Essential Questions: How did the presence of oil affect the Middle East and the world? Why did the revolution in Iran occur? What impact did Saddam Hussein have on the Middle East and the world?
I. Mideast Oil
A. During the early 1900�s, the manufacture of cars, ships, and aircraft increased
greatly
1. These vehicles relied on petroleum for fuel
2. The rulers of the Arab world sought to meet the demand for oil
a. Many of them would get rich on the oil profits
3. In 1960, Middle East and Latin-American created the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC)
a. OPEC worked to set and control oil production and prices
II. The Iranian Revolution
A. By 1971, Britain had withdrawn troops from the Persian Gulf region
1. Iran emerged as the Middle Eastern power
a. The U.S looked to the Shah of Iran (Mohammad Pahlavi) to
lead the nation
b. Islamic traditionalists opposed the Shah because of his ties
with the West and his brutal secret police
-Islamic leaders led by the Ayatollah Khomeini opposed
the Shah�s modernization efforts
-By 1978, discontent with the Shah�s rule led to riots
c. Eventually the Shah escaped to the U.S.
-In November 1979, Iranian militants kidnapped 60
American hostages, demanding that the Shah be returned
to stand trail
III. Iraq
A. In 1979, Saddam Hussein took control of the Iraqi government
1. When the Kurds, a minority group in northern Iraq, called for self rule,
he used chemical weapons against them
2. In August 1990, Saddam attacked neighboring Kuwait
a. World opinion was solidly against the invasion
3. Coalition forces, led by the U.S., launched an air attack and invasion on
Iraq called Desert Storm
4. To prevent Iraq from launching another war, stiff UN sanctions were
placed on them
a. The UN also ordered Iraq to stop producing weapons of mass destruction
-When UN inspectors arrived to see that Sadddam
complied, the Iraqi�s made it difficult