Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Government: Unitary Islamic absolute monarchy
Ruler: Abdul-Aziz Al Saud
Area: 830,000 square miles
Population: 2.7 million
Military: 4,000 regulars and 15,000 tribal levies.
The first Saudi Arabian state (otherwise known as the Emirate of Diriyah) was founded in
1744 based along the city of Diriyah.
And expanded to within present day Saudi Arabian borders plus the nation of Qatar by 1819.
The Ottoman Empire waged an eight year war that saw the destruction of this state.
A mere five years later saw the creation of the second Saudi State, this one being the
Emirate of Nejd.
The state joined the Entente against the Ottoman empire in 1915.
A bunch of small conflicts between the house of Saudi and the house of Rashid ended with
the unification of Saudi Arabia on 1932 after annexing various tribal kingdoms/emirates.
Saudi Arabia fought a short war with Yemen in 1934 that saw them annex the region of
Asir and a few other small areas.
Saudi Arabia was an economic backwater until the eve of WWII.
Their exports were mainly agricultural products and knives, but little else.
They were shunned in the great oil explorations of the 20s because people understood Iraqi
geology better than Saudi Arabia.
It would be the Americans who took serious interest in exploring for oil in that neck
of the woods, and they didn't strike any until 1938.
At first, the US government didn't realize the strategic significance of what would become
Aramco.
The US was self reliant in oil, and was able to keep England supplied with enough fuel
to stay in the war.
They also helped expand Soviet use of motor gasoline despite the decline in Russian refining
capacity over the war.
The tipping point came in early 1943 - which indicates why the refinery was hastily constructed.
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Saudi Arabia was on good terms with the Axis powers,
concluding an arms agreement with Nazi Germany on the eve of the war.
The nation was used as a theater of intrigue and intrigue between the Allies and Axis in
the early days of the conflict.
Some very ambitious German military thinkers saw Saudi Arabia as a springboard to Russia's
southern flank and Hitler attempted to sway the Saudis to join the Axis.
He promised Ibn Saud the title of King of all the Arabs if he attacked British forces.
But Ibn Saud tacitly backed the British with whom, despite their quarrels, Saudi Arabia
had a far larger economic relationship with, and understood that his nation, could simply
not defeat the numerically superior British.
He did allow Germany to station an agent in the nation, to be used for operations in Jordan
but expelled him once the British complained of the activity.
The outbreak of the war and the heavy shipping dangers brought Saudi Arabian oil sales to
a halt, which had only started a few years before.
Saudi Arabia lacked a merchant marine of it's own and relied almost entirely on foreign
vessels to conduct naval trade.
It wasn't until after the end of the war that this was changed, and only in 1957 that a
navy was officially created.
The armed forces themselves had changed little since the time of the First World War.
The majority of troops were camel-raiding bedouin tribal levies, called-on in time of
war or serious emergency.
These troops were very experienced at desert warfare and survival, but equipment was immensely
outdated and un-regularted, making it difficult to reliably supply the troops.
Their loyalty to the state was also at times questionable, since they were by and large
beholden to local lords, rather then beholden to the king These warriors were employed frequently
in the Saudi wars of the 1920's (against Hejaz and Asir) and 1930's (against North Yemen),
but they were being increasingly more replaced by western-armed regular troops.
In the 40's, the total number of levies ready to go to war at the king's call was ~ 15 000.
At the same time, the regulars numbered only a few thousand personnel and performed mostly
policing and other garrisoning functions.
These regular troops were much better armed than the levies and were garrisoned all over
the country at forts and major cities but lacked training, equipment or ability to conduct
offensive actions outside of the state.
In 1943 Franklin Roosevelt declared that the defense of Saudi Arabia was of vital interest
to the United States, thus making the kingdom eligible for Lend-Lease assistance.
AF Carter pushed for the construction of refineries in Saudi Arabia, and at one point was lobbying
the government to outright purchase Aramco.
His plan was to build a pipeline to the Mediterranean to shorten logistics for the European theater.
His precedent was Winston Churchill purchasing Anglo-Iranian on the eve of WWI to ensure
a fuel supply for their navy.
The more fractured nature of ownership in the American oil industry meant that detractors
outweighed supporters of the plan, and Aramco remained independent.
However, the course of American politics was clearly set.
FDR stopped by the kingdom on his way home from Yalta to have a chat with the king.
They came to an understanding about security, and FDR gave the fat king a wheelchair to
play around in.
The Iranian crisis of '46 gave added impetus to the relationship, and hastened Saudi Arabia's
development into the modern oil nation it is today.