The Causes Of The Persian Gulf War

7 Pages 1762 Words

is necessary to look at some of
the historical factors. The discovery of oil by the the Anglo-Persian Oil Company
(APOC; later renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and still later British Petroleum) in
Iran in 1908 stimulated a great interest in potential Iraqi oil resources. Financial groups
from several major nations engaged in protracted negotiations with the Ottoman Empire
(present-day Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, and Turkey) in order to obtain concessions to explore for
oil in Mosul and in Kirkuk, two locations in what later was north-central Iraq. Although a
few concessions were granted prior to World War I (1914-1918), little surveying or
exploration was actually done. In 1912, several rival groups banded together to
establish the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC), which would also seek a concession
to explore for Iraqi oil and would attempt to eliminate rivalry among the partners (Phyllis
and Moushabeck 49).
Establishment of the TPC did not, however, eliminate the rivalry among the
shareholders representing various national interests, such as those of Great Britain.
After World War I, Iraq became a British mandate in 1920 yet that did not guarantee the
TPC an exclusive concession. After lengthy negotiations, a concession was finally
granted in 1925. In fact, numerous amounts of oil were discovered and because of the
continuous negotiations with the Iraqi government, the TPC was renamed the Iraqi
Petroleum Company (IPC) in 1929. This resulted in complete...