Even so that does not imply that Mexico could not possibly use any generous financial support to buy the arms ammunition or other war supplies for the very reason that the U S was the only sizable arms manufacturer in the Americas To make matters worse Germany could not be counted on to supply Mexico with war supplies directly as the British Royal Navy controlled the Atlantic shipping lanes As the editor 148 247 186 142 has pointed out Mexico could buy weapons produced in Argentina or use the Argentinian companies as intermediaries Moreover as the same editor also pointed out the 75 of the fuel used by the British Royal Navy in 1917 was produced in Mexico Hence without fuel the British Royal Navy could not control the Atlantic shipping lanes at all Actually it is not a coincidence that the UK took Persia in the partition of the Ottoman empire of 1918 considering the fact that the Anglo Persian oil company was founded there in 1908 and the UK had learnt the lesson it is really dangerous to depend exclusively on the oil produced in only one foreign country Well they learnt the lesson until the oil crisis of 1973 Finally let us also recall that the US made plans in 1917 1918 for invading Mexico and taking control of Tampico oil fields but the US also calculated that Mexicans would set in fire the oil fields before they could arrive there the classical scorched earth technique applied by the Russians against Napoleon and Hitler Usually people does not take into consideration that Mexico had a super weapon in 1917 the oil fields because mass production of oil in Saudi Arabia began until 1945 189 203 69 72