The Reality of Dependence

Abstract

This chapter and the one that follows demonstrate how and why Britain’s strategy of energy independence failed. The initial threat came from anticolonial nationalism, initially in Iran and then in Mexico. Britain weathered both crises but emerged with a false sense of security. The second and most challenging threat came from the fascist states, particularly Italy following the Abyssinian crisis of 1935–6. Although Italian hostility would jeopardize Britain’s plan to achieve energy independence by exploiting the Middle East, British officials paid little or no attention to the Italian threat to their energy lifelines when considering whether to support League of Nations sanctions against Italy for its aggression against Abyssinia. Compounding the Italian problem was U.S. isolationism via the Neutrality Acts, which complicated British logistics by forcing Britain to import oil from the United States on British tankers and pay for it using scarce foreign exchange.