Why is oil being traded in U.S. dollars? I am trying to understand the concept of money,forex, depreciation of currency,devaluing,...(just the basic stuff). While I was reading about why oil is being traded in U.S. dollars, on the internet, I came upon reasons like at that time the other European currencies were collapsing, the convertibility of the dollar was suspended, some speculate the U.S. used military power to force deal with the Gulf countries to sell oil in U.S. dollars. I could'nt understand these things, why would they force to trade in U.S. dollars instead of just taking the oil from their country by force? Does both the ways give the same result? How is it even beneficial to the U.S.?
why would they force to trade in U.S. dollars instead of just taking the oil from their country by force?


One of the basic tenets of power is that $control$ is superior to $ownership$.  War is expensive, oil must be stored before it is used, and any captured production assets must be defended and maintained at great cost.  

Rather than own all of this through waging successful war, it is far cheaper to simply control it.  This is accomplished precisely because the $USD is the world's reserve currency.  It is cheaper for any given sovereign nation to hold one currency in reserve, rather than to hold an adequate amount of all world currencies in reserve.  Much of US global policy in the past has been in support of the US' perceived role as a stable nation supported by rule of law, which builds the necessary trust for most other nations to put their economic "eggs" into the USD basket.

But how does control enter in? As a simple picture, any time international trade is conducted, there are three transactions that take place: the buyer converts home currency into USD; then the USD is exchanged for the goods/services; and finally the seller converts the USD into home or other currencies as required.  Thus there are two points of leverage in this transaction chain where the US can exert control, up to and including blocking transactions altogether.  

Have you ever wondered how trade sanctions are actually enforced?  This is how.  Sanctioned nations are simply blocked from using USD to engage in global trade, severely curtailing their ability to transact with other nations.  In the extreme, the US is able to unilaterally exclude any nation not already holding substantial reserves of USD from participating in global trade altogether.  In a global economy, this is often a much more consequential tool than the threat of war.