Final Exam - Template - HIST 2913 - Summer 2023

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Carleton University *

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2913

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Geology

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Oct 30, 2023

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Final Exam – Take Home Name: Nicholas Tang Date: August 23, 2023 Course: HIST2913A Student Number: 101192881

Instructions Throughout this course, we have explored the history of oil through the lens of four critical themes – Science, Technology, Culture, and Conflict. These themes were essential to all of the major developments that occurred in the history of oil, and they remain important to our present-day experiences with oil products and technologies. In this final exam, you are asked to reflect upon the following question: What roles did Science, Technology, Culture, and Conflict play in the history of oil that we have explored in this course? In crafting your response, you should support your ideas using evidence and examples from the lecture videos, document analysis videos, the required readings and videos, and the weekly discussion forums and reflection activities. The more evidence and examples you draw upon in your response, the more grade points you will receive. To assist you in writing this final exam, it has been divided it into five parts, each of which covers a separate theme. NOTE: You DO NOT need to provide citations for the evidence and examples you draw upon. However, you should make it clear which reading, video, or lecture you are referring to. Generic and/or general statements about “the readings” or “in this course” will not be counted. Please be specific and precise in crafting your answer! This final exam is worth 15% of your grade for this course. It will be marked by your Instructor.

1. Describe the role that Science played in the history of oil. Use evidence and examples to support your answer. Please write one (1) page or approximately 500-750 words, using single spacing and a standard 12pt font. This answer is worth 20 out of 100 points. Throughout history, science has played a significant role in our lives. Science is responsible for the creation of a lot of important products that we see today such as medicine, pills, cleaning, and oil products. Although science is responsible for creating different oil products, it has also played a big role in the history of oil as well. As discussed in Module 10 - Future of Oil, Dr. Werely says “Science is what brought oil to life”. This is because science is responsible for discovering where oil can be found and how we can mine oil. This explains why without science there would not be a significant evolution of oil in our lives. As Dr. Werely discussed in Module 10 - Future of Oil, “Without science, there would be no oil. Now we will discuss how science played a role in the history of oil. The science behind how oil can be found is geology. Geology is an important science when it comes to the history of oil because it was relied upon to determine where the oil was located. As discussed in Module 1 - Time Pressure Heat, it says “It was in this period of geological history that the world was teeming with life, and is here that the origins of oil can be found”. This proves that geology was needed to help determine where the oils can be found. Geology also helped discover that a substance that was found in Canada was very similar to a crude oil product that was found in ancient Mesopotamia. This was proven when it was discussed in Module 2 - First strikes, “some farmers in Lambton County, Ontario helped local geologists locate and collect samples of a sticky black substance that seeped to the surface in shallow pools. The samples were submitted to the Geological Survey of Canada for testing, and it was discovered that the gummy material was, in fact, bitumen, a crude oil product very similar to that which was found in ancient Mesopotamia.”. This shows that with the science of geology we were able to discover where oil can be found and that geology also helped in discovering that Canada contained bitumen as well. Although science does not play a big role in how we mine the oil it does play a small role, which is determining where the correct places to search for or mine the oil. As discussed in Module 3 - Ancient digging, “During biblical times, oil was extracted by hand, from surface pools found at the base of mountains or in the rifts formed by geological fault lines.”. Geology plays a role in this because geologists would mainly look for these rifts and would then tell the team that the oil would be located in that specific location. With that being said, science plays an important role in the history of oil because it is what brought oil to life. Without science, people would have had a harder time determining where the oil can be located. It also played a huge role by discovering that Canada contains a crude oil product called bitumen which is very similar to an oil product that was located before in ancient Mesopotamia.

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2. Describe the role that Technology played in the history of oil. Use evidence and examples to support your answer. Please write one (1) page or approximately 500-750 words, using single spacing and a standard 12pt font. This answer is worth 20 out of 100 points. Technology also plays a big role in the history of oil. It is similar to science however instead of technology creating oil, it is really what we use oil for. As discussed in Module 10 - The Future of Oil, “Technology has been how we use and interact with oil. If science made oil possible, technology is what really, we’ve been using it for”. This is because in this case technology consists of trains, cars, automobiles, airplanes. It can also consist of other things such as vaseline, lipstick and makeup. And throughout history technology has evolved and has helped us in everyday life especially in the oil industry. As discussed previously, technology has played a significant role in the history of oil because of the fact that it has changed our uses of oil in many ways and consistently plays a part in today's oil and will continue to play a part in the future of oil as well. Technology played a significant role in the history of oil because without the Second Industrial Revolution modern technology would not be what it is today. This is because without the Second Industrial Revolution there would be no oil refining. This is proven when discussed in Module 4 - The Second Industrial Revolution when it says “Indeed, without the Second Industrial Revolution, there could be no oil refining and thus, no modern oil industry as we know it today”. What this proves is that technology is responsible for our modern oil industry as well as being responsible for oil refining as well. It was also said in Module 4 - The Second Industrial Revolution that the technology was responsible for manufacturers in the industry to create new products that have never been seen before and would lead to increase of operations. What this means is that the technology during the revolution helped shape oil products that we may see today. Too add on, it was also said in Module 4 - The Second Industrial Revolution, that the oil industry was incredibly impacted by the revolution that it said “Perhaps, in no other industry, was this revolution more important in the refining of oil.”, which proves the impact technology had in the history of oil. And with science and technology improving during the revolution it helped by giving us a deeper understanding of the chemical composition of oil as well as what refined products could be made with the resource. Overall, technology still impacts our everyday lives as it continuously evolves with time. Technology was responsible for many things that occurred in the past that without it, it would result in missing out on necessities that are needed in modern day life. So technologies' role in the history of oil is that it helped evolve oil refining through The Second Industrial Revolution by allowing to discover new products that can be made with oil as well as helped us get a deeper understanding of the chemical composition of oil, which allowed us to determining what refined products can be made with the oil. It also played a significant role that allowed us to understand the refining of oil.

3. Describe the role that Culture played in the history of oil. Use evidence and examples to support your answer. Please write one (1) page or approximately 500-750 words, using single spacing and a standard 12pt font. This answer is worth 20 out of 100 points. The role that culture plays in the history of oil is that it is what shaped how we use our oils today. As discussed in Module 10 - The Future of Oil, culture is really how we relate to oil. What I mean by this is, what is our true opinion about oil? Throughout the semester we discussed and saw how different cultures changed the demand of oil and how they all influenced the oil industry by increasing the demand for the resource. We also saw throughout different times how the different cultures came to view oil and what it meant to them. And as we dive deeper we can see that the use of oil impacted the demand, which influenced the oil industry as we know it today. In ancient times in some cultures, they would use bitumen, which is tar or asphalt to help light torches around their altars. Although the ancient people used oil for lighting, some saw used it for its power. As discussed in Module 2 - Ancient Encounters, it is said that the leaders of the Zoroastrians used oil to capture the hearts and minds of their followers. It was also said that they viewed oil to be a symbol of purity, righteousness, and truth. Oil soon became an important aspect in their religious ceremonies. As we can see, culture played an impactful role in the history of oil in the ancient times where it was looked at as power, a symbol of purity, righteousness, and the truth. Which overall caused a demand for the resource due to the fact that it became an important factor in their religious practices. As time went by we can see that the uses of oil changed based on another cultures perspective on oil. If we take a look during The Second Revolution, we can see that the culture at the time saw oil to be a very important asset to everyday life. I say this because with all the new technology that impacted everyday life, oil became heavily in demand due to the fact that to power these machines or devices, the main component needed was oil. As we can see in Module 5 - Gasoline, automobiles are starting to become an important piece in daily life in many cities all over the world. This overall sparked the movement towards using oil for power, which caused more demand for oil. As we take a look at Module 5 - Gasoline, it says that the rise of gasoline happened at a remarkable speed, which is the result of the higher demand for this resource and the higher demand for automobiles. It is also said in Module 5 - Gasoline that in 1913 they consumed approximately $455 million liters of gas, whereas in 1939 people were consuming more than 6 billion liters of gas a year. This affected the demand of the oil because later in 1926 in Britain, about 20,000 gasoline pumps were installed across the country. Overall, as we discussed, culture played a significant role in the history of oil. We can see that the different cultures saw oil and had completely different views in relation to oil. We saw that the Zoroastrians viewed oil as a symbol of purity, righteousness, truth, and saw it to contain power. Whereas people during The Second Industrial Revolution and throughout the 1900s viewed oil to be a very important resource in their everyday lives because it was needed to be able to power their automobiles. And although both had different views and perspectives of oil, they both created a high demand for it regardless of the culture and they shaped the oil industry as we know it today.

4. Describe the role that Conflict played in the history of oil. Use evidence and examples to support your answer. Please write one (1) page or approximately 500-750 words, using single spacing and a standard 12pt font. This answer is worth 20 out of 100 points. Conflict played a significant role in the history of oil. The reason for this being that it was the reason for the incredible transformations made in technology, science and the industry, which were called the Industrial Revolutions. And what these revolutions did during the conflicts as we see in Module 6 - The Royal Navy was it allowed Britain to gain an enormous advantage over Europe and North America, which at the time were Britain's competitors. And with the conflicts it allowed the country to improve or evolve into a new age of wealth and success as discussed in Module 6 - The Royal Navy. Although conflict seems negative it was really super beneficial to some countries. For example, as we saw in Module 6 - The Royal Navy, it says that by the beginning of the 20th century, the United Kingdom had become the most powerful country in the world. This occurred because of the impacts the Industrial Revolution had on the country. But the revolutions had to be made because of the conflicts that were occuring at the time. The conflict also paved a path for Britain to improve their Navy, which was proven in Module 6 - The Royal Navy, where throughout the conflict and the Industrial Revolution, it allowed Britain's military officers to make sure that Britain remained the best at sea. And this allowed Britain to have the best Navy in the world during the late 19 and early 20th century. Conflict played a part in increasing the demand for oil as well. The reason for this is because during the war, most of Britain's oil was used to help power all the machines needed for the war. As discussed in Module 6 - The Uboat Menace, it is discussed that at the time oil was at its highest demand during the war because of the fact that it was just as necessary as munition as well as textiles and food. It was also said that without adequate oil supplies, Britain would not be able to power any of the cars, trucks, motorcycles, tanks and airplanes that they needed to use throughout the war. This proves that the conflict that occurred during this time allowed for the highest demand of oil and allowed for some countries to benefit from it, by helping them evolve and get stronger, more specifically the United Kingdom. To sum up, although conflict doesn’t look like it had much of an impact or may be seen as a negative impact, it truly played a significant and beneficial role in the history of oil. This is because it allowed some countries to evolve and grow due to the necessary demand of oil, which allowed for new machines and creations to be made such as the submarine. It also lead to one of the biggest increases of demand for oil due to the fact that armies relied on oil heavily to power their military vehicles because without the necessary oil supplies, some countries would not have enough firepower to advance in the war and to power their vehicles and weaponry.

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5. Describe some key similarities and/or differences between the history of oil we have covered in this course, and the current-day context in which we consume oil products and technologies . Use evidence and examples to support your answer. Please write one (1) page or approximately 500-750 words or more, using single spacing and a standard 12pt font. This answer is worth 20 out of 100 points. Throughout the semester we have looked at and discussed multiple different time periods and saw the similarities and their differences regarding their role in the history of oil. We saw some similarities with how oil was used back in the ancient times, and in the 1800s and the 1900s. We also saw some differences in the uses of oils as well. Although we see some similarities and differences between the history of oil and current day usage, we can say that without the early historical advances in oil, our oil would not be at the level that it is at today and would have caused a setback to our modern day oil industry. The key similarities that were noticed throughout the semester was that science, technology, culture and conflict affected how we use oil today and how we still use some of the things that were used in the past. This is because as we previously discussed, science is what allows us to determine where we find oil, by looking at the geology of the different areas of land to determine what piece of land would yield oil. As discussed before in Module 10 - Future of Oil, science is what brought oil to life and without science there would be no oil. And as we see today, we still use these methods of locating oils within different areas all around the world. Technology as we talked about before consists of some things such as oil products and machineries. The technology that was seen in the past are still being seen as used today such as different machinery and oil products such as vaseline. Although technology has significantly improved since the start, they are still being used the same as they were before, that being for transportation, helping with work, used in our military and many more. Culture still remains the same in how we consume oil, this is because it all depends on how all the different cultures around the world see and view oil. Even though most places around the world view oil as an important asset in everyday life and mainly use oil for transportation, the main idea is still being pushed across where the different cultures are using oil based on how they view it. Conflict also remains similar throughout the history of oil and modern day. This is because oil is used for everyday products until a war occurs then the demand for oil increases significantly and goes to the army to provide enough of the resource to power all of the military's weapons and vehicles. Overall most of the practices in the past remained the same throughout all the time that has passed and will continue to be significant to the history of oil as it is what made oil what it is today. One key difference between modern day and the history of oil that we discussed throughout the course is the uses of oil now. More specifically as fuel. Although we still use gas powered vehicles, technology has allowed us to improve energy usage whereas some vehicles today no longer need gas to power their vehicles and have electricity to power them instead. AS discussed in Module 5 - Gasoline, because we did not have the technology for electric cars, people would rely heavily on powering their cars and vehicles on gas which allowed for a higher demand but cost a significant amount of money. So with some vehicles no longer needing to power their cars with gas, the demand slightly lowers and the overall cost for gas is not as expensive.

Overall, as we discussed about the key similarities and differences between the history of oil and current day consumption, we saw that most of the practices remained the same throughout time and that the key difference was that technology has evolved to where some vehicles no longer need gas to power their cars, which results in a lower demand and a smaller overall amount of money used on gas.