Arab Oil Boom

ARAB OIL BOOM

The Arab oil boom took place after the 1967 war. The 1973 oil crisis began on October 17, 1973, when Arab members of the OPEC, during the Yom Kippur War, announced that they would no longer ship petroleum to nations that had supported Israel. This included the United States and its allies in Western Europe. At around this same time, the OPEC members agreed to use their leverage over the world price-setting mechanism for oil in order to quadruple world oil prices. The dependence on oil which was produced mostly by Middle Eastern countries became clear to the US, Western Europe and Japan. It was after the Six Day War of 1967 that the Arab members of OPEC formed a separate, overlapping group which was called the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries. They did this for the sole purpose of centering policy and exerting pressure on the West over grouping to help make its objectives clear.

One of the main reasons that the Arab oil boom took place was to bring attention to Israel and to show other countries, especially the US, Western Europe and Japan that they had a way to take control. This feeling of control brought about a sense of nationalism between the Palestinians and it was this nationalism that arose as an independent force in the Middle East. This made their futures seem more hopeful. Many wars fallowed such as the Lebanese Civil War of 1975, Iranian revolution of 1979, and Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. This oil embargo was just the start of what seemed and has come to be many, many years of war and blood shed over a homeland that two group of people claim as their own.

Sources: www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/1/19/1973_oil_crisis.htm

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