Chapter 23 oil in world war one

From the beginning of the war in 1914 to its end in 1918, oil played a universally recognized key role in the revolution in military strategy.In the age of aerial combat, mobile tank warfare, and rapid naval warfare, a safe and plentiful supply of new fuel is increasingly a matter of success or failure. Under the foreign policy direction of Sir Edward Gray, in the first few months of August 1914, Britain was suddenly plunged into what was considered the bloodiest and most destructive war in modern history.According to official statistics, the number of people who died directly or indirectly due to the war reached between 16 million and 20 million, most of whom (more than 10 million) were civilians.In this four-year-long "war enough to end all wars", the British Empire itself had 500,000 direct deaths in the war, with 2.5 million casualties.

But what is rarely talked about is the UK's strategic goals in geopolitics.Not just to beat Germany, its greatest rival in industrial competition, but to gain absolute control of valuable resources by winning the war.By 1919, this precious resource had proven to be a strategic raw material for future economic development, that is, oil.This is part of the "Great Game" - creating a worldwide new British Empire whose hegemony will remain unchallenged in the first half of the 20th century, a new world order led by Britain. A study of the major theaters of World War I from 1914 to 1918 shows that securing oil supplies has become central to military planning.Throughout the war, oil opened the door to the incredible mobility of modern warfare.Under the leadership of Marshal von Mackensen, the main consideration of Germany's expedition to Romania was to reorganize the oil refining, production and pipeline enterprises that had previously belonged to Britain, the Netherlands, France and Romania into a large conglomerate.During the war, the only country that could guarantee oil supplies for the Luftwaffe, Tank Corps, and U-Fleet was Romania.Britain's battle in the Dardanelles was to ensure that Russia's Baku oil could be supplied to Britain and France for war. The campaign suffered a disastrous defeat in Gallipoli.The Ottoman emperor issued an embargo, and it was difficult for Russian oil to be shipped out through the Dardanelles.

As of 1918, Russia's oil-rich region of Baku on the Caspian Sea had been part of Germany's military and political objectives, as well as that of Britain.The British preemptively occupied the area for a crucial few weeks in August 1918, cutting off critical oil supplies to the German General Staff.The oil cutoff in Baku was a fatal blow to Germany, and it surrendered a few weeks later.Only a few months earlier, Germany seemed to have defeated the Entente.This certainly demonstrates the centrality of oil to geopolitics. At the end of the First World War, oil, a new fuel, was of great importance to all major powers in view of its important strategic role in future military and economic security.By the end of the war, 40% of the British naval fleet was fueled by petroleum.When the war began in 1914, the French army had only 110 trucks, 60 tractors and 132 aircraft.By 1918, four years later, that had grown to 70,000 trucks and 12,000 planes.During the same period, British equipment for the war included 105,000 trucks and more than 4,000 aircraft, a figure that included American inputs in the final months of the war.Britain, France, and the United States consumed an unimaginable 12,000 barrels of oil per day in their final Western Front offensive.

By December 1917, France's oil supply was so low that General Foch urged Prime Minister Clementio to make an urgent request to President Woodrow Wilson, "If oil is not supplied in time, our army will immediately be paralyzed , which will force us to make peace on conditions unfavorable to the Entente," Clementio wrote to Wilson: the security of the Entente was at stake.If the Allied Powers do not want to lose the war, then when Germany attacks, France must not be short of oil. In tomorrow's war, oil is as important as blood. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Group complied with Clementio's request, and they prepared life-saving oil for Marshall Foch's army.Due to insufficient oil supplies from Romania and the distance from Baku, the German army was unable to organize a final offensive in 1918 (although the "Russian Debrest-Letovsk Agreement" had stopped hostilities), Because the trucks needed to transport enough oil reserves are not guaranteed fuel.

Sir Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, commented quite accurately: The Allied Powers were brought to victory by the torrent of oil... At the beginning of the war, oil and petroleum products began to be listed as the main items necessary for the Allied Forces. Oil wins wars.Without oil, how can the mobility of the fleet, the transportation of troops, and the production of various explosives be guaranteed? On November 21, 1918, the moment of victory finally came.At a celebratory dinner ten days after the armistice was signed, French Senator Henri Berenger, then director of the war oil committee, said that oil was "the blood of victory, that Germany exaggerated her superiority in steel and coal, while Not enough attention is paid to our strength in oil."

Given the growing role of oil in warfare, we should continue to pay particular attention to British objectives along the lines of postwar Versailles reorganization. Through the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, Britain established the League of Nations (referred to as the "League of Nations", the predecessor of the United Nations), which became a fig leaf for it to seek international legitimacy for its naked territorial occupation.For the financial institutions of the City of London, in order to dominate the future development of the world economy, it is necessary to control the raw material market, especially new oil resources. The lives of thousands of British people seem to be a small price to pay for this purpose.