a bit more about the importance of the Middle East to the United States.
Fighting a war against two different opponents (Nazi Germany and the Japanese), a lot of weapons, ammunition, men, and especially oil is needed. As for oil, the US intervention with the Middle East for the most important. In this collaboration with the Middle East, mainly Saudi regions, Roosevelt made a plan to put a plan to control and dominate oil in the Eastern part of the world. The Saudi King who had all the oil used Britain and the US against each other in that they made they bid for the oil. The Saudi King did this to make a higher profit even though they didn't wasn't the British whatsoever to control the Saudi oil since they used to be a part of Britain's imperialistic empire. In addition, the British were already making deals with Jordan and Iraq which were the Saudi rivals. In order to make sure their religion spread all over the middle East instead of their counterparts, the Saudi King made a deal with Roosevelt which gave the Americans huge control over the export of oil back to the US.
With the oil, the US has a very steady and high supply of oil which heavily contributed to their game plan in WWII. They not only were able to surround Japan and make life terrible for them with all of their vehicles, but they were also able to creep up on Germany thanks to all the oil they got from the Middle East. Without the Middle East and their oil, the Americans would have had to stop dead in their tracks while making their way to Germany. In the end, the deal Roosevelt made with the Saudi king was one that lasted for a very long time, and helped the Americans win the war.
Nice!! Well done ! Oil was indeed a key factor in the war and a major supply to power their machines. It is reasonable for the East to not have as well as a relationship with the US because they did cut off trade and stopped distributing oil to Japan. How do you think the outcome of WW2 would of turned out? DO you think that Japan could of turned against Germany because they wanted to keep their trade with America ? Or Betray America ?
ReplyDeleteI like this post because it ties back to modern foreign affairs and it's interesting to see that the middle east was used for oil not only back then but also now. Foreign nations making deals with middle eastern countries has been a thing for a while.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and relevant post! It's interesting how involved America has been in Middle Eastern relations as well as the motivations for this involvement. It'd be interesting to see how the relations between the Middle East and America would be different if the those countries did not control the oil industry.
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