N. Africa & SW Asia:
Rwegion - ARABIAN PENINSULA
Physical Geography
Cultural Geography
Economic Geography
Historical Geography
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Historical Geography [nwcolott]
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[The text of the following was written by Scott Girhard, San Antonio College from his online course GEOG 1301 World Geography. Used with permission.]
Saudi Arabia
With only 20 million people, this is not an important realm in terms of population, but is important in its abundant mineral resources. The Arabian penisula contains the Earth's largest concentration of known petroleum reserves. Saudi Arabia occupies most of this area and by some estimates may possess as much as one-quarter of the world's remaining oil. These reserves lie in the eastern part of the country, particularly along the Persian Gulf and in the deserts of the Rub al Khali in the southeast.
The national state of Saudi Arabia was consolidated in the 1920s through the organizational abilities of King Ibn Saud. After unifying various nomadic tribes (usually by marrying into each family-reportedly the king had over 200 children!), Ibn Saud's kingdom was devastated by the world-wide depression of the 1930s which curtailed the annual Muslim pilgrimmages to Mecca. Desparately needing new revenues, Ibn Saud sought out expertise to look for oil in the kingdom as oil had been discovered in nearby Bahrain in 1932. American help was desired because Ibn Saud thought the Americans were superior geologists and their lack of colonial adventures meant that they were least likely to cause trouble, in addition to the fact that they were the farthest away. The king also did not trust the British and did not want them involved in the discovery of oil. Eventually oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia, but would wait until after World War II to enter into the global economy