A young Winston Churchill, on the eve of the first world war, took a gamble that changed the course of history. As First Lord of the Admiralty, he decided to convert the British navy from Welsh coal to imported oil. The resulting gains in speed gave Britain's navy a decisive advantage over Germany's. It also set off a geopolitical scramble as Britain sought to secure oil supplies before its rivals did. Churchill believed that "safety and certainty in oil lie in variety, and variety alone."
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