
This Study Guide consists of approximately 136 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Prize. Ancient sources told of "pillars of fire" in the Caucasus Mountains around Baku, and after Russia annexed the region in the early 19th century, a primitive industry developed there, thwarted by the region's backwardness and isolation, as well as by incompetent czarist administration. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power Summary & Study Guide.

Its leadership and other experts doubted that oil would be discovered outside the U.S.Īmerican kerosene found a ready market in Russia in 1862.

oil output was exported, mostly to Europe, with Standard responsible for 90%. consuls eagerly pushed the new "Yankee invention," and helped develop distribution networks. Europe was oil-hungry for the same reasons as Americans: lighting, industrialization, and urbanization. The thought of kerosene fires at sea was terrifying, but after the first safe delivery to London in 1861, global trade grew rapidly.
