Mark Gagnon

And then the discoveries kept on coming.

Bahrain in 1932, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in 38, Qatar in 1940, Abu Dhabi in 58.

One by one, the states around the Persian Gulf turned out to be sitting on billions of dollars of crude oil and natural gas.

And by the mid 20th century, the Persian Gulf region contained more proven oil reserves than anywhere else on the planet.

Literally, the whole world's oil is found in these few countries.

And if you wanted to move it around, you had to go through the Strait of Hormuz.

So sure, you could own the oil or you could own the passageway and take a little piece of all of it.

Now, the number is almost hard to comprehend.

By the early 2000s, roughly like 17 to 21 million barrels of oil were transiting the Strait every day.

Approximately 20 to 21 percent of the world's total oil consumption decreased.

A significant share of all liquefied natural gas traded globally also passed through the same corridor.

Some estimates put the annual value of cargo transiting through the Strait of Hormuz at $1.8 trillion.

That's a T. You heard that, Chris.

That's a trillion.

With a T. That's almost what you get paid.

Now, the political landscape was shifting, too.

So in 1971, Britain formally withdraws from the Persian Gulf and basically ends its, you know, over 150 year role as the region's, you know, security and kind of like stability in the waterways and in the region, broadly speaking.

And these small kingdoms along the southern coast banded together to form the UAE.

And the power vacuum left by Britain's departure was filled in large part by two regional heavyweights.

So you have Iran under the Shah.