Automobiles, Oil, Petrochemicals, and Roads – The Inclusion of New Regions After a New Core Input – 1908–1971

Ford’s T-Model, in 1908, as the big bang of the fourth technological revolution, triggered changes in three interrelated fields – the automobile, the oil industry, and the construction of roads. These interrelated fields provided strong positive feedbacks for countries that could internalize them, and also made room for fragmented forms of propagation to the periphery. A new strategic input – oil – was the target of the process of inclusion of new regions in the international division of labor, and of rearrangements in already included regions. Expansionary forces changed, as multinationals could operate in three different areas. Assimilatory forces faced new challenges, as these interrelated technologies could be fragmented, and very specific new roles could be assumed by countries at the periphery – exclusive producers of crude oil, for instance. Over time, as industrialization policies matured, new roles could be assumed by peripheric countries – Beyazay-Odemis (The nature of the firm in the oil industry: international oil companies in global business. Routledge, New York/London, 2016) illustrated this, presenting changes regarding international oil industries and their production chains. This chapter outlines how the different assimilatory forces led to a more heterogeneous periphery, with different capacities of internalization of the strong potential positive feedbacks among the interrelated industries.