40 years ago in 1979, Iran voted for an Islamic republic which replaced the monarchy. Ayatollah Khomeini became the First Supreme Leader of the State. This transition was shaped by a series of events which happened even before Ayatollah came into prominence. So we will take a look as to how things changed in Persia in the last century.

Chapter 1: Reza Regime

Post World War I when the world was still recovering from the terrible effects of the colossal tragedy. A battle of dominance had restarted in the Gulf. Soviet Red Army along with its Guerilla force marched on the streets of Tehran. Troubled by this General “Tiny” Ironside summoned his one of his battalion commander and ordered him to take charge of a brigade consisting more than 3000 troops. The name of this officer was Reza Khan; within a month he led his troop to a significant victory and deposed the government of Persia. Reza appointed PM of his choice and in the new government of Persia held the post of Commander-in-chief of the Army combined with Minister of War post. This success earned him the trust of British authorities. By 1925 he crushed all the revolts and even marked the end of Qajar dynasty by sending the last king Ahmad Shah Qajar to exile in Europe. With the support of British and Clerics, Reza instated himself as the Shah (king) of Persia. This was the beginning of the regime of Pahlavi dynasty over Iran.

Reza Shah brought modernization in Iran. He focused on industrial and infrastructural development. He introduced modern education in the nation and also empowered women. He tried to bring social equality among men and women which resulted in him being at the loggerheads with the clerics and fundamentalists. Reza’s main supporters were the army men as under his regime the defence budget increased multiple folds.

Something more than this was in Reza’s mind. He wanted to make sure that no foreign power can exercise its influence over Iran. For this, in the initial years, he builds a balance between British and Soviets. Soon he realized that these two nations are milking his country for their own benefits and Iran was at a loss. So he started looking for new allies. These new allies were Turkey and Germany. This became clear when Reza went in a tussle with British companies while German companies started getting concessions. This resulted in Germany being the largest trade partner of Iran at the onset of World War II.

One of the biggest failures of Reza’s regime was that he failed to curb corruption rather corruption got institutionalized under his administration. The machinery was so hollow that it crumbled in tough situations like that of WW2.

In the WW2, Reza sided with the German but his troops couldn’t stand against Allied forces for more than 3 weeks. On 16th September 1941, Reza was forced to abdicate his throne for the crown prince, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as he earned the goodwill of the Allied countries. PM of Iran Mohammad Ali Foroughi was instrumental in this agreement between Reza and Allies.

Chapter 2: Mosaddegh: Nationalization Of AIOC

In 1941 Mohammad Reza became the new Shah of Iran. The allies wanted to revive the old Qajar dynasty in Iran but as the only descendant of that dynasty who could be the king did not speak Persian so they dropped the idea. Also, the new Shah was not a very smart and pragmatic ruler like his father rather he got manipulated by his PM who was more loyal to Allies than the Iranian throne. M Reza hardly understood the political games rather he was more interested in his luxurious lifestyle. Post the WW2 the world became bipolar with USA and USSR becoming the two poles getting into a ruthless struggle for dominance across the globe.

At the same time, a 67-year-old man became the leader of a nationalist front called Jebhe Melli his name is Mohammad Mosaddegh. The front was aimed to destroy the control of European powers over the Iranian resources. In 1951 the opportunity of doing so arrived when Mosaddegh became the Prime Minister of the country. The main anger among the people of Iran was directed towards a British Company called Anglo-Iranian Oil Company which was founded in 1908. Through this company, Britain used to get oil from the Persian Gulf at very low prices alongside the Iranians who worked at those oil fields were promised significant benefits but these promises were never fulfilled which stoked a discontentment in the citizens of the country.

The British terribly exploited the resource of this country due to which the people of Iran were infuriated. M Reza worked virtually as an intermediary for that company who betrayed his own nation’s interest in order to accumulate a good sum of wealth from his colonial masters. Mosaddegh’s party was a socialist front which focused on improving the livelihood of the poor citizens of the country. The government came up with the policy of giving compensation to people who were unemployed. Labour reforms were introduced in the country and laws against exploitation were passed. Now the government turned towards addressing the elephant in the room i.e. AIOC (Anglo-Iranian Oil Company).

In 1933 the company had an agreement with the then Shah of Iran which gave them a 60-year concession. The company was getting smooth run but it ended in March 1951 when the then Prime Minister Haj Ali Razmara who was supportive of the company was assassinated. Razmara was the only person who could have stopped Mosaddegh from becoming the PM. Razmara resisted the pressure from Jebhe Melli and its notorious ally Fadayan-e-Islam, a Shiite fundamentalist group. The latter became a political party in 1989 earlier it was a front which was involved in the political assassination. With the assassination of Razmara, the road to power for Mosaddegh was clear. On May 1, 1951, Mosaddegh nationalized AIOC ended its 60 year concession period in just 18 years. The oil supply to the west choked. The company tried to negotiate but to no use as Mosaddegh had already declared this nationalization as real economic and political independence of Iran. Mosaddegh believed that with the control of Iranian oil exports, significant revenue can be generated which will, in turn, help him implement socialist policies and promises.

Chapter 3: CIA Infiltrates Persia

Mosaddegh was riding the wave of his successes which helped him pave the way for gaining more power. This resulted in his direct clash with M Reza and he was replaced by Ahmad Qavam who was a pro-West leader. Mosaddegh saw this is an opportunity to gain the sympathy of people. He gathered all his allies along with political and religious leaders who were against the monarchy. A massive protest broke out in Iran and the situation went out of administration’s hands. M Reza realized the gravity of the situation and re-appointed Mosaddegh as PM. This time Mosaddegh got all the administrative power with the help of Majlis and he started curbing the power of Shah. He started working on his reforms in a more assertive manner. But this period of smooth run began to end the very next year, 1953. Economic crisis began to loom over Persia because of an embargo imposed by the British and its allies. Mosaddegh got to face the same anger of people which he once used to come to power. He became insecure and passed a resolution to dissolve the parliament which was opposed by his political rivals. A nationwide referendum was conducted to pass the resolution. The result of this referendum clearly showed that the whole process was rigged. Mosaddegh got more than 99% votes when the people were out on streets protesting against his dictatorial regime.

The question arises how do the Americans come into play?

The USA was one of the beneficiaries of the British oil which came from Iran. Also, the USA was fighting against Soviet influence across the globe. Mosaddegh was supported by Iranian communists also which made the Americans wary of him. In 1952, a meeting took place in London which paved the way for the regime change in Iran. CIA official K Roosevelt met the British officials of SIS and planned to overthrow Mosaddegh and replace him with the pro-West military man, General Fazlollah Zahedi. The Shah of Iran who was initially hesitant to agree was intimidated that if he does not ally then even he will lose his throne. Finally, M Reza, Shah of Iran, agreed to the plan. CIA named the plan as Operation Ajax and began executing it by mid-1953. Roosevelt started funnelling money in Iran and started orchestrating violent protest which created chaos in the whole nation. General Fazlollah Zahedi took his army and marched the streets of Tehran and forced Mosaddegh to flee. Zahedi became the new Prime Minister and eventually, Mosaddegh was caught. Mosaddegh was put on trial and sentenced to death but his death sentence was later commuted to three years solitary confinement in a military prison by Shah of Iran. Post the imprisonment Mosaddegh spent rest of his life in house arrest until he died in 1967.

The west again gained total influence over Iran and Shah got his powers back.

Chapter 4: Shah Versus Supreme Leader

After the 1953 episode of the coup, M Reza became more serious about the responsibility of a ruler and began taking more interest in the administration. M Reza has now decided to transform his image of a despotic ruler to that of a reformer king. M Reza began to initiate social and economic reforms. This was known as the White Revolution. Through this, he brought land reforms which benefited the poor and gave the women voting rights. Such a drastic change led him to be at loggerheads with the clergy particularly one of the most influential religious leader of the nation Ruhollah Khomeini.

A year ago this White Revolution, Shah and Khomeini had already clashed on the issue of allowing minorities to take the oath of office using their own holy books rather than the Holy Koran. Khomeini reminded the Shah that there can be no compromise on the issue of religion being ultimate authority over the nation. This rift widened with the major reforms and Khomeini declared that the Shah is acting against Islam and he must be overthrown. Khomeini was arrested and massive protest erupted in the country. Hundreds of his supporters died in the protest and Khomeini was ultimately forced to an exile. Khomeini was living in exile in Najaf, Iraq but neither he lost nor his ideology.

He started developing and spreading his ideology into the minds of Iranian masses that were still not able to cope up with the massive westernization of a traditionalist rather orthodox Iranian society. One of his most important works is the Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist (Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih). This established the importance of a Guardian in Iranian society. The guardian will guide people about religion. He also made a point that even the nation needs a guardian so that he can make sure that the nation is working according to religious values. For the next decade and a half, these written materials and anti-Shah speeches from Khomeini was made available to the people of Iran. These acted as a catalyst for their growing displeasure towards social changes brought by the Shah. In 1977 during the exile, Khomeini’s son Mostafa died in police custody in Iraq due to a heart attack but the blame of his death was put on Shah. This acted as a trigger point within months series of protests began throughout the country. Khomeini himself encouraged each protest and used the death of protestors in the clashes as a source to generate more rage against the Shah. The constant spreading of his sermons for the last 15 years came to use as hundreds of thousands defied the orders of Shah and finally forced him and his family to flee the country on January 16, 1979. Two weeks later Khomeini returned back to Iran and the destiny of Middle East changed forever.

AFTERMATH:

The effects of this revolution were long drawn. It changed the dynamics of geopolitics. Iran was building good ties with Israel during Shah’s reign. He also focused on forming an alliance with the Saudi King Faisal to gain complete dominance over Arab peninsula. The relations were extremely cordial with the US as well. But post the Iran revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini described the US as the great Satan and Israel as the smaller one. It also engaged in 8-year long war with its neighbour Iraq which also happens to be Shia dominated country but was led by Saddam, a Sunni. Ayatollah tried to develop a revolution against the monarchy in other Arab countries as well. Iran faced terrible isolation from the western countries which hampered its economic progress. It is still involved in a proxy war against Saudi Arabia in the Arab World.
Another important thing is that it is one of the unique revolutions where the more conservative and orthodox ideology came to power replacing a modern one.
It has also shown the impact of radicalization of masses by religious leaders and how it can be a threat to the modern world.