1.2. 1939-1975: The Mid-Century
Hallmarks of Petrocapital Accumulation
By 1950, a renegotiation of the 1933 oil concession between the United States and Saudi Arabia regarding the original rates and level of governmental involvement in the company’s operations took place. At the time, the discovery of oil in commercial quantities changed the political ties between the two countries. Across the Persian Gulf, rising tensions between the democratically elected Iranian Majlis and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) around the attempts to nationalize the industry and slowly buy out the AIOC. [1] While it is not farfetched to consider these events as a catalyst for the United States to develop a different dynamic with the Saudi government. On the part of the United States, the renewed interest in the region by the mid-century was framed by the threat of the expanding “Communist aggression” seen to be encroach on the stability of Western companies’ “business access” to oil from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Other Arab Sheikhdoms around the Peninsula.[2] Of interest here is the role the central region of the Peninsula played in America’s Cold War imperatives, and the role of energy within it.
Two significant points of conjecture regarding the country’s expanding role in the global oil market, and the extent of foreign interests in fomenting relationships with the forming nation states of the Arabian Peninsula. The 1953 Coup d’état mounted against Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh’s government took place in the wake of his government’s attempts at auditing the work of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).[3] At the time, the Abadan oil well and refinery in the northwest of Iran were known to be the largest commercial refineries in operation with direct access to the Persian Gulf. This led the British government to instigate the international boycotting of Iranian oil in order to “protect the business interests of the AIOC”, and its unfettered access to Iranian oil, and prompted the national justification to politically overthrow of the Mossadegh government.[4]
The second most relevant point of conjecture for the Kingdom, during the mid-century, was the beginning of Ibn Saud’s succession by his sons. This succession brought with it the modern bureaucratization of the Saudi state’s functions. Following King Abdulaziz’s passing on the 13th of November 1953, HRH Prince Saud was crowned King and HRH Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz named Crown Prince.[5] The political repercussions of attempting to nationalize the oil industry in Iran notwithstanding, the impacts of these renegotiations, combined with the growing bureaucracy of the government, began to show how interdependent these two factors were on the development of the young state.
Perhaps none is more illustrative of government’s expanding bureaucracy than the creation of the Ministry of Education – Wizarat Al Ma’arif – with Prince Fahd bin Abdulaziz as its first Minister.[6] The Ministry evolved from the pre-existing Directorate of Education – Majlis/Hay’aat Al Maa’rif – that was established in the early 1920s. Moreover, this expansion signaled the growing responsibility of the Ministry in the face of continued widespread illiteracy.[7] Although discussing the reasons for continued low literacy rates are beyond the scope of the discussion at hand, an exploration of the government’s systemic attempts to address it are not.
Shortly after establishing the Ministry of Education, government patronage of education began to take shape. In expanding the mandate of the Directorate of Education, newfound avenues to manage and administer country-wide academic institutions formalized with an all-out effort to develop formal, free, public education institutions for all citizens. The 1950s saw the proliferation of government sponsored institutions from pre-K to university level, in addition to literacy schools, and technical training schools such as teacher training colleges.[8] To combat the issue of continued low literacy rates, the newly minted Ministry oversaw the creation of other forms of educational institutions, namely ones of a cultural nature to assist the Ministry in its goal of eradicating illiteracy.
Within its first five years, the Ministry established several committees, subcommittees, and departments, which included the General Plan for Eliminating Illiteracy and the General Plan for Adult Education.[9] To further address the issue of illiteracy amongst adults, the Ministry created the Department of Popular Culture in 1955 to oversee adult education and literacy classes.[10] The Ministry began its multipronged approach by combining its efforts with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and focusing on “cultural sections in the development and social-service centers.”[11] The Ministry of Education built on programs in place since the mid-1940s and helped scaling them and assist in the formalization of education.
Between 1950 and 1955, the newly minted Ministry saw to the establishment of public libraries to support its broadening mission of education. In under 5 years, the Ministry oversaw the constitution of 41 libraries across the country and provided the necessary provisions and management structures for public libraries to become an “instrument for the dissemination of culture.”[12] Perhaps the most relevant development to take place under the Ministry of Education was the establishment of the Department of Antiquities in 1964.[13] The Department of Antiquities and Museums was created Before delving into the explicitly cultural endeavors of the Ministry of Education, however, I want to return to the regional political climate, and the political stances the government took on rising regional tensions.
In 1964, Prince Faisal succeeded his elder brother Saud and was crowned King.[14] Simultaneously, Arab countries geographically proximal to Israel were seeing popular political galvanization against the expanding Zionist project. The offensive mounted against the Israeli occupation by the Syrian and Egyptian Arab Republics in 1967 marked King Faisal’s early reign with the oil embargo led by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) against states who directly supported the Israeli state in the dispossession of Palestinian lands.[15] The regional turbulence was due to the effects of the expansionist Zionist project and its violent consequences on Palestine and its people. While the global oil trade was gravely affected by this embargo, the internal economic development of the Saudi government remained unencumbered.
Despite the geopolitical challenges that King Faisal faced during the first years of his reign, his resolute politics of development saw the implementation of five-year government-wide Strategic Development Plans. These plans were goal oriented guides for the government and its functionaries that left room for how each governmental agency went about achieving them. The first of which was launched in 1970 closely followed by the Second Development Plan in 1975.[16] Over the course of these two Development Plans, governmental budgetary allotments saw remarkable increases in a relatively short amount of time, and with them the formalization of governmental patronage of culture and heritage.
Within both plans, definitions of cultural patronage by the state were set, alongside the designation of each agency’s responsibilities in achieving them. In the First Development Plan, under Cultural Affairs, the government support for the cultural development of the Kingdom by expanding the activities of the Ministry of Education to include caring for and preserving archeological sites and findings, while also creating museums due to their educational value.[17] In the first half of the decade, an emphasis on the creation of a program of annual archeological surveying, investigation and registration.[18] Whereas the Second Development Plan delineated the expanded mission of the Ministry of Education in support of continued learning through other means. This meant increasing access to museums, the preservation of national sites, and the expansion of archeological explorations.
Though King Faisal’s reign was short lived, the impact of the strategic plans put in place during his reign were foundational to the incremental growth in governmental patronage of culture.
Donald Wilber, “Clandestine Service History Overthrow of Premier Mosaddeq of Iran” (New York Times, October 1969), https://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/iran-cia-intro.pdf. ↑
Fredrick Aandahl and William Z. Slany, eds., “FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1950, THE NEAR EAST, SOUTH ASIA, AND AFRICA, VOLUME V” (The State Department, Office of the Historian, 1950), https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v05/pg_83. ↑
Wilber, “Clandestine Service History Overthrow of Premier Mosaddeq of Iran.” ↑
It would be later revealed that clandestine efforts by the American Central Intelligence Agency led to the arrest of Mossadegh and the ousting of his democratically elected government. ↑
“المصاب الجلل بموت عاهل الجزيرة الاكبر,” صحيفة أم القرى, November 13, 1953, 1489 edition, https://ncar.gov.sa/api/index.php/resource/eyJpdiI6Im9LR3lkVTdHRFBaUFBjTGgrZnhSNVE9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoiNWRrQjdqZ1hrRkJHTkNkYS8vVWtwQT09IiwibWFjIjoiZTYwYTY2YzlhNWZkNWEzYWVkY2M3Y2ZlMTU5ZjlhYjk3ODIyNDc5NzM2Mzg5NDM3ZDFkYjdjOWMyMDQ3MjEyNSIsInRhZyI6IiJ9/OmAlQourahVersions/AttachPath. ↑
“مرسوم ملکی کریم بتأسيس وزارة للمعارف,” صحيفة أم القرى, January 1, 1954, 1496 edition, https://ncar.gov.sa/api/index.php/resource/eyJpdiI6Ik9vbS9hNzhMNzY2VFdyZE1iUU1xVFE9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoibXp4Zm15QmVPUkpjZWFJRGtlZmxxQT09IiwibWFjIjoiMWFlZGFlYTllMThlMmE5YWFjOGNiNzk5MTM2YTM4YjExZGI0ZDBiOGY1OTU5ZTMyMWI1ODFlYmUwOGZhZmVmNSIsInRhZyI6IiJ9/OmAlQourahVersions/AttachPath. ↑
Muhammad Abdullah Al-Mani and Abdulrahman as-Sbit, Cultural Policy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (UNESCO Digital Library, 1981), https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000046809. ↑
Al-Mani and as-Sbit, 15–18. ↑
Ibid. ↑
Al-Mani and as-Sbit, Cultural Policy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ↑
Al-Mani and as-Sbit, 28. ↑
Al-Mani and as-Sbit, 33. ↑
Vincent Sheean, “King Faisal’s First Year,” Foreign Affairs, January 1, 1966, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/saudi-arabia/1966-01-01/king-faisals-first-year. ↑
Ibid. ↑
Central Planning Organization and Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), “The First Development Plan” (Riyadh: Ministry of Finance, 1970), https://www.mof.gov.sa/en/about/OldStratigy/First%20Development%20Plan%20-%20Chapter%201%20-%20Introduction-%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%85%D8%AC.pdf; Central Planning Organization and Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), “The Second Development Plan” (Riyadh: Ministry of Finance, 1975), https://www.mof.gov.sa/en/about/OldStratigy/Second%20Development%20Plan%20-%20Chapter%201%20-%20Development%20Goals-%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%85%D8%AC.pdf. ↑
Central Planning Organization and Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), “The First Development Plan,” 122–28. ↑
Central Planning Organization and Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), “The Second Development Plan,” 352–55. ↑