‘Jumped on the boat of a territorialist organization’: State and capital at the origins of oil imperialism

Modern imperialism springs from the interaction of the geopolitical and economic logics. The international oil industry offers an ideal case study of this connection. The links between nation states and multinational oil companies have been close and mutually advantageous. The oil majors took advantage of the expansion of the U.S. hegemony, both in terms of access to crude and profitable markets; the U.S. profited from the control of a key energy source. This chapter sketches the consolidation of this relationship throughout the first half of the 20th century. This will retell a familiar story, but from a different perspective. How does the capitalist logic of imperialism interact with the geopolitical imperative?