Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OilandEmp (Crude Empire. British 'Oil Imperialism' and the making of the modern Middle East (c.1901-c.1935).)
Reporting period: 2019-04-01 to 2021-10-31
OilandEmp rethinks British involvement and imperialism in the early twentieth century Middle East. It places oil — its exploration, extraction, and the geopolitical implications of this — at the centre of analysis. This period witnessed a major energy transition, the shift from coal to oil, and the dawn of a new energy regime in the world. Oil products became increasingly essential for military-industrial transformation. Access to oilfields became imperative for European imperial states and this desire for oil concessions made the Middle East a new object of interventionism and a new site of imperial competitions between Western powers. OilandEmp argues that British state and business interests were at the forefront of this new coercive interventionism in the Middle East which is termed ‘oil imperialism’: how oil competition fostered new bids for domination over space and people in the region. British ‘oil imperialism’ had unprecedented spatial, social and environmental consequences which OilandEmp has investigated.
By understanding the genesis and early history of Europe’s quest for oil in the Middle East — a quest which continues to have fundamental implications down to the present day — OilandEmp has deepened scholarly knowledge regarding the relationship between energy, geopolitics and history. More specifically, it has highlighted the postcolonial legacies of a century of European oil imperialism in the Middle East, and has helped elucidate how these dynamics still shape international relations.
The Objectives of OilandEmp have been to:
1-Analyze imperial entanglements around access to oil fields between France, the USA and Britain and how the quest for oil reshaped the whole Middle East region and its borders
2-Analyze how oil companies became agents of a renewed coercive informal imperialism which paid lip service to the twentieth century ideologies of imperial development and modernization
3-Analyze how local actors reacted and resisted to oil imperialism and the social and environmental changes brought by the quest for oil. This objective also particularly focused on the environmental impact of oil exploitation on the fragile ecosystems of the Middle East.
By understanding the genesis and early history of Europe’s quest for oil in the Middle East — a quest which continues to have fundamental implications down to the present day — OilandEmp has deepened scholarly knowledge regarding the relationship between energy, geopolitics and history. More specifically, it has highlighted the postcolonial legacies of a century of European oil imperialism in the Middle East, and has helped elucidate how these dynamics still shape international relations.
The Objectives of OilandEmp have been to:
1-Analyze imperial entanglements around access to oil fields between France, the USA and Britain and how the quest for oil reshaped the whole Middle East region and its borders
2-Analyze how oil companies became agents of a renewed coercive informal imperialism which paid lip service to the twentieth century ideologies of imperial development and modernization
3-Analyze how local actors reacted and resisted to oil imperialism and the social and environmental changes brought by the quest for oil. This objective also particularly focused on the environmental impact of oil exploitation on the fragile ecosystems of the Middle East.
This fellowship was held in the Global History and Culture Centre (GHCC) of the History Department at Warwick University.
Work carried through work packages:
-WP1 Interdisciplinary literature review and conceptual work.
This WP has spanned the entire duration of the action and has entailed intensive work on secondary specialised literature in libraries and monthly meetings with the supervisor and other academics at Warwick University to discuss the historiographies and the concepts around which the project was geared.
-WP2 Archival research. Data gathering and analysis of primary sources.
WP 2 has spanned the entire duration of the project and has entailed intensive work on primary sources held at Warwick University (BP archives), the British Library, the UK National archives, French National Archives, Total Archives (Paris), UCLA Special collections, Chicago University Library special collections and the Huntington Library in Los Angeles.
-WP3 Training courses delivered at Warwick
The fellow acquired a basic command of Persian, attending a beginners’ course at the Language Centre at the School for Oriental and African Studies in 2019/20. She familiarised herself in digital humanities methods through courses delivered by the research exchange at the Learning and Development Centre. She also attended sessions on grant applications delivered by the Impact officers. This led her to successfully secure just after the end of her MSCA a postdoctoral fellowship for the next four years in a major ERC project (CAPASIA, grant agreement No 101054345, PI Prof. Giorgio Riello) hosted by the History Department of the European University Institute in Florence. The fellow also enhanced her expertise in Global History, the history of globalisation and Global commodities by attending activities carried by the Global History and Culture Centre.
-WP4 Outreach activities.
Through podcasts, public imoact activities and publications in newspapers, the fellow has mad her research available to a non specialist audience.
-WP5 Events (design and organisation, seminar series, workshop and conference)
The fellow was the sole organiser in July 2019 of one workshop and co-organised three international workshops and conferences.
In addition, the fellow delivered papers (in person and online) presenting results of the MSCA action at seminars and workshops in the UK, the USA, France, Brazil, Swizerland and Canada.
-WP6 Writing, editing, review (involving Supervisor, “committee”, colleagues and peer-review)
The output in terms of publications has been particularly successful and exceeded what was announced in the MSCA proposal.
-The fellow finished and published a monograph in October 2022 by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
-Two peer-reviewed journal articles were published in 2019 and 2020 (Middle Eastern Studies and Journal of Levantine Studies).
-One book chapter was published in a collective volume published by Palgrave Macmillan.
-One article is under review with Comparative Study in Society and History
-The fellow is finishing an article on a collection of photographs by a Victorian female traveller which depict the early years of oil exploitation in Persia, to submit it to the Journal of British Studies.
-The fellow is currently discussing with a UK based publisher a monograph provisionally titled Crude Empire: Britain, Oil and the Environment in the Middle East.
In addition, the fellow continued her service to the community by reviewing manuscripts proposal and journal articles.
-WP6 Pedagogical training: occasional lectures and seminars
The fellow delivered lectures and seminar on British imperialism in the Middle East and environmental history in the History Department, both at undergraduate and graduate levels, between 2017 and 2023. She co-supervised an MA dissertation in 2020-21. She is in the process of applying to become a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
Work carried through work packages:
-WP1 Interdisciplinary literature review and conceptual work.
This WP has spanned the entire duration of the action and has entailed intensive work on secondary specialised literature in libraries and monthly meetings with the supervisor and other academics at Warwick University to discuss the historiographies and the concepts around which the project was geared.
-WP2 Archival research. Data gathering and analysis of primary sources.
WP 2 has spanned the entire duration of the project and has entailed intensive work on primary sources held at Warwick University (BP archives), the British Library, the UK National archives, French National Archives, Total Archives (Paris), UCLA Special collections, Chicago University Library special collections and the Huntington Library in Los Angeles.
-WP3 Training courses delivered at Warwick
The fellow acquired a basic command of Persian, attending a beginners’ course at the Language Centre at the School for Oriental and African Studies in 2019/20. She familiarised herself in digital humanities methods through courses delivered by the research exchange at the Learning and Development Centre. She also attended sessions on grant applications delivered by the Impact officers. This led her to successfully secure just after the end of her MSCA a postdoctoral fellowship for the next four years in a major ERC project (CAPASIA, grant agreement No 101054345, PI Prof. Giorgio Riello) hosted by the History Department of the European University Institute in Florence. The fellow also enhanced her expertise in Global History, the history of globalisation and Global commodities by attending activities carried by the Global History and Culture Centre.
-WP4 Outreach activities.
Through podcasts, public imoact activities and publications in newspapers, the fellow has mad her research available to a non specialist audience.
-WP5 Events (design and organisation, seminar series, workshop and conference)
The fellow was the sole organiser in July 2019 of one workshop and co-organised three international workshops and conferences.
In addition, the fellow delivered papers (in person and online) presenting results of the MSCA action at seminars and workshops in the UK, the USA, France, Brazil, Swizerland and Canada.
-WP6 Writing, editing, review (involving Supervisor, “committee”, colleagues and peer-review)
The output in terms of publications has been particularly successful and exceeded what was announced in the MSCA proposal.
-The fellow finished and published a monograph in October 2022 by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
-Two peer-reviewed journal articles were published in 2019 and 2020 (Middle Eastern Studies and Journal of Levantine Studies).
-One book chapter was published in a collective volume published by Palgrave Macmillan.
-One article is under review with Comparative Study in Society and History
-The fellow is finishing an article on a collection of photographs by a Victorian female traveller which depict the early years of oil exploitation in Persia, to submit it to the Journal of British Studies.
-The fellow is currently discussing with a UK based publisher a monograph provisionally titled Crude Empire: Britain, Oil and the Environment in the Middle East.
In addition, the fellow continued her service to the community by reviewing manuscripts proposal and journal articles.
-WP6 Pedagogical training: occasional lectures and seminars
The fellow delivered lectures and seminar on British imperialism in the Middle East and environmental history in the History Department, both at undergraduate and graduate levels, between 2017 and 2023. She co-supervised an MA dissertation in 2020-21. She is in the process of applying to become a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
-The action has substantially internationalised the ER’s profile, enhancing her personal network thanks to the project-related dissemination activities. It has also contributed in improving her research-related skills, through the specially-tailored training she received at the host institution, her organisational skills, as well as in significantly increasing her publication track record. The ER has also become fully integrated within the host institution, and will continues to collaborate with the team members as she will remain an affiliate of the GHCC and of the History Department at Warwick.
The ER is planning to use the research-related and organisational skills she acquired from the experience in elaborating the MSCA project and in implementing and managing the action to apply for further funding in other Horizon Europe schemes in order to consolidate her position as an independent researcher.
-Dissemination activities linked to OilandEmp have successfully reached all stakeholders: 1) specialists and members of the scientific community, 2) students, 3) the non-specialist audience. Recordings have catered for the non- specialised public.
-The raw data collected will be of use to Middle East historians, specialists of British history, of international relations, economic and social historians
The ER is planning to use the research-related and organisational skills she acquired from the experience in elaborating the MSCA project and in implementing and managing the action to apply for further funding in other Horizon Europe schemes in order to consolidate her position as an independent researcher.
-Dissemination activities linked to OilandEmp have successfully reached all stakeholders: 1) specialists and members of the scientific community, 2) students, 3) the non-specialist audience. Recordings have catered for the non- specialised public.
-The raw data collected will be of use to Middle East historians, specialists of British history, of international relations, economic and social historians