Answer:
Britain secured access during World War I and beyond by buying a majority of stake in The Middle East.
Explanation:
During World War I (1914-18), strategists perceived oil as a military asset because of the use of oil-powered vehicles such as trucks, tanks, ships and even military airplanes. They also saw that the use of oil would rapidly grow in the civil economy, making it a vital element. As a matter of fact, John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil Company, was the world's richest person already. The British government, controlled the oil in Persia (now Iran) through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company but wanted still more reserves to assure their future needs. The Ottoman Empire called Mesopotamia (now Iraq), appeared especially promising regarding that matter and as war continued, oil seemed ever more important and shortages ever more menacing to the imperial planners. Britain came to the point not to care under what system was the oil kept, but it was all-important for them that oil should be available. At the end of the war France and Britain could not end the dispute over Iraq's oil and the United States government and US oil companies wanted their share. Relations between the three countries were uneasy and finally the US and Britain signed the "Red Line Agreement," which brought the US consortium into the picture with just under a quarter of the shares and an agreement to jointly develop fields in many other Middle East countries.
