chronology - springer 978-1-349-07579-9/1.pdf treaty of peace signed with germany at versailles....

Chronology

1859 Oil production in the USA commences

following the well drilled by Edwin Drake at Titusville , Pennsylvania.

Building of the Suez Canal commences.

1861 American CivilWar starts.

1862 Oil production commences in Canada.

1864 Schleswig-Holstein war starts.

1865 American Civil War ends.

1866 Austro-Prussian War.

1867 USA purchases Alaska from the Russians

for $7.2 million.

1868 Meiji restoration begins in Japan.

1869 Suez Canal formally opened.

1870 John D. Rockefeller and associates in-

corporate the Standard Oil Company in Ohio.

Franco-Prussian War starts .

1871 Franco-Prussian War ends. Trade Unions legalized in Great Britain.

1872 First oil concession granted in Persia .

1875 Great Britain purchases Khedive's shares

in Suez Canal.

1876 Bell invents the telephone.

1878 Edison and Swan produce the first success-

ful incandescent electric light bulb. First national oil company (Compafiia

Nacional Minera Petrolia del Tachira) formed in Venezuela.

1882 Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy)

formed . Cairo occupied by British troops . Standard Oil Trust created.

1884 France establishes complete protectorate

in Indo-China. Berlin Conference defines rights of

European powers in Africa. Parson invents his turbine.

1885 Crude oil production in Indonesia

commences from Toenggal Well in Northern Sumatra.

1886 Burma Oil , oldest British international oil

company , established as a joint stock company to conduct oil operations in India and Burma.

Daimler produces his first motor car. Canadian PacificRailway completed. Gold discovered in the Transvaal.

1888 Neutrality of Suez Canal declared .

221

222 Chronology

Oil concencession granted by Ottoman Empire to a group controlled by Deutsche Bank.

1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Law passed in the

USA. Royal Dutch Petroleum Company

formed.

1891 The United States of Brazil formed .

1893 Oil production commences in Peru.

1895 Kiel Canal opened. Marconi sends message over one mile by

wireless. Roentgen discovers X-rays.

1896 Gold discovered in the Klondike.

1897 Shell Transport and Trad ing Company

formed .

1898 Radium discovered by Marie and Pierre

Curie.

1899 Boer War starts .

1901 Trans-Siberian Railway opened. Lucas Gusher discovered at Spindletop ,

Texas - the 'first great well drilled by an engineer' .

D' Arcy awarded oil concession by Persian government.

1902 Boer War ends.

1903 First controlled flight in heavier-than-air

machine. First Exploration Company takes control

of the drilling programme in Persia.

1904 Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II transfers

Mesopotamian oil lands from state owner- ship to hisown privy purse .

Russo-Japanese War starts . Norway separates itself from Sweden.

1905 Concessions Syndicate Ltd formed taking

over the First Exploration Company's assets in Persia; its director is D' Arcy.

First Morocco crisis. San Francisco destroyed by earthquake

and fire. Simpleon Tunnel opened for rail traffic. Vitamins discovered by F.G. Hopkins .

1907 Anglo-Russian Convention recognizes

Persia's independence, but divides Persia between British and Russian spheres of in- fluence.

Gulf Oil Corporation formed to acquire the stock of two other US companies.

Royal Dutch and Shell Transport merge to create Royal Dutch Shell.

1908 Crude oil production commences in

Trinidad . Oil found in Masjid-i-Sulaiman, Persia.

1909 Phenol-formaldehyde resins discovered. Anglo-Persian Oil Company formed. Bleriot fliesacross the English Channe l.

1910 Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman

Empire; Sultan Abdul Hamid overthrown .

1911 Organization of African and Eastern Con-

cessions Ltd formed to get access to Mesopotamian oil.

Anti-Trust Decree declared by US Supreme Court breaks up the Standard Oil Trust.

Tripoli taken by Italy from Turkey. US gasoline sales exceed kerosine sales.

1912 African and Eastern Concessions Ltd

changes name to Turkish Petroleum Company.

Cushing oil-fielddiscovered in Oklahoma. Henry Ford uses assembly line techniques

to build the Model T.

1913 Anglo-Persian Oil Company commission

pipeline to Abadan Das and build a small refinery at Abadan on the Shatt-al-Arab.

Crude oil production commences in Brunei.

Depletion allowances introduced in the USA.

1914 British Foreign Office sponsor an agree-

ment with Turkish Petroleum Company fus- ing Deutsche Bank, Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company Ltd and Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

World War I starts. Panama Canal opened. Cellulose acetate used industrially. British government invests £2 million in

Anglo-Persian Oil Company and enters into long-term contract for supply of oil to Royal Navy.

1917 Crude oil production commences in

Ecuador and Venezuela. Bolshevik Revolution. Balfour Declaration.

1918 Great Britain gains effective control of 75

percent of Turkish Petroleum Company following expropriation of the Deutsche Bank's 25 percent holding, which was placed in the hands of a British trustee.

World War I ends .

1919 First drafts of Anglo-Persian agreement

make attempts to stabilize Persia's and Great Britain's 'alliance' and keep Russia out of Persia.

Gold parities for currencies abandoned. Einstein's theory of relativity confirmed

experimentally. J . Alcock and A .W. Brown fly across the

Atlantic Ocean. Treaty of peace signed with Germany at

Versailles .

1920 Petrofina Oil Company established in

Belgium. San Remo Conference discusses Middle

East oil and politics.

Chronology 223

National revolution in Iraq . First meeting of the League of Nations . Prohibition (of alcohol) in USA starts .

1921 Ratification of 1919 agreement in Iran

after Reza Khan coup d'etat. Oil production commences in Colombia. Anti-knock properties of tetraethyl lead

discovered. First Iraqi government formed .

1922 Exploration incentives given in Venezuela

by a new petroleum law.

1924 Lenin dies. Compagnie Francaise des Petroles estab-

lished, concluding an agreement with the French government which placed under its control the French international petroleum interests, including its interests in Turkish Petroleum Company.

Urea-formaldehyde resins discovered.

1925 Iraq Petroleum Company confirms claims

to Mesopotamian oil with new concession approved by Iraq's King Faisal.

Sheikh of Bahrain grants a two-year exploration licence to the Eastern and Gen- eral syndicate.

Great Britain creates Oil Fuel Board to keep the question of oil and tanker require- ments under constant review.

Great Britain returns sterling to pre- World War I parity.

1926 Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli (Agip)

created in Italy to look for oil. General Strike in Great Britain

1927 Second largest oil-field in Persia dis-

covered at Haft Kel. Shell obtains 23.75 percent interest in

Turkish Petroleum Company. Kirkuk oil-fielddiscovered in Iraq . Lindbergh flies solo across Atlantic

Ocean . Kingsford-Smith flies across Pacific

Ocean .

224 Chronology

1928 Standard Oil Company of New Jersey,

Anglo-Persian and Shell mastermind the Achnacarry Agreement.

Gach Saran oil-field discovered in Persia.

1929 Black Tuesday on Wall Street; US stock

market collapses .

1930 Smoot-Hawley Act raises tariffs which in-

vites foreign retaliations and triggers the Great Depression.

Socal obtains concession in Bahrain.

1931 France refuses to hold sterling as monetary

reserves ; Great Britain forced to break sterling-gold price link.

1932 King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud assumes the

title of King of Saudi Arabia. Iraq grants concession to the British Oil

Development Company Ltd later taken over by the Iraq Petroleum Company.

Iraq becomes independent. Persian government cancels concessions to

Anglo-Persian Oil Company. British government requests the League of

Nations to include the Persian cancellation on their agenda.

Crude oil production commences in Bahrain.

Franklin D . Roosevelt elected President of the USA (the 'New Deal') .

1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany. Roosevelt refuses to negotiate currency

stabilization or international tariff reduction at London Economic Conference.

New concession agreement signed between Persia and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

US Congress approves leaving the gold standard.

Socal signs a concession agreement in Saudi Arabia, and assigns it to its wholly owned subsidiary California Arabian Standard Oil Company.

Prohibition in the USA ends .

1934 Ruler of Kuwait grants a concession to

Kuwait Oil Company, approved by the

British government, covering the whole of Kuwait.

1935 Acrylic resins marketed. Persia changes its name to Iran. Connally Hot Oil Act enables the Texas

Railroad Commission to proration produc- tion.

1936 Crude oil production commences in Saudi

Arabia. Spanish CivilWar starts. Socal and Texaco begin cooperation when

Socal agree to buy one-half interest i