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AREA ***: MESOPOTAMIA AND THE GULF

Conquered and pacified in 1917–1919.

Defined by the Arabian desert on the west, the Zagros–Taurus mountain chains on the north and east, and the Arabian Gulf on the south. Site of the world's largest oil and natural gas reserves.

The oilfields of the lower gulf were discovered by Draka exploratory parties in 1910–12, and developed by the Hydrocarbon Combine from 1919; the Persian and North Mesopotamian fields, developed by German capital before the Great War, were taken over and expanded at the same time.

The first six-year plan (1920–26) saw output reach 10,000,000 barrels a year; a series of cities, from Basra to Muscat, was founded to handle, process and export the product. Pipelines were also constructed for overland export; the huge reserves of natural gas served as a limitless source of heat and electrical energy. By the 1940s, the conurbation at the head of the Gulf had a total population of over 6,000,000; by the late 1980s, 12,000,000. (91% serf).

Major industries: petroleum refining, petrochemicals and plastics, electrochemical and electrometallurgical (aluminum, copper). Mechanical engineering, generators, turbines, turbocompound internal combustion engines, jet turbines, scramjet engines, military aircraft and helicopters, airships, shipbuilding and ship repair, locomotives, rolling stock, textiles (mainly cotton and synthetics), food processing, fishing.