A brief history of conflict, coercion, and “One of the greatest material prizes” known to man…
by: mycryptoguy | jan 8, 2020 | 5min read
I’m going to jump right in today! Today’s article is a follow up to the post titled ” I made money while I slept last night… seriously”. If I am being completely honest, it took some self discipline to finally sit down and put my thoughts into an understandable play by play of the topic at hand. Not because I’m touching a sensitive topic, or for a lack of knowledge , but because there is in fact SO DAMN MUCH to try and cover both historically and currently. So with that said there is a chance that this could possibly end up being part one of two. So as my readers/followers (the humble handfuls that exist) I am going to be relying on feedback from you guys to let me know if I should dive back in to the topic for more clarity and deeper substance… or perhaps it’s a topic that is just beyond the realm of our understanding and the cryptoguy team should just leave it alone. Remember! Your voice matters!
Here we go… United States involvement in Middle Eastern affairs pretty much kicked off in the early 1800’s with something called the ‘Barbary Wars’ (aprox. 1801-1805). Thomas Jefferson is president at that time and for lack of better words had formed a strategic alliance with Sweden. Sweden had previously been in a long drawn out conflict with what was called the Barbary States. The Barbary states consisted of the Ottoman empire, Tunis, and Algiers. If you really care about these alliances and motivations I’d encourage you to do some more light reading into these topics. For the sake of time however, the key take away from the early engagement is that in 1801 President T.J. sent an entire naval fleet to the coast of North Africa and Bombards a whole mess of cities primarily held by ‘Barbary Pirates’. Stay with me and lets fast forward now!!
1833…was a little more of a turning point for the diplomatic “temperature” we’ll call it. We now have elected a new leader, some guy by the name of Andrew Jackson. President Jackson seems to be the first American leader that I know of whom we may credit the reversal in previous sour relations with the Middle East. The take away from this era is that Jackson was successful in building some of THE FIRST formal ties in that region. Starting with developing rapport with the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. Either I’m a complete history nerd… or I’m being honest when I say here is where it gets good!
1857… fast forward a little over 20 years. For the first time in the short history of the U.S., incredibly lucrative commercial relations opened up between the United States and the area at that time, known as Persia. Now lets jump ahead another roughly 60 years for more key points on the situation at hand.
1918… By now things have changed a bit. Britain and France end up colonizing a large… large… very large piece of the middle east (Enter, Lawrence of Arabia. Interesting fella if you feel inclined to check him out). This is a pivotal moment in the timeline here and I’ll explain why. The popular view of American presence and American culture in general was a very positive one to say the least. But let me repeat… “WAS a very positive one”! The PRO-American sentiment was due to the fact that local communities in the middle east regarded Americans as “untainted by the selfishness and duplicity associated with the European colonization”. Furthermore…one of the most essential details lies right here. At this point in time, American missionaries were providing large amounts of medicine and helping to develop educational institutions literally ALL OVER the middle east. BUT! MOST IMPORTANTLY… the United States did something I consider incredibly tactful as well as strategic. The U.S. provided some of THE most talented Petroleum Engineers the world had ever known (Enter, True U.S. Interests now). At this point the bigger picture should be starting to reveal itself to the studious reader. Next piece of the puzzle… We’re almost there!
1928… The ‘Red Line Agreement’ is made. The RLA was part of a network created and designed in the 1920’s to restrict the supply of petroleum and ENSURE that American Companies CONTROL oil price on the WORLD markets. The Red Line Agreement ended up being in place for two decades there after.
1944… The Anglo American Petro Agreement is born. Quick take aways from the AAPA are that; 1. The agreement was in fact LEGALLY binding 2. It was a reflection of true American interests in the area 3. After the agreement was signed it divided the oil between the United States and Britain, and lastly but perhaps most importantly number 4. The transition from the U.S. as a net exporter versus the U.S. as a net importer. After the agreement of 1944 new security imperatives came into play with the outright responsibility of preventing the progress of power rivals in Arabic regions. So we know for a fact that connections in the middle east were made PRIOR to WW2(just remember that). Now after WW2 the middle east became known as one of the most strategically important areas of the world. Noam Chomsky, a talented historian and American linguist happened to say himself in reference to our diplomatic conquest of the middle east that, we had obtained “One of the greatest material prizes in world history”.
A lot to bite off right? One of the last remaining talking points occured in 1946 and 1947. Raymond Hare called this period “The Great Divide” due to the fact that Arab nationalism began to grow making indefinte land/asset holding by the U.S. virtually impossible. The conflict that was brewing at that time involved one of the last remaining mandates, Palestine. As well as the formation and diplomatic recognition of Israel. The points that I have mentioned thus far basically set the back drop for many future conflicts.
Ill say again… the information that Ive touched on throughout the article is simply as concise and efficient as possible. Obviously there is a lot more information out there, as well as a whole host of varying opinions. Some view the United States as an all encompassing empire looking to swallow up and disrupt any form of government or socioeconomic standard in the name of American Interests aka PROFIT. But now is not the time and here is not the place to take a dive into the shallow end of the ethics pool.
The dots have been laid out and now all you have to do is begin to connect them. Following the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, one of Tehran’s most influential figures there was an obvious spike in Bitcoin price. Ill come back to BTC but I first want to mention the negative effects on the market that followed this event. Over all … stocks tanked following the escalation in conflict. With a few exceptions… OIL, DUH! Gold, which gets a solid head nod from me. And Bitcoin, which makes me bat my eye lashes and smile flirtatiously at the Digital Assets Market. Gold hit its highest price in 6 years immediately following the events mentioned. Treasury bonds also made a handsome little jump. These fluctuation in prices can be attributed to investors taking a hard step away from what can be considered volatile assets, and falling back on what has been referred to as ‘safe haven’ assets. Now the price jump that many are arguably calling a fluke was tied to Bitcoin primarily. But Ill be so bold as to say the cryptocurrency market in its entirety seems to be vibrating faintly from the events mentioned. Bitcoin itself hit a 7 week high reaching a respectable $8,450 and I’ll be one of the first to say I think that future conflict and turmoil in the middle east WILL in fact have positive and negative consequences on your digital assets. The cryptocurrency market in my opinion is still relatively too young to draw any strong conclusions from in regards to cause and effect on a global scale. But its there, and there is data to be analyzed, inferences to be had, changes to make, and profits to earn.
I can say with honesty… I know what my portfolio looked like prior to the assassination of Soleimani… I tracked, watched, and studied the market quite astutely….. And having the right coin in the right place at the right time did in fact pay off. Obviously easier said than done. For some that is. If you’re a fellow enthusiast or day trader keep checking in and maybe you’ll learn something from my team. If you’re a skeptic and want to know more… then ask. I’ll give you realtime, up to date results on progress, tactics, and education in the crypto world.
Check me out @ mycryptoguy.wp.com and do yourself a favor! Dont forget to subscribe so you can stay up to date on all things cryptocurrency. Learn with me Earn with me!
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