Mesopotamia: All About The Oil

In 1901 William Knox D'Arcy, a wealthy Englishman, went into the Iranian desert in search of oil. He finally discovered oil in 1908 and, one year later, founded the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The company found itself in need of financing and, just before WWI, it found a backer in Winston Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty. The British government acquired controlling interest in the company and guaranteed itself a secure supply of oil.

In 1914 British and German oil companies went into partnership with the Turkish Petroleum Company which owned the oil rights to all of Mesopotamia (Iraq, Eastern Syria, Southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran). The industrial powers of Europe, fast becoming dependent on oil for growth and lacking domestic supplies, soon took absolute control over the Middle-Eastern oil fields. When WWI broke out the Anglo-German partnership was ended and the German-allied Ottoman empire found it's territories open to British attack. As the war was coming to a close, and Britain looked to it's future, the supply of oil became crucial. Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary to the War Cabinet wrote to Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour that, " Control of these oil supplies becomes a first class war aim". Shortly afterwards the British forces entered Baghdad.

When the war ended, and after heated negotiations, Britain divided the Middle-Eastern oil fields with the French, with the British keeping the lions share. Not long after, around 1920, the Americans demanded that they be let in on the deal. After threatening sanctions against the British and the French, and making much noise about "old fashioned imperialism", the Americans were allowed to share in the spoils.

In 1928 large oil fields were discovered in northern Iraq. The Americans were allowed to share in the booty. In July, 1928,the Red Line Agreement was signed which gave the American oil companies a 25% share of the business. A cartel was born. The people of Iraq, nor any other territory involved, were not consulted, nor did they gain anything from these deals.

In 1935 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company changed it's name to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Later, in 1951, the Iranian government, under the newly elected Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mossagedh, threatened to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The British, after convincing President Eisenhower that Mossadegh was a communist sympathizer, invited the USA to help them sort the matter out covertly. By 1953 the coup was accomplished and the democratically elected government was out and the newly established absolute monarchy of the Shah was in place and the USA had greatly increased it's share of the spoils.

The Secret Government (CIA overthrow of Mossadegh)
First Aired in 1987



By this time the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company had changed it's name yet again to British Petroleum Company: BP, whose advertising slogan is "Beyond Petroleum"