A Farewell to King Coal
Geopolitics, Energy Security, and the Transition to Oil, 1898–1917
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8958549 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Volkan Ş Ediger (Kadir Has University, corresponding author), John V Bowlus (0000-0003-0335-2573, Kadir Has University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 427-449 |
| Publication date | 2018-06-18 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Historical Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0018246x18000109 |
| OpenAlex | W2809585338 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 58 |
Interest in energy transitions has accelerated in recent years due to rising concerns about global warming and resource scarcity, but the drivers of these phenomena are not well understood. To date, scholars have primarily focused on commercial and technological factors, highlighting that oil was ‘better’ than coal – more powerful, cheaper, cleaner, and more practical to use – and that the internal combustion engine made it more advantageous to use in transportation. Yet oil was also a strategic commodity that powerful states sought to acquire for military reasons. This article contends that geopolitics, military decision-making, and energy security hastened the transition from oil to coal prior to the First World War. It argues that Britain, Germany, and the United States sought to transition their naval fleets from coal to oil to gain a military advantage at sea, which created, for the first time, the problem of oil-supply security. Through government-led initiatives to address oil-supply security, vast new supplies of oil came online and prices fell, the ideal environment for oil to eclipse coal as the dominant source in the global energy system
Business · Climate change · Coal · Commodity · Economics · Economy · Energy security · Energy transition · Geopolitics · Government (linguistics · Market economy · Natural resource economics · Oil reserves · Peak oil · Petroleum · Political science · Politics · Renewable energy · Scarcity · Waste management · American Environmental and Regional History · Engineering · Finance · Global Energy and Sustainability Research · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law
World wars and sociotechnical change in energy, food, and transport
La Hambruna del Carbón
Aviation exceptionalism, fossil fuels and the state
Coal transitions—part 1
The Archeology of Oil Tanker Shipwrecks and Their Potential to Pollute
World wars and the age of oil
Ocean flows and chains
Globalizing the History of the First World War
Renewable energy diplomacy and transitions
The Prize
The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783
The coming sustainable energy transition
The slow search for solutions
Regime destabilisation as the flipside of energy transitions
After Hegemony
Energy Resources and Uses
Pioneers for Profit
British Naval Administration and Policy in the Age of Fisher
British Naval Operational Logistics, 1914-1918
Science can never demobilize”
The emerging field of energy transitions
Oil in the age of steam
The Naval Route to the Abyss
Characteristics of American Railway Traffic
Technology and the Evolution of Naval Warfare
Petroleum and the United States Navy before World War I
Nineteenth Century Britain as a Subtle Commercial Hegemon
United States Oil Policy, 1890-1964
Oil in the Middle East
The New World Power
Informal Entente
International Politics and Iraqi Oil, 1918–1928
VIII. The Importance of Energy in the First and Second World Wars
The British Government and the Oil Companies 1912–1924
Coping with Abundance
Alternative liquid fuels in the UK in the inter-war period (1918–1938)
Oil Scarcity Ideology in US Foreign Policy, 1908–97
The Petroleum Paradox
The Petroleum War of 1910
The Turkish Petroleum Company--A Study in Oleaginous Diplomacy
Technological Momentum in History
The Purchase of the British Government's Shares in the British Petroleum Company 1912-1914
The Entrepreneur and the British Economy, 1870-1914
German Economic Penetration in the Middle East, 1870-1914
Friedrich Bergius and the Rise of the German Synthetic Fuel Industry
Problems of the British Coal Industry Between the Wars
The Long Cycle of Global Politics and the Nation-State
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |