280 oil industry in the Middle East María Sánchez In summer 1923, talks began between Mexican and U.S representatives and led to the Bucareli Accords, by which the Mexican government rolled back some of the measures that had been introduced by the revolutionaries Some senators denounced it as going back on fundamental promises made by current and previous administrations In heated debate the accords were denounced in both the Mexican senate and the chamber of deputies However, in September 1923 the U.S government formally recognized Obregón as president of Mexico Trade increased quickly, especially with the improved sale of Mexican petroleum to the United States Obregón’s main reason for overthrowing Carranza had been the latter’s choice of an heir apparent This was also going to cause Obregón trouble He chose Plutarco Calles as his successor, but Adolfo de la Huerta contested this, leading a revolt in December 1923 With U.S support for his government, Obregón prevented guns from being sold to the rebels, and the rebellion fizzled out, but not before they had killed one of Obregón’s allies, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, the governor of Yucatán Obregón was able to step down as president on November 20, 1924, and then returned to Sonora Calles became the next president, and in 1926 there was a change in the constitution to allow presidents to serve nonconsecutive terms Obregón decided that he would like to contest the next election In November 1927 Segura Vilchis, a Roman Catholic engineer, threw a bomb at Obregón’s car at Chapultepec Park in Mexico City Obregón survived, but Vilchis and some accomplices were executed a few days later In 1928 Obregón contested the presidential elections again— he was the only candidate—and won, although he was in bad health Returning to Mexico City to celebrate his victory, he survived an assassination attempt, but on July 17, 1928, at the La Bombilla restaurant in the capital, he was assassinated by José de León Toral, a Catholic seminary student who opposed the anticlerical policies of Obregón He was arrested, tried, and subsequently executed Further reading: Cumberland, Charles The Meaning of the Mexican Revolution Lexington, MA: D Heath and Co., 1967; Hall, Linda B Álvaro Obregón: Power and Revolution in Mexico 1911–1920 College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1981; Krauze, Enrique Mexico: Biography of Power New York: HarperCollins, 1997 Justin Corfield oil industry in the Middle East During the 20th century oil became a major revenue source for a number of Middle Eastern nations The first petroleum concession was signed between the AngloIranian Oil Company (AIOC) and the Qajar shah of Iran in 1901 An Australian, William Knox D’Arcy, negotiated the contract, whereby the shah and the grand vizier received 50,000 shares as a gift The government was to receive 16 percent of the profits after costs were subtracted The contract was to last for 60 years, the company was to pay no taxes, and the prospecting covered 500,000 square miles, or five-sixths, of Iran The British government owned half of Anglo-Iranian Oil, Burmah Oil owned 22 percent, and the rest was owned by a combination of investors The company justified the extremely favorable terms on the grounds that at the time, prospecting for oil was extremely risky and capital intensive Dozens of wells might be drilled at great expense before oil was found Reza Shah managed to obtain better terms after he revoked the first concession in 1932 The first contract set the pattern for future ones in the region for the next half century The petroleum industry was a vertical and horizontal monopoly Western companies controlled the prospecting, sources, transport, refining, and sale of oil Seven major corporations, or the so-called “seven sisters,” eventually dominated the industry These were Standard Oil of New Jersey (founded by John Rockefeller), Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, Gulf, Socony-Mobil, Texaco, and Standard Oil of California Compagnie Franỗaise des Petroles (CFP) and an Italian company were smaller firms Many of these companies had overlapping ownerships and directors Middle East governments were too weak, lacked the technology to develop the industry themselves, and willingly granted concessions giving Western companies control over their vital natural resource With no private ownership of oil fields in the Middle East, revenues from oil went directly to the governments to be spent as each deemed appropriate Because the oil was purchased primarily in Western nations for industrial, military, and transport use, the resource did not generate many jobs or secondary industries in the Middle East, unlike, for example, the automotive industry in the West, which created numerous secondary industries The second major concession in the Middle East was signed between Iraq and a consortium of Western companies Calouste Gulbenkian negotiated the contract in exchange for percent of the shares As a result of this deal, Gulbenkian was dubbed “Mr Five Percent”