Saudi Arabia

In the three and a half years since the start of the Second World War the Sa’udi king had received annually from Great Britain some £3 million in goods and silver coins, plus some £750,000 which Casoc advanced in 1941 and again in 1942 against royalties anticipated from post-war oil sales. But in the two years after the signing of the February 1943 Lend–Lease order some $33 million (nearly £8 million) in cash, goods and bullion flooded into Sa’udi Arabia from the USA on top of oil revenues, and Abdul Aziz was at least £1 million a year better off – for, in their eagerness to make up for lost time in Arabia, the Americans gave with both hands.

[1981, Robert Lacey, “The Second World War”, in The Kingdom, New York; London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 263

Little did anyone dream that Sa’udi Arabia possessed the world's largest oil reserves, which would eventually bring incredible wealth and power but would also undermine an ancient Eastern way of life.

[1983, Glenn E. Perry, “Rebellion, Emulation, and Reaction: 1920–1939”, in The Middle East: Fourteen Islamic Centuries, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 212