Oil Empire : Visions of Prosperity in Austrian Galicia

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Austrian Empire ranked third among the world's oil-producing states (surpassed only by the United States and Russia), and accounted for five percent of global oil production. By 1918, the Central Powers did not have enough oil to maintain a modern military. How and why did the promise of oil fail Galicia (the province producing the oil) and the Empire? In a brilliantly conceived work, Alison Frank traces the interaction of technology, nationalist rhetoric, social tensions, provincial politics, and entrepreneurial vision in shaping the Galician oil industry. She portrays this often overlooked oil boom's transformation of the environment, and its reorientation of religious and social divisions that had defined a previously agrarian population, as surprising alliances among traditional foes sprang up among workers and entrepreneurs, at the workplace, and in the pubs and brothels of new oiltowns. Frank sets this complex story in a context of international finance, technological exchange, and Habsburg history as a sobering counterpoint to traditional modernization narratives. As the oil ran out, the economy, the population, and the environment returned largely to their former state, reminding us that there is nothing ineluctable about the consequences of industrial development. Frontmatter List of Illustrations (page ix) Acknowledgments (page xi) Note on Translation (page xv) Abbreviations (page xix) Map: The Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1867-1914 (page xxi) Introduction (page 1) 1 The Land Where Salt and Oil Flowed: Austrian Galicia (page 24) 2 Galician California: Battles for Land and Mineral Rights (page 48) 3 Petroleum Fever: Foreign Entrepreneurs and a New National Industry (page 75) 4 The Boys Don't Sleep at Home: Workers' Dreams of Wealth and Independence (page 109) 5 Oil City: The Epidemic of Overproduction (page 140) 6 Blood of the Earth: The Crisis of War (page 173) 7 A Hotly Disputed Territory: The Struggle for Eastern Galicia (page 205) Conclusion (page 237) Appendix: Data on Oil Production (page 259) Notes (page 265) Archival and Primary Sources (page 319) Index (page 331) How and why did the promise of oil fail Galicia and the Austrian Empire, which at the beginning of the 20th century ranked third among the world's oil-producing states? Alison Frank traces the interaction of technology, nationalist rhetoric, social tensions, provincial politics, and entrepreneurial vision in shaping the Galician oil industry. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Austrian Empire ranked third among the world's oil-producing states. This work traces the interaction of technology, nationalist rhetoric, social tensions, provincial politics, and entrepreneurial vision in shaping the Galician oil industry.