Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The capture of Mecca, Islam's holiest city, in 1924 by the well-prepared forces of Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud was not held to be of very great importance at the time. However, from the perspective of the 21st century, faced with resurgent Islam and the continuing importance of oil worldwide, the seizure now appears to be one of the pivotal events of the last 100 years. . . . In 1891, when Ibn Saud was just 11 years old, the family was expelled by the Rashidis . . . And Ibn Saud disappeared into exile in Kuwait. In 1902, at age 21, he led 60 warriors on a raiding party near his birthplace. With just 20 men, he captured Riyadh and took his revenge by personally slaughtering the head of the Rashidi dynasty. Ibn Saud consolidated this success and made his clan the dominant power in the Arabian Peninsula by aligning with the austere and extreme Wahhabi Islamic sect. . . . In December 1915, Britain, hoping to draw Ibn Saud into its ongoing struggle against the Ottoman Turks, forged an alliance with him. After the war, Ibn Saud attacked the rival Hashemite clan, driving them from the Hejaz province and crowning his triumph by seizing Mecca in October 1924." Hugh oil deposits were discovered in the late 1930s. [Furtado: 1001 Days]