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I think the best reason this keeps coming up is that entanglement with the West never stopped. Britain passed the economic and military reins to the states, bu

I think the best reason this keeps coming up is that entanglement with the West never stopped. Britain passed the economic and military reins to the states, but any useful summary of Saudi Arabia's economy/politics/culture today is going to have a disproportionate amount of text about Western relations (and where they come) compared to, say, popular opinions inside the country. Reducing that to a question of "blame" I would agree is kind of an irritant 80+ years on... but it does serve the purpose of challenging other even more oversimplified views, such as assuming that the culture is predisposed not to thrive.

nl 7y ago
entanglement with the West never stopped. But isn't that just because they are a single-resource export oriented economy? It's Dutch Disease[1], but hundreds of times larger? Britain passed the economic and military reins to the states Why are you bringing up Britain here? They weren't a colonial power in Saudi Arabia. The closest they came was Kuwait. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutchdisease.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutchdisease.asp
- kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  They had all the capital they needed to diversify their economy when it would have made a difference. Now it's too late and they will reap the consequences.
  - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
    It's never too late, and they're working on it.
- ethbro 7y ago
  > Why are you bringing up Britain here? They weren't a colonial power in Saudi Arabia. Because I didn't know the history myself, tl;dr from Wikipedia: Ottoman empire controlled the entire area at the turn of the century, to various degrees at various time. Al Rashid family allied with Ottomans. Al Saud family, under Abdulaziz (later, simply Ibn Saud), fought Rashids in the Riyadh region. During WWI, pan-Arab revolt against Ottomans encouraged by British. Ibn Saud mostly avoided participating in revolt to focus on defeating the Rashids, with the help of Ikhwan (Wahhabist) forces. Pan-Arab revolt failed, but allies won, resulting in creation of independent Arab states. In years after the war, Saud and Ikhwan forces captured and most of modern day Saudi Arabia. In 1927, the Ikhwan forces attempted to expand farther afield, into British-administered Arab successor states (Transjordan, Iraq, Kuwait). Saud disagreed, and a two year war was fought for control of Saudi Arabia. Ikhwan forces lost, most of their leaders killed, and the Saud family rules to today.

nl 7y ago

entanglement with the West never stopped. But isn't that just because they are a single-resource export oriented economy? It's Dutch Disease[1], but hundreds of times larger? Britain passed the economic and military reins to the states Why are you bringing up Britain here? They weren't a colonial power in Saudi Arabia. The closest they came was Kuwait. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutchdisease.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutchdisease.asp

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
They had all the capital they needed to diversify their economy when it would have made a difference. Now it's too late and they will reap the consequences.
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
  It's never too late, and they're working on it.
ethbro 7y ago
> Why are you bringing up Britain here? They weren't a colonial power in Saudi Arabia. Because I didn't know the history myself, tl;dr from Wikipedia: Ottoman empire controlled the entire area at the turn of the century, to various degrees at various time. Al Rashid family allied with Ottomans. Al Saud family, under Abdulaziz (later, simply Ibn Saud), fought Rashids in the Riyadh region. During WWI, pan-Arab revolt against Ottomans encouraged by British. Ibn Saud mostly avoided participating in revolt to focus on defeating the Rashids, with the help of Ikhwan (Wahhabist) forces. Pan-Arab revolt failed, but allies won, resulting in creation of independent Arab states. In years after the war, Saud and Ikhwan forces captured and most of modern day Saudi Arabia. In 1927, the Ikhwan forces attempted to expand farther afield, into British-administered Arab successor states (Transjordan, Iraq, Kuwait). Saud disagreed, and a two year war was fought for control of Saudi Arabia. Ikhwan forces lost, most of their leaders killed, and the Saud family rules to today.