A substantial literature has been amassed on the 1950s Iranian oil crisis and Mossadegh’s demise in 1953. Explanations have varied widely, ranging from Gasiorowski’s mainstream viewpoint framing US intervention in Iran squarely within the Cold War arena to prevent a Soviet communist takeover in Iran, to Abrahamian’s claim US intervention was primarily motivated to preserve the oil cartel. This paper addresses the historical impact of oil on commerce and politics after its emergence in the late nineteenth century. Its growing importance as an energy source, through the invention of the internal combustion engine, and benefits for economic growth and greater military efficiency made oil the paramount natural resource. The battle for oil resources raged globally between the Standard Oil empire and British oil firms, not merely in the Middle East but also in Burmah, Peru, Venezuela, or Mexico, ignoring ideological considerations or US President Wilson’s call for an open-door commercial policy at Versailles in 1919. This study examines US and British diplomatic correspondence, government and company reports, letters, laws enacted, and newspaper articles to construct a concise picture of how the 20th century’s most important energy source fuelled a state-level rivalry in a bid for global hegemony sacrificing Iranian democracy as collateral damage. This paper will argue that not ideology but corporate and state competition for profits and global power lie at the basis of events leading up to Iran’s 1950s oil crisis, facilitated by an Iranian political establishment that initially sided with the foreign oil companies for financial advantages. Ideology has merely served as a smokescreen to wilfully neglect and ignore oil’s importance in political events, so as to specifically justify later intervention in Iran through the more fashionable prism of a Cold War ideological battle between communist Soviet Russia and capitalistic USA. The oil crisis, while serving US oil firms, provided the perfect opportunity for the US to break the British oil monopoly in Iran. It therewith dealt the final blow to Britain’s hopes of an imperial revival, simultaneously ushering in the era of US global dominance and British decline. (*This is part of my thesis which investigates the impact of the Anglo-American oil rivalry and its respective companies in the first half of the twentieth century on foreign policy in particular vis-à-vis Iran. It is a work in progress).