This a very brief background on the two most powerful financial empires in modern history. The world has never seen anything like this before. In past history, many other great and powerful financial dynasties existed. The difference between then and now was that the current financial dynasties are global, and operate below the radar.

 Their names are well known, and their rise to power is well known.  What is less well-known is their ‘networks of power’; its global reach and its invisible influence. We will, in the near future bring out a special report on these two distinctive networks, their ruling families, and above all, the leading family in each case.

As they grew in size and power, it was inevitable that they would end up on opposite sides on some issue or another. Matters were either peacefully resolved, or at times, it ended up in an economic and financial war. At times these battles were violent, and always done through proxies. Our focus here is a look at some of the conflict issues between these two networks.

In respect to Europe, the leading family is the Rothschild family, which has two distinct branches – the British and French branches. Allied to this family are some of the old-nobility of Europe and another group of families who made their fortunes in a variety of industries. These all work together.

 Likewise, there is an American power structure, mainly based in New York City. This is the Rockefeller family. Allied to this family are some legendary names in American financial and business history; names that are familiar to many. Examples of these families are the Ford of Ford Motors, Bill Gates of Microsoft, the Mellons of Alcoa, the Du Ponts of General Motors and the DuPont chemical Company, and others.

  We will now briefly explain their rise to power. In studying the Rothschild family of Europe, history has shown us that the family made its initial fortune during the turbulent period of the Napoleonic wars engulfing Europe between 1806 and 1815. This fortune, managed by the five sons of the founder, grew in size, influence and power in the 19^th century.

 From finance, the family branched out into many other business activities, gaining a dominant position in each field. One of these fields was the newly-emerging oil business in Baku, Azerbaijan.

 The French branch built an oil refinery at Fiume, Italy, on the Adriatic coast, and sourced the oil from Baku (incidentally, this refinery was bombed by the PLO in 1984!). This was in the late 1870s. So much oil came out of Baku that the Rothschild family had to find outlets for this oil. They found it in Asia, through a trader called Samuel. This venture eventually grew to become the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company.

 A second venture came from the discovery of oil in Iran, in 1909. This was called Anglo-Persian, then after the 1953 revolution in Iran, it underwent a name change to British Petroleum. Also dominated by the Rothschilds, but the British branch. Then the third major oil company was started from the discovery of oil in Kirkuk, Iraq, in 1927. This company is Total, a French oil major, and controlled by the French branch.

 Within the Rothschild family, the oil portfolio is handled by the French branch.

And now we move across the ocean to the United States. Oil was first discovered in the state of Pennsylvania in 1859. By 1863, a young wholesaler and merchant entered the oil business. His name was John Davison Rockefeller, a 24-year old, hungry to make his mark. He began to purchase crude oil from the producers in the area and re-sell it. He found it to be lucrative, and chaotic. His ordered mind hated chaos. After studying the business carefully, John D Rockefeller set his eyes on the refining aspect of the oil business.

 Here, let us pause and look at the insight of an English economist J.A. Hobson, who said; “Each kind of commodity, as it passes through the many processes from the earth to the consumer, may be looked upon as a stream whose channel is broader at some points and narrow at others. Different streams of commodities narrow at different places. Some are narrowest and in the fewest hands at the transport stage, others in one of the processes of manufacture, others in the hand of export merchants. Just as a number of German barons planted their castles along the banks of the Rhine, in order to tax the commerce from west to east which was obliged to make use of this highway, so it is with the economic ‘narrows’.

 Wherever these ‘narrows’ are found, monopolies plant themselves. In the case of the oil industry, the logical ‘narrows’ was at the point of refining; and inevitably, Rockefeller set in motion his great plan to command the heights of this ;narrow’, and so control the stream.

So successful was he that by 1890, he was in control of 95% of the oil industry in America, and the largest in the world. In 1886 the net profit of his Standard Oil Company was $15 m, a gigantic sum in those days; where there was no inflation, and no taxes. Profits were re-invested.

Rockefeller posted his brother, William, to New York City to handle Standard’s export sales. The resulting income from the export sales were so huge that the bank handling this account soon grew to be a giant on Wall Street. To cement this deal, two of William’s sons married the two daughters of Stillman, the owner of the First National City Bank. This bank would later change its name, and now it is called Citibank – America’s 2^nd largest bank.  Standard Oil threw off so much spare cash that it found its way into Wall Street, and then into a host of other businesses. It is from this alliance between Standard Oil and Citibank that the Rockefeller family came to dominate American finance and industry. Present-day giants such as General Motors, Boeing, Intel, and many others had not even been born yet.  Majority ownership and stakes in these companies, among many others, had Rockefeller money. Over the past 100 years, these investments grew. And grew.

 Do remember, that all the oil then produced and refined, and sold to consumers globally, had only one use- at that time. The product was kerosene, which was used to light lamps to provide lighting. There was no electricity in those days, so imagine the demand for this product. Humans were able to ‘lengthen’ the day, and the advantages were too numerous to mention. If they could afford it, kerosene was a ‘must have ‘item. It’s like having the latest smartphone today – a must have item.

 This was in the time period between 1860 and 1905. The combustion engine was invented around this time; and soon cars were being produced. Al of this required crude oil.  By the end of World War 1, in 1918, the strategic influence, power and the potential wealth and power of crude oil became manifest. The wealth that poured into Rockefeller’s empire was mind-boggling. Over the next few decades, the various products refined from crude oil formed the basis of many modern industries. From plastics, to pharmaceuticals and chemicals, to a whole host of other uses, too numerous to mention.

Conflict #1 – Baku

When Rothschild oil from Baku met with Rockefeller oil from America, a price war broke out. And we now start to detail the conflicts between these two families.

  Between 1885 and 1896, each family tries to form a marketing monopoly in their respective zones, but failed. The Rothschilds then began shipping oil, via the Suez Canal, east to Asian markets. A whispering campaign begun by New York began to cast aspersions on the Jewish race, as both the Rothschilds and Samuel of Shell trading were Jews. Still, this did not slow down the increasing volumes of oil gushing out from Baku, and clashing with the Standard Oil markets in Asia.

 As a last-minute desperate measure, Standard Oil’s intelligence network, employed the son of a Georgian cobbler- who went by the name of Joseph Dzigashvali, better known to the world as Stalin!  His mandate was to instigate the oil workers in Baku. When a revolution broke out in Russia, in 1905, Stalin, along with his team, then proceeded to destroy the oil infrastructure in Baku.  Oil production was severely curtailed, although it did rise a bit. It was only in the late 1990s that production began increasing to the levels last seen in 1904. Remember the Rockefeller family motto: “competition is a sin”.

Another interesting development emerged from this war for control of Russian oil. The intelligence networks of Standard Oil somehow managed to obtain a manuscript from the archives of the security services of the Czar – then the ruler of Russia. This manuscript was then passed onto an English journalist, Victor Marsden, who published it in London, in 1905. This manuscript was called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. It revealed the long-term plans of the Jewish ruling elite in Europe. Depicting a large number of plans, introduced to a select few – the ruling council which called itself the “Illuminati “, in Frankfurt , in 1773.

 The Rothschilds served on the board of this ruling council, some say that they fully control it. And they never forgave the Rockefellers for revealing this plan to the world. From New York’s perspective, whatever would hurt the prestige of the Rothschilds worked fine with them.

Conflict #2 – Mexico

In the same time period as the Baku mayhem, oil was discovered in Mexico. Oil flowed in such large quantities that it became a place of intrigue, revolution, and counter-revolution, between the American and British oil producers. Famous names, such as Pancho Villa, were heavily involved ad proxies for either New York or London. It was only with the outbreak of World War 2, and the nationalization of Mexican oil in the 1930s, that Mexico faded from the scenes for in the battle between these two groups.

Conflict #3- Iraq and Mosul

The First World War claimed the downfall of several empires, one of them being the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, the British and French had secretly agreed to divide, among themselves the lands of the Middle East that were held by the Ottomans. Part of this was the three provinces that today make up Iraq.

The Northern Province was called Mosul. It was known to have some oil, but the size of these deposits was not known. During the war Britain seized Iraq from the Ottoman Empire, when its troops marched into Baghdad in 1917. The Kurds in the region were in constant revolt, demanding an independent homeland. After the defeat of the Ottomans, they found their golden opportunity for pursuing their claim for a free state. But it was not to be. In 1925, the British created a new state that included all the three provinces.

One of the chief causes of the First World War was the Berlin-Baghdad railroad, which would have threatened British control of the Middle East. The war ended that project. The Germans had formed a company to produce oil in Mosul called the Turkish Petroleum Company. As a part of the reparations that Germany had to pay, Deutsche Bank had to surrender its 25% stake in the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) to the French. This French stake gave birth to the French oil giant, Total.

Meanwhile, the British were having difficulties with the Americans over Mosul. There was intense rivalry – to put it mildly – by the Americans, specifically Standard Oil – to the concessions granted by the Ottomans to the TPC. They were in the same situation as the French; both thought their interests could have been better served had the control of Mosul remained in Turkish hands. The Rockefellers, through the State department, stepped up the pressure, and in 1923, finally acquired 24 % of TPC.

 In October 1927, at Babar Gurgur, in Kirkuk, oil was struck. Producing very large volumes of oil, it created a greater rivalry between the British and Americans for control of Mosul.

 By now, the Kurds fully understood the value of the Mosul oilfields, and objected to the British oil interests. In 1929, Winston Churchill ordered the Royal Air Force to bomb Kurdish villagers. Here the Americans, meaning Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Group, wanted to grab Mosul for themselves, and leave BP and Shell hanging in the air. April to June saw the Kurds in yet another American-inspired revolt and directed revolt, but they were not successful. On October, the British granted independence to Iraq. And TPC was renamed as the Iraqi Petroleum Company, or IPC.

The Americans were not satisfied with a quarter share of Iraq’s oil, and were after full control. To this end, the Rockefeller- intelligence apparatus started secret negotiations with Iraq’s new King Faisal once Iraq was independent. King Faisal’s father was used by the British to throw the Turks out of Arabia (remember Lawrence of Arabia). When negotiations were entering the final stage, King Faisal, went to Switzerland to conclude the deal with the Americans. British Intelligence got wind of these negotiations, and the Rothschilds decided to take King Faisal “out of the equation” so to speak.

 On September 7, 1933, King Faisal was murdered in his hotel room in Berne, Switzerland, and his murder by British Intelligence was made to look like a natural death. By a strange coincidence, the hotel manager also “died” later that same day. Maybe he saw something he was not supposed to. Any, New York was not successful. The rivalry between London and New York came to an end, in what is best described as a ‘truce’. And the reason for this truce was far away in a country called South Africa.

The South African Connection

Britain had defeated the Boers of South Africa in order to take physical control of its gold and diamond mines. Its Prime Minister from 1919 to 1924 was Jan Smuts, firmly with the Rothschild camp. An agreement signed in 1919 between the Bank of England with the South African gold producers, which ensured that all gold produced in South Africa would be sold through the Bank of England.

 Such control of gold flows into and out of London was   to the benefit of London’s gold banks, among them the Rothschilds – the largest financial backer of South African gold mining companies. London’s objective was of the highest strategic importance for the future of the British Empire. And South Africa was key to London’s future strategy of resuming its previous role as the financial center of the world. This position was now contested by American finance, centered around the Wall Street interests of the Rockefellers.

Between 1922 and 1924, South Africa was plunged into turmoil. Early in 1925, Smuts was voted out of office, and replaced by Hertzog, who had campaigned against the loss of national economic control and the economic damage caused by Smut’ support of British financial policy.

 Once in office, Hertzog’s first act was to create a commission to advise if his government should continue being tied to London, or New York.  Hertzog’s candidate to head this commission was America’s leading gold and money expert, Princeton University’s professor Edwin Kemmerer. His job was to bring about an American –dominated Gold Exchange Standard. This would be in opposition to London.

 Little wonder that alarm bells began to ring throughout the British Establishment, and within Rothschild family circles. An unanticipated threat to the strategic interests of the British Empire had come from South Africa, in concert with very powerful financial circles in America, headed by the Rockefellers. That would mean de facto an American-dominated Gold standard.

 For well over a century, the ability of the City of London to stand as the center of international finance had depended on controlling the world’s physical trade of gold through London. London’s N.M. Rothschild & Sons set the world’s daily price of gold at its bank. London had been successful because it had, first captured the vast bulk of new gold discovered in California and Australia after the 1840s and later, out of the Boer War, it captured South Africa’s huge supply from Witwatersrand.

 Much of the history of the British Empire from the 1850s through the 1920s, traced back to this subtle manipulation of physical gold production flows into and out of the London gold bullion market.

 Direct shipment of South African gold to New York would have dealt a devastating blow to the plans of the British financier elite to rebuild their dominance after the First World War. American intervention into South Africa, via Kemmerer and Hertzog, not only dealt a blow to the British Empire, but also threatened to reshape the entire world credit system on Wall Street’s terms.

By 1932, the British gave in. They agreed to increase the participation of Standard Oil in Mosul to 40%, provided that New York would leave South Africa alone. Deal done. And South Africa remained under the influence and orbit of British finance.

By 1932, the British gave in. They agreed to increase the participation of Standard Oil in Mosul to 40%, provided that New York would leave South Africa alone. Deal done. And South Africa remained under the influence and orbit of British finance.

Conflict #4 – Rothschilds lose the White House

The Rockefellers gain control of the White House.

 In November 1932, the Rockefellers put their man into the White House. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or FDR. He took office in January 1933.

 Among the first things that FDR did, was to break the stranglehold of Rothschild finance over Wall Street. He created the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, to break the power of JP Morgan, the Rothschild’s chief money agents in America. JP Morgan was a wholesale investment bank. Morgan had the power of the Rothschilds behind him to gather up large amounts and either invest it in certain targeted industries, or to cause gyrations on the stock market. Morgan controlled a number of banks that were the key to its dominance on American finance.

 The SEC was mandated to break the power of JP Morgan. To this effect, a law was passed in the US Congress, called the ‘Glass-Steagall’ Act. This separated the investment banks from ordinary commercial banks and insurance companies. In this manner, the Rothschild dominance of Wall Street gave way to the Rockefeller dominance of Wall Street. Most of the Rockefeller banks were retail banks that dealt with the public, as well as large corporations. Soon, the financial power of JP Morgan was reduced to its own capital, and was a dying entity in US finance.

 FDR did many other things that increased the power of the Rockefeller family, and diminished the power of the Rothschild family, in the United States. In short, the Rothschilds had lost political control in America. It would be another 65 years later that they would lose financial control of the Federal Reserve, when JP Morgan went bust in 2000, and was taken over by Chase Manhattan. The new bank would henceforth be called JP Morgan Chase.

Conflict #5 – The End of the British Empire

One of the most significant outcomes of the Second World War was the relative demise of the political power that had dominated the world for 150 years – The British Empire. Viewed in larger geopolitical terms, the two world wars from 1914 through 1945 could best be understood as “contests for the British succession between Germany and the USA. This contest was not decided until the end of the Second World War and the unconditional surrender of Germany.

 The US establishment and its Washington representatives lost no time in implementing America’s imperial succession. Even before the war’s end, Washington made clear to Churchill that there would be no respect for traditional spheres of influence in the postwar world, specifically no more British domination of Middle East oil politics, no sharing of atomic bomb secrets, and no more military help.

 During the 1930s, the British had created its own economic block, the Sterling Area, along with a system of trade called Imperial Preference that favored the nations of the British Empire. Churchill did not intend to surrender that protection after the war.  For their part, the powers of Wall Street and corporate America were determined to force open access to the protected British Empire. Quite simply, for Washington to “open” global markets would mean busting up the British Sterling Preference Area, by hook or by crook.

American oil and banking interests emerged from the Second World War vastly more powerful than before the war. A major factor was that it’s British and French oil rivals had been devastated and strategically weakened through the war. Washington did not hesitate to take advantage of their weakness.

 After the war, Rockefeller’s corporate and banking interests were positioned to dominate the energy supplies of their new American empire. Their handpicked people were effectively running US State Department policy. Meanwhile, David Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank had managed to funds and financial transactions of key German big businesses throughout the war. Nelson Rockefeller was firmly in control of President Roosevelt’s policy, extending influence over the Americas, opening vast new markets for Rockefeller-dominated oil companies, mining companies, and other interests.

 Oil was becoming the essential energy resource, the basis of postwar global growth. The Rockefeller oil majors would hold a tight grip on that power in the new postwar world of the American Century.

 Following the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919, the British Empire had achieved its largest geographical reach, a dominion covering one quarter of the entire surface of the world. A mere thirty years later, by 1949, the British Empire was disintegrating in every region, as demands (very strongly encouraged by American finance) were escalating against the oppressive mother country. The British Empire was in the throes of the largest upheaval of perhaps any Empire in history.

 American foreign policy shrewdly encouraged the anti-colonial ambitions for freedom and independence within the British and French colonial empires, stopping just short of supporting genuine de-colonization in those countries after independence.

 Within a few short years, Britain had ceded formal colonial control over large parts of her empire in Africa, the Pacific, and the Mediterranean. It was not done out of any sudden sympathy for the subject peoples. It was driven by British financial ruin and the unrelenting pressure from Washington, who dictated the reshaping of postwar power relations after 1945.

 As Churchill had feared, Washington had indeed fought World War 11 in order to “preside over the dismantling of the British Empire”, the only power in the late 1940s that could potentially challenge America’s domination. As a consequence of the War, the trading mechanisms of the Empire that had formed the foundation of British financial power had been shattered. Vast overseas investments had long since been sold to pay Britain’s war costs. The final blow to Britain’s ambitions to hold onto the shards of global Empire came abruptly on September 2, 1945, when Washington unexpectedly cancelled Britain’s Lend-Lease aid. Since this program started in March 1941, the US had supplied Britain with $31 billion in war supplies and other aid. This was the equivalent of $450 in 2015 dollars. The British thought that this aid would be forgiven, and that America would help Britain with further cash. So, this came as a huge shock to London.

 Large quantities of essential goods were already in Britain, or on transit, when Washington terminated Lend-Lease on September 2. Instead Washington offered a $4 billion loan at 2% interest with strings attached. This ended Britain’s preferential trade with its Commonwealth member countries and severely weakened Britain’s economic and trade role in the world.

Britain was dependent on the financial support of the US, its financial elite, and the Rockefellers. For its part, the Rockefellers realized that if the US was going to dominate the world, it would need the vast international expertise and cooperation of London. After 1945, Britain would be permitted to exert global influence but only indirectly, through a ‘special relationship’ with the US, as its distinctly junior partner.

 The financial and monetary pillar of American domination depended on an equally powerful American military role. After all, what was to prevent other nations from forming new alliances to challenge America? What could prevent the former allies of 1945 from becoming deadly rivals a decade or two later? Washington delivered an answer to those questions only four weeks before she cancelled British Lend-Lease aid.  The US had secretly developed the most terrifying weapon in the history of warfare. Moreover, the political and financial elite of the US would demonstrate to the entire world that they were mad enough to use that awesome weapon on their adversaries. This was the atomic bombing of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Bretton Woods Dollar System

The centerpiece of US economic strategy for shaping its dominance of the post-war world was called the Bretton Woods Agreement – the promotion of an American-defined ‘free – trade’ and of the US dollar as the sole currency of that world trade.

 World War 11 had caused enormous destruction of infrastructure, industry and populations throughout the Eurasian landmass from the Atlantic to Vladivostok on the Pacific. The only major industrial power in the world to emerge intact – indeed greatly strengthened from an economic perspective – was the United States.

 As the world’s greatest industrial power, physically unscathed by the war, the US stood to gain enormously from opening the entire world to open trade. The US industrial sector would have a global market for its exports, and it would have unrestricted access to vital raw materials from countries that were former colonies of the Rothschild-controlled European powers.

 “Free trade” involved lowering tariffs and removing national protections that hindered the flow of goods, especially US exports, into global markets, or removed barriers to US imports of cheap raw materials from former or existing European colonies.

 The European economies had little choice but to agree with the US vision. Even Britain was forced to take a bitter lesson in humility before harsh American demands. The final agreement for a postwar New World Order in monetary and economic affairs was reached following months of bitter infighting between British and American negotiators.

 The final agreements was signed by 29 nations in December 1945 at a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.  This hotel was owned by the Rockefeller family. It was a crowning moment for the Rockefeller’s Council on Foreign Relations War and Peace Studies Project – their dream of a postwar economic empire had been successfully achieved.

 The New York Federal Reserve Bank, the private institution controlled by the Wall Street Money Trust since its creation in 1913, was the heart of the system that would now control the majority of the world’s gold; where the principal reserve currency would be the US dollar, and all other countries would have to peg their currencies to the dollar.

 The unchallenged role of the US dollar was one of the two fundamental pillars of American power after 1945. The second pillar was the unchallenged role of the US as a military superpower.

 While the role of the US dollar as reserve currency gave Wall Street an advantage over potential rivals such as the British Sterling, the German Mark or French Franc, more importantly, it allowed the US treasury and Federal Reserve the uncontrolled power to issue virtually unlimited dollars for international lending, regardless of gold backing, as the US dollar and not gold was the world reserve commodity.

 Because of the unique role of the American dollar as world reserve currency, the US was able to finance its growing military expenses abroad by issuing new dollars rather than increasing its own gold reserves. To get gold was not easy in a world where gold was sought by most other central banks, but dollars could be created by the US Treasury more or less at will.

Birth of the National Security State

In 1946, Leo Welch, then treasurer of Standard Oil Company had this to say, “ as the largest source of capital, and the biggest contributor to the global mechanism, we must set the pace and assume the responsibility in this corporation known as the world – – – nor is this for a given term of office. This is a permanent obligation.”

 In 1948, a top strategist at the State Department outlined the postwar agenda very clearly; “We have about 50% of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its population – – in this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without any negative results to our national security.  To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentiments and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford the luxury of benefitting the world.”

 America was to be an empire in much the same way that Britain had been an Empire after 1815, with one significant difference. America’s economic imperialism would disguise itself under the cover of ‘spreading free enterprise’, and supporting ‘democracy’. The term empire was to be scrupulously avoided. They created the deception that there was not an empire, as it did not seek to military occupy other nations. At least, that was the argument. It was every bit an empire, albeit a less visible one.

 The deception was astonishingly successful, in part because the American elite realized the value of giving abundant local spoils to the wealthy and often corrupt national elites in foreign markets they wished to conquer. The system that evolved after 1945 was one of a single, overwhelming global power, and a growing number of de facto vassal states whose wealthy elite were in one way or another dependent for their existence on the ‘good graces’ of Washington, the Pentagon, and Wall Street.

 The American Century was to be an informal empire of dependent ‘client states’ rather than occupied colonies, deemed by them to be an outmoded and inefficient model of domination. Here is where the term “minds of the empire” comes into play. The colonial powers treated their subjects in a manner close to form of slavery, with ‘visible chains’. The Americans removed the ‘visible chains’ and installed ‘invisible chains’, by working the con of ‘democracy’ on the colonized nations. The slogan of democracy and freedom blinded the people to exchange one form of slavery for another. It is precisely what happened in South Africa, since 1994. The perception that “snow is black” is still very strong, in South Africa, and in many other countries around the world.

 As someone once said; “The best slave is the one who thinks he is a free person.”

 American history over the previous century had been driven by an increasingly powerful cartel of financial elites and the large industrial trusts they controlled. Their interests, rather than the interests of the nation and the population as a whole, defined the strategic priorities of that powerful cartel. Their overwhelming control of the national media allowed their propaganda experts to portray their interests as ‘America’s interests’. Most people in the world, including Americans bought this con.

 Their economic model was that of the British east India Company, of looting and plundering to exhaustion one region after the next to prop up their empire, leaving behind as little as possible. For the Rockefellers, the most prominent proponent of this policy, the entire world was considered their ‘frontier’. By portraying their mission after 1948 as a Cold War fought by ‘American democracy’ against ‘Godless communism’, they gave their cause of advancing their empire a messianic religious cover that was astonishingly effective for decades.

 The American financial elite managed in this way to break the power of its greatest economic rival at that time the British Empire.  In the next issue, we will now see just how much further they went in crushing any opposition from the Rothschild family over its takeover of their global assets.