We are in a time when the 1973 oil crisis is being compared to the oil crisis we are experiencing today. Indeed, can the 1973 oil crisis be evaluated in the same way as the current rise in oil prices caused by the closure of the Persian Gulf and the resulting insecurity due to the US and Israeli attacks on Iran?
Before 1973, a system of economic and energy policies existed in the world. The Bretton Woods System, which entered our lives after the Second World War, and the oil-based development process of Western industries became the main driving force of the world. During the most intense period of the Arab-Israeli wars, the Yom Kippur War brought the Middle East and the entire world into conflict. Arab countries launched an offensive to reclaim previously lost territories from Israel, and subsequently, with the intervention of the US and Western countries, Israel gained even more territory than when the war began. This Western intervention naturally angered the Arab countries that were on one side of the war. OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, established before the war, used oil as a weapon against the West for the first and perhaps the last time in history, under the leadership of Arab countries. This move drove oil prices to unexpected levels within a year. Frankly, the world economy came to a complete standstill.
Not only industry but also people couldn't even find gasoline for their cars. This period taught the West and America important lessons in the short, medium, and long term. While countries like Japan and the UK backed down, condemning Israel and even imposing arms embargoes, the United States did not withdraw its support for Israel. As the crisis progressed, the Western world passed on the cost of oil to its manufactured goods, causing significant inflation globally. Arab countries, needing to purchase Western-produced technology, weapons, and other industrial materials, began paying exorbitant prices to Western countries for the oil they earned to meet their needs. Considering that the world economy revolves around Western-centric banks and that the money earned by Arab countries from oil is invested in Western banks, the West has indirectly found a way to finance itself. By shifting the cost of oil to those who increased its price, the process was shortened, and at some point, the crisis was brought to an end. The biggest losers in this crisis were small and medium-sized countries that neither produced oil nor had strong industries. Many Muslim African countries suffered significant losses during this period.
After the 1973 crisis, the Western world completely changed its perspective on energy and oil. Oil and other energy sources ceased to be merely economic elements and became weapons in the eyes of the West. First, investments were made in energy resources, aiming for self-sufficiency. Then, using technology, the process of Western countries with oil reserves to uncover them accelerated. But perhaps most importantly, new political approaches were developed to establish dominance over the countries in the Middle East that resisted this crisis over the years. The Bretton Woods system, which had economically guided the world after World War II, collapsed. And we were faced with a completely different economic system that brought us to this day. Considering all this, the 1973 crisis was not just an economic or energy-related crisis, but began to turn the world towards a system that fundamentally changed world politics, Middle Eastern policies, and the global economy.
