On Contest For Oil Hegemony In Middle East Between The United States And Britain

Since the birth of oil industry, in the battle contesting for oil in the world, the developed countries have always been occupying the absolute predominance. The contesting for oil hegemony in the Middle East between the United States and Britain is more prominent and the international relations in that area have become increasingly complicated.Because oil plays a vital role in economy and military affairs, the major capitalist countries such as the United States and Britain began to regard oil resources as a priority of their foreign policy in order to achieve their strategic objectives. Before the First World War, the British oil companies dominated the world. At the end of World War I, British petroleum companies brought almost all the oil-producing regions in Iran and Egypt and part of the Latin American and Asian countries under their control. The U.S. economic and military strengths were weaker than those of the United Kingdom at that time, so it could not compete with Britain for oil. After the war, the economic and military strength of the United States that had made a big profit during the war increased greatly and the UK had been weakened. The imbalance of political and economic development between the United States and Britain led to their fierce competition for colony, sources of raw materials and commodities markets. The competition for petroleum between Britain and the United States took place firstly in the Middle East area. At the end of the 1920s, American oil companies controlled nearly a quarter of the Iraqi oil company shares, which was a key step being started to enter the Middle East area. In the 1930s, the United States controlled successively the archipelago of Bahrain and most of Saudi Arabia and part of the oil-producing regions in Kuwait and Egypt. Before the outbreak of World War II, the United States had taken control of more than 10% of all oil reserves in the Middle East and gained a considerable share of refining capacity and moved into the traditional British market in the Middle East region. After World War II, the strength of the United States was further enhanced and became the most powerful country in the world. At the end of the war, the oil monopoly capital of the United States controlled 42% of the quantity of oil exploitation of the capitalist world, which matched that of Britain. After the end of World War II, the United States, relying on its strong economic and military strength, launched a more fierce contention with Britain. In the Middle East region, by taking advantage of the opportunity that British economy was suffering severe weakness in World War II, the government of U.S. proposed the "Truman Doctrine" and "Point Four" providing substantial military and economic aid to the countries in the Middle East, especially through the Suez Canal incident in 1956, and basically drove the traditional impact out of Middle East. Thus, the United States, having replaced Britain, had taken the position of oil hegemony in the Middle East.The paper is divided into seven parts. Introduction analyzes and discusses the historical background of the contention for oil in the Middle East between U.S. and Britain, the present situation of research, the writing significance and the research methods of this thesis. Chapter One analyzes the early conflict of plundering petroleum between the two countries in Mideast. Chapter Two focuses on the American Oil Company'going into Mideast by force between two world wars. Chapter Three describes American Oil Company'further penetrating into Middle East during the Second World War. Chapter Four investigates how U.S. substituted for Britain and held the status of petroleum hegemony in the Middle East after World War. The subject of Chapter Five is about what harm and influence that the contending for oil between U.S. and Britain brought to the Middle East countries. Conclusion offers a comprehensive discussion about the United States'victory in the contention for petroleum hegemony,its function as a powerful nation in the world as well as the significance of studying this question to the energy decision-making of all the countries nowadays, and points out the significance of the further study of this question.This paper systematically explores and studies the fierce rivalry of the oil interests in the Middle East between the United States and Britain before the 1960s. By using the method of combining historical materialism with international relation theory and the correlating knowledge of history and by using a lot of convincing information on how thoroughly the United States, relying on its strength, gradually replaced Britain and held the position of oil hegemony in the Middle East. From this historical perspective, the paper displays how oil played an important role in the foreign affairs between powerful countries and further reveals the realistic essence of national interests in the international relations. The systematic research on the contention for oil interests in the Middle East between the United States and Britain, the governments'decisions and their diplomatic activities, and the energy game that is increasingly becoming intense today, is advantageous to correctly understanding the energy policy, diplomacy and the trend of contending for foreign oil of the big powers like U.S. It is also significant to our making correct petroleum strategy and sustainable strategy for our economic development.