Why did the 1973 oil embargo shock the world?

The 1973 oil embargo shocked the world because oil suddenly became a political weapon and its price jumped. In October 1973 the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The effort was led by Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and the first targets were Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The embargo was lifted in March 1974, but by then the price of oil had risen by nearly 300 percent, from about US$3 a barrel to nearly US$12 around the world. In the United States the average retail price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose 43 percent from May 1973 to June 1974. The United Kingdom, for example, was entirely dependent on imported oil in 1973, because its North Sea fields were not exploited until 1975.

Daily life changed. Some US state governments asked citizens not to put up Christmas lights, and Oregon banned Christmas and commercial lighting altogether. Odd-even rationing let cars with odd-numbered plates buy gas only on odd-numbered days and the others only on even days. The UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Norway banned flying, driving and boating on Sundays. In 1974 the US set a national speed limit of 55 miles an hour to cut consumption.

One account says the embargo ended a long period of Western prosperity and brought the steepest economic contraction since the Great Depression. It is called the first oil shock, and a second came in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution.