User:Trey/sandbox
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The 1973 oil crisis began on October 17, 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), the Arab members of OPEC plus Egypt and Syria, announced that as a result of the ongoing Yom Kippur War they would no longer ship petroleum to nations that had supported Israel in its conflict with Arabian countries. The United States, its allies in Western Europe, and Japan were effected by the embargo.
About the same time, OPEC members agreed to use their leverage over the world price-setting mechanism for oil in order to raise world oil prices, after the failure of negotiations with the "Seven Sisters" earlier in the month. Because of the dependence of the industrialized world on crude oil and the predominant role of OPEC as a global supplier, these price increases were dramatically inflationary to the economies of the targeted countries, while at the same time suppressive of economic activity. The targeted countries responded with a wide variety of new, and mostly permanent, initiatives to contain their further dependency on oil.