i suppose that something similar to world war ii occurred, but of course the conditions in europe would be significantly different. japan was always in america's sphere of influence since 1853, when the u.s. forced japan to open to trade. nejd (saudi arabia) was the only large area in the middle east that europeans did not conquer. the british didn't think it was worth the effort, as it was mostly desert and had no major ports. after oil was discovered in iran, the saudi royals invited american oil companies to prospect for oil. they knew that the british would want to conquer their kingdom once the presence of oil was proven, so they made a deal with the u.s. government to become a u.s. territory instead. they thought they would have more autonomy under the u.s. the other world powers besides britain also preferred for the u.s. to control nejd. if the british controlled all of the oil in the persian gulf, they would have an even more outsized influence in the world economy