Oil as a diplomatic and economic weapon

In October 1973 a fourth Arab-Israeli war was fought, better known as the Yom Kippur War. It was a coordinated attempt of Egypt and Syria to regain what was lost to Israel in the so-called Six-Day War of 1967, but the Israelis once again proved dominant on the battlefield. However, unlike previous confrontations, during this clash, the Arab states finally employed their probably most far-reaching asset – “the oil weapon”, shocking the entire world more than anyone previously expected.

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 - Failure of both east and east

As World War II came to an end, both Europe and the world slowly started to divide between two major powers – the US in the west and the USSR in the east. Though in the immediate post-war years these two blocs tried to at least present themselves as friends, by the late 1940s it was clear that the two ideological camps entered a confrontation that was quickly dubbed the Cold War. It was painted as an ongoing struggle for world supremacy of two ideas – capitalism in the west and communism in the east.