The Emirate of Nejd and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Where we left off in the last video, the first Saudi state, the Emirate of Thyria, was ended in the Ottoman-Wahhabi War. It was ended by the Ottomans, but it was by actual Egyptian forces that retook control of Mecca and Medina, and then laid siege to the town of Diriya, which was the center of the Emirate of Virya. The last emir, who was also considered imam, so religious leader of the Emirate of Thyria, was Abdullah, who was beheaded by the Ottoman Turks.

Now, that wasn't the end of the House of Saud. As we have alluded to, there are going to be two more Saudi states. A cousin of Abdullah's father, Turkey bin Abdullah, who had gone into hiding after the Egyptian forces had taken control of Diriyah, was able to come back to power in the 1820s. He establishes the second Saudi state, the Emirate of Ned. As we talked about in the previous video, the Nejd refers to that central Arabian region, which was really the stronghold of the House of Saud. We can see here that the Emirate of Nejd eventually expands to much of the Arabian Peninsula, although it never took control of Mecca and Medina, which were back under Ottoman control.

Now, this emirate will last until the last decade of the 19th century, as we get into 1890 and 1891, when a rival tribe, the Rashidun, are able to take Riyadh. At that time, Turkey bin Abdullah's grandson, Abdulrahman bin Fasi, is now emir and imam, so both the head of state and as imam, religious leader. When the Rashidun take over, he and his family go into exile with Bedouin tribes in the south and eventually make their way to Kuwait. Abdulrahman himself eventually focuses more on religion, but his son, Abdul Aziz, will end up becoming one of the most significant figures in all of Saudi history.

In 1902, he is able to take back Riyadh. He and roughly 40 men are able to scale the protective walls of Riyadh by climbing bent-over palm trees. They're able to take the town, and then from there, they establish what ends up becoming the third Saudi state. He soon takes back the Nejd region and then, in World War One, takes the side of Great Britain against the Ottoman Empire. After World War One, he's able to take the Hijaz, this western region of the Arabian Peninsula, including Mecca and Medina.

In 1932, it is officially proclaimed a kingdom: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which included both the Hijaz and the Nejd. All of this was done by King Abdulaziz, and as you can see here, his reign covered half of the 20th century. Over the next 70 years, every king of Saudi Arabia has been one of his sons, and the current crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman, is his grandson.

King Abdulaziz and Saudi Arabia become major actors on the global stage when, in 1938, major oil reserves are discovered in Saudi Arabia, near the Persian Gulf. These end up being some of the largest oil reserves in the world, so this became a strong incentive for major world powers to become allied with Saudi Arabia, especially the United States.

This right over here is a picture of FDR, the American president, meeting King Abdulaziz in 1945, near the end of World War II. You could appreciate the strategic importance of these oil reserves; they're important for growing economies, and they are also important from a military point of view. World War One, and even more so World War II, are defined by mechanized militaries that need oil in order to operate.

Just to get an appreciation of Saudi Arabia's continued strategic importance from an energy point of view, this right over here shows the production of petroleum and natural gas for the United States, Russia, and Saudi Arabia over the last several years. These tend to be the top three producers of petroleum and natural gas. But if you focus on petroleum, you see that for most of this time period, Saudi Arabia was the top producer.

It's actually true of most of the post-war era. Recently, the United States has passed up Saudi Arabia, but even then, Saudi Arabia is incredibly strategically important because it uses far less of its petroleum than the United States does. So, Saudi Arabia is still the world's largest exporter of petroleum, and the reserves that Saudi Arabia has access to are far cheaper to access than, say, the reserves in the United States. They continue to be very strategic and very important actors on the global stage.