This week on the Lectures and History podcast, University of Iowa, Professor Richard Priest,

traces the rise of the global oil industry from the earliest days of crude drilling to the dominance of the Standard Oil Company and its founder John D. Rockefeller.

Professor Priest examines how oil transformed from a regional business

into one of the world's most powerful industries, fueling industrial growth, economic competition,

and geopolitical influence across the globe. He also explores how rival companies and foreign markets

challenge standard oil's dominance, reshaping the international energy business in the late 19th

and early 20th centuries.

So far we've covered the origins of the oil industry in Pennsylvania and the rise of the standard oil

colossus under the towering influence of John D. Rockefeller.

But today we're going to move overseas for a while,

and then come back to the United States to explain

how the global market for oil and kerosene emerged in the late 19th century.

We'll talk mainly about Russia, Dutch East Indies, Texas, and Oklahoma,

new markets for petroleum, and then the emergence of

Standard Oil's chief competitor, global competitor,

oil Dutch shell.

Okay?

And at a moment, we'll finish with the moment when new uses for petroleum products,

especially gasoline and fuel oil, would make petroleum all that more valuable and strategic.

Okay?

In 1880, Standard Oil controlled 80% of the global kerosene market.

75% of its sales was overseas.

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