But it wasn't the cause, even slightly. First, British supply of Oil came mainly from Mexico, which is a big part of the reason the Germans were haranguing Mexico to go to war with the United States. It would in one move cut off almost all the supplies that the French and British were getting. Food, Clothing, Medical supplies, and munitions were coming from the United States. Oil and Rubber from Mexico and South America.
In fact, oil wasn't discovered in Iraq until 1927, although it has been suspected for a very long time, and the oil exploration company was formed in London in 1911. The investment of Iraq, Iran, and Egypt was to surround the Turkish forces that had because of British Blunders in Diplomacy which were caused more by arrogance than any other reason, had driven the Turks into the Central Powers camp. England had built two Dreadnought class battleships for Turkey, then instead of delivering the ships, already paid for, had seized them and told Turkey that after the war, they would discuss any reparations that might be due, if Turkey was smart enough to understand that British Friendship if not a treaty, was always in Turkey's best interest. Those ships became the HMS Erin, and HMS Agincourt. Germany, seeing the presence of a potential ally, gave Two ships to Turkey, to cement the treaty, and then with German crews sailing under the Turkish flag, fired on Russian forces, and Turkey finally announced that they had joined the Central Powers. Never before had the cost of two ships been so high. A million soldiers were tied up fighting what could have been an ally if not for racism and arrogance on the part of the British Government. Of course, it did lead to a nice propaganda piece with Lawrence of Arabia.
The U-Boat was because of the Presence of the British Fleet at Scarpa Flow, the only maritime units that could be used to try blockade the British the same way the British were blockading the Germans. The German High Seas fleet was bottled up, and if they came out would fight from a serious disadvantage, being outnumbered by the British. When they did come out, German Gunnery was better, but the disadvantage of fleet size was too great to do as much damage as was hoped.
There are lots of books to read on these era's in history. There are plenty of sources of information. One of my favorites is The Guns of August, a pulitzer prize winning book by Barbra Tuchman. She has a gift of words, and of explaining the difficult to understand. She gives historical people personality, and does an outstanding job in explaining the causes leading to the war, and the first month of the war in 1914. There is so much information to cover, including the seeds of the present Middle East problems, planted by Lawrence of Arabia, who promised Independence to the people of the Middle East, if they fought for the British. Later, the British, showing admirable arrogance, decided that Lawrence who had been told to make this offer, was a relatively low ranking officer, Lieutenant Colonel, and did not have the authority to make such promises. A book of blunders from that era would almost collapse under it's own gravitational weight.
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