The Rise Of Saudi Arabia

This video was recorded on March 21,2021. In 1744 the Emirate of Diriyah was a land ruled by two men, Muhammed bin Abd Al Wahhab and Muhammad bin Saud. Wahab wanted an Arab country ruled by his religious traditions (Wahhabi) and Ibn Saud for the military and political might he possessed. The country was to be the first Saudi state, later called Saudi Arabia in 1932. By 1936, the U.S oil company, Standard Oil, began explorations, south of the country to which they would uncover vast untapped oil reservations. The relatively poor country suddenly became one of the richest in the world.

By the 1970's Islamic modernization soon began, and the religious principals of Wahab began to shape other Arab countries that were once shaped by Pan Arabism. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt and later Syria and Libya. By rich Saudi donors and influential imams who poured hundreds of millions of dollars to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and even the United States thru madrassas and charities in which some of that funding went to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Boko Hara, Abu Sayyaf and Jaysh-e-Muhammed. The Saudi Kingdom, a country ruled by its religious ultra orthodox sector and a family line that has been shaped by billions from the petroleum market.