1973 oil crisis

<p>In October 1973, the <a href="/facts/Organization_of_Arab_Petroleum_Exporting_Countries/q7DCuzV4">Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries</a> (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total <a href="/facts/Oil_embargo/KG2D2QSY">oil embargo</a> against countries that had supported <a href="/facts/Israel/dEe3IcaY">Israel</a> at any point during the 1973 <a href="/facts/Yom_Kippur_War/tTNe7UlK">Yom Kippur War</a>, which began after <a href="/facts/Egypt/8Ttg0JwB">Egypt</a> and <a href="/facts/Syria/7pDXGzq8">Syria</a> launched a large-scale surprise attack in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the territories that they had lost to Israel during the 1967 <a href="/facts/Six-Day_War/xM8d0Wy1">Six-Day War</a>. In an effort that was led by <a href="/facts/Faisal_of_Saudi_Arabia/vmfAzEqS">Faisal of Saudi Arabia</a>, the initial countries that OAPEC targeted were <a href="/facts/Canada/cWWFM8oc">Canada</a>, <a href="/facts/Japan/U5mz0SRT">Japan</a>, the <a href="/facts/Netherlands/y8xn5stT">Netherlands</a>, the <a href="/facts/United_Kingdom/kuPAILt2">United Kingdom</a>, and the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a>. This list was later expanded to include <a href="/facts/Estado_Novo_(Portugal)/xXtp2v7V">Portugal</a>, <a href="/facts/Rhodesia/JHQJpmdj">Rhodesia</a>, and <a href="/facts/South_Africa/vvXQpLgq">South Africa</a>. In March 1974, OAPEC lifted the embargo, but the <a href="/facts/Price_of_oil/hRnlD8Hn">price of oil</a> had risen by nearly 300%: from US$3 per <a href="/facts/Barrel_(unit)/7hzeJzwT">barrel</a> ($19/<a href="/facts/Cubic_metre/GPILKCtm">m3</a>) to nearly US$12 per barrel ($75/m3) globally. Prices in the United States were significantly higher than the global average. After it was implemented, the embargo caused an oil crisis, or "shock", with many short- and long-term effects on the global economy as well as on global politics. The 1973 embargo later came to be referred to as the "first oil shock" vis-à-vis the "second oil shock" that was the <a href="/facts/1979_oil_crisis/nbjj6wwL">1979 oil crisis</a>, brought upon by the <a href="/facts/Iranian_Revolution/frTYhJ0F">Iranian Revolution</a>.
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1973 oil crisis open-in-new

1973 oil crisis