Modern times (Five minutes freewrite)

I couldn't say when they'd first discovered it, but it soon became clear it would change their lives completely.

Everything would be easier now. They were good hard-working people, they knew how to tend the soil and herd the cattle. Make do with what they had. All the hard work that kept them going now made easy. There was hope in their eyes. Gone were the hard times - it's what they thought.
They were not wrong. They all had big houses now and pools. Everybody wanted a pool - maybe because the work was still dirty and they craved the cleansing feeling of water against their skin.
They built sky-scrapers, tons of steel and glass that rose farther than their dreams. The people took to the skies themselves in their big metal birds. They used to laugh looking at the old pictures, back when they still went around in their funny horse-drawn carriages.

Their neighbors and people afar looked up to them. Theirs was a success story if there ever was one.
But - yes, there's always a but - the day came when they realized others were trying to replicate their story. They'd thought their great discovery was unique, but others had come to it, too. Not good, they thought. Now all these others will want sky-scrapers and pools and the good life.
That cannot be, they said.
'God showed me the way to protect my people', their leader said. He was a simple guy from Texas, who spoke just like them and they believed him.
So they sent the big metal birds to rain fire over their rivals. Shock and awe - they called it. It worked. They took hold of all the oil their rivals had. They could continue to be on top of the world. At least for a while.

Story written for @mariannewest's freewrite challenge. Today's prompt was: "Texas". New prompt every day. Check out her blog.