Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Relations between Iran and the west
What caused the iranian revolution 1979 essay
Revolution in Iran 1979
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Relations between Iran and the west
Iran is the only country in the world to have completely and truly succeeded in creating an islamic state using political Islam. The modern western tendency to separate church and state is frowned upon there, Islam is believed to be an integral part of politics, a way of life. This is evident through the 1979 Iranian revolution and institution of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
The catalyst to the period of modernization in Iran was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had ruled since the end of the second world war, orchestrated by the United States and the United Kingdom under the title operation AJAX. This made Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Leaders including Mehdi Bazargan and Ayatollah Taleqani established the liberation movement of Iran, which sought to bridge the gap between religiously and secularly oriented Iranians to create a more Islamic state and society. Ali Shariati, an intellectual and teacher, combined the Islamic spirit of Bazargan and Taleqani, the ideas of respected sociologists, and third world socialists. Ali Shariati emerged as part of the islamic reformation bringing ideas from socialism. He preached then when opposition to the shah grew, the solution was to turn to religion and aim for an ideal islamic state. Ali Shariati was the ideology behind the revolution and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was its figure. He condemned the westernization of muslim societies and stressed the inseparability of Islam and politics. Once Muhammad Reza Shah had been overthrown, Khomeini returned to Iran where national vote was held and Khomeini won a landslide victory. He declared an Islamic republic and was appointed Iran's political and religious leader for life. Islamic law was introduced across the country. His denunciation of American influence led to militant Islamic students storming the US Embassy in Teheran in November
This completely changed the perception of the United States within Iran. Many Iranians believed that “American influence and power made a mockery of their national autonomy and desecrated their religious beliefs” (Farber, 37). The real struggle came once the Shah sought asylum in the U.S. Iran believed this to be a betrayal and demanded the Shah be released to the revolutionaries. Due to the fact that the United States did not refuse the Shah, the revolutionaries took the embassy in Tehran and all of the people that worked there hostage. One of the hostages wrote back to his parents during the crisis “‘We will not be set free until shah is released and the longer we stay here like this the better is a chance for something terrible to happen’” (Farber, 156). The siege was led by Iranian students who supported the revolution and the Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader that the revolution had selected to take the place of the
Not only did the religious history play a large role in Iran’s beliefs but also foreign invaders have been imposing their power on the Iranian region for thousands of years. Iran...
America and Iran had tricked the Soviets which left them very angry, and this inevitably led to the Cold War. But less than a decade later, America had done something which caused Iran to change their opinion of them. In 1951, Iran had recently elected a prime minister by the name, Mohammed Mosaddeq, which he nationalized the countryś petroleum industry, long the domain of the British-dominated AIOC. This move, however, pitted the two governments against each other in a bitter political fight. The Truman administration had tried to work between both sides, but Dwight Eisenhower had quickly concluded that Mosaddeq represented the problem rather than the solution to the crisis. They decided that they wanted him out and later he was kicked out and Mohammad Reza Shah took his place for the next twenty-five years. Shah not only gained access to sophisticated American weaponry, but also obtained tacit White House permission to forgo any serious effort at reform. Over the years, the internal resentment against the Shahś political and economic policies was building to a peak, but the depth of the problem escaped the notice of American
Prior to the Islamic Revolution, Iran was ruled by the Shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and furthermore, not governed by religion. The Shah’s White Revolution launched a series of reforms in 1963 that are indicative of where women’s rights for Iran were heading prior to the Islamic revolution. The reforms included, giving women the right to vote, run for office and to become lawyers and judges. This large of a reform in regards to women’s rights, was far more drastic than anything Iran had experienced in the past, and the shock of these “extreme” measures, received a large backlash from over 90% of the population1, the Shia Muslims.
First, the Shah, out-of-touch with what his people wanted, became the catalyst for massive xenophobic and anti-Western feelings to spread throughout the nation. By giving up traditional Islamic ideals and becoming sort of a “puppet” for the U.S. and the Western world, the Shah made a mockery of himself and of those traditional Islamic values, which were paramount in Iran. For many years, Iranians wrote letters to the Shah, voicing their discontent with many aspects of his rule — the spread of the Bahá’í Faith, the collapse of Islamic traditions, and the crumbling economy. The Shah, however, did nothing to fix these issues. Instead, he designed a political reformation movement, hoping to silence his opponents, to introduce personal rights for women, and to establish a sense of fiscal equality. This series of reforms, which appeared to be a blatant attempt to Westernize Iran, became known as the “White
A few years later in 1979 the Islamic revolution began, causing the Shah to flee (introduction pages one and two).
Ludwig, P. (1999). Iranian Nation and Islamic Revolutionary Ideology. Die Welt des islams. 39(2). 183-217.
Throughout the 20th century, the United States tried to control Iran to ensure the exportation of oil to America. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi came to power in 1941 and became allies with the United States. However in the 1950s, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh began to gain political power. Unlike the Shah, he was extremely against western influence in Iran. Mossadegh won national elections and he demanded more power. In order to retain influence in Iran, the CIA helped overthrow Mossadegh and bring Pahlavi back to power....
Griffith, William E. “The Revial of Islamic Fundamentalism: the Case of Iran.” International Security. Volume 4, Issue 1, 1979, 132-138.
Iran was included in the territory of what was then the ancient Persian Empire. For centuries Iran (land of the Aryans) was also referred to as Persia, which was the official name until 1935. Fourteen years had passed before the Iranian government allowed the use of both names. Few groups of people today have significant history like the Iranians, descending from the ancient Persians, who possess one of the world’s richest and oldest cultures. Historically, a variety of other cultures and groups had once occupied the ancient Iranian plateau as early as 4,000 B.C.E, with little importance. Beginning by the third millennium, Persia was ruled by some of the greatest kings of all time, from Cyrus the Great to Darius the III, who turned the Persian Empire into one of the world’s greatest civilizations.
The 1953 Iranian coup d’état was the CIA’s first successful overthrow of a foreign government. It was seen as an action to stop a possible Iranian communist takeover led by Mohamed Mossadeq, the Iranian prime minister at the time. But in actuality, the U.S. and Britain were more afraid of the imposing Soviet threat in the region. Because Britain and other western countries issued sanctions on Iran as a consequence to oil nationalization, the Britain and the U.S. feared that Mossadeq would turn to the Soviet Union in an effort to stabilize Iran’s economy. Fearing that Iran would soon be influenced by communism, the U.S. looked at the option of regime change as an answer to the ongoing crisis. In 1953, under the Eisenhower administration, a CIA coup to overthrow Mossadeq was authorized. After three days of CIA organized riots in Iran, Mossadeq surrendered, Fazlollah Zahedi, as chosen by the CIA, succeeded Mossadeq as prime minster of Iran. Now that Mossadeq, once a leader of the democratic movement in Iran, was no longer a political force, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi came back to power, now with little political opposition and supported by the United States and Britain. The CIA coup was originally intended as a solution for the Iranian oil crisis, but its occurrence later caused undesirable results in future. Although the real reason for the CIA overthrow of the Iranian government was to protect geopolitical interests from the Soviet threat in the region, the United States, did not foresee the negative, long term effects of coup, some of which are still evident today.
In February of 1979, Muhammad Reza Shah was in exile and Ayatollah Khomeini arrived as the triumphant leader of a revolution. Throughout the remainder of the year, the execution of former prime ministers, SAVAK agents, and high- ranking military officers took place. Muhammad Reza Shah’s regime was no longer in power and the Iranian Revolution was in full effect, but what caused this rapid shift of power? In the years leading up to the revolution, the Shah implemented the White Revolution in attempts to modernize Iran. The White Revolution was an attempt to turn Iran into an economic power, however; it went against many of the core beliefs of Islam. The White revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s caused the Iranian revolution because it marginalized
The Islamization Iran was a long process by which Islam was gradually accepted by the majority of the population in Iran. During the Arab influenced Umayyad period, only a little of Iran’s population converted to Islam. With its mix of Persian and Arab rulers alike the beginning of the Abbasid period gave rise to the percent of Muslims in the dynasty’s populations. As Persian Muslims started their rule of the country, the Muslim population rose from little in the mid ninth century to close to 100% by the end of the eleventh century. It is believed that the...
Iran, also known as Persia, is a country in Western Asia. Though Iran is also known as Persia, it wasn't until 1935 that it adopted its present name. It is the second largest nation in the Middle East, having a land area of 1,648,195 km2. With over 77 million people, it is the world's 17th most populous nation. It shares borders with Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. In the 1500s B.C., Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979, until the monarchy was overthrown. The Medes and the Persians first occupied Iran. However, the Persian king Cyrus the Great overthrew the Medes and became ruler of the Persian Empire. Its official language, Persian, is Indo-European. Though Iran adopted a different version of the Arabic alphabet, it refused to lose its own identity after the establishment of the Arab Empire in the 7th century. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical settlements dating back to 4000 BCE. Iran's climate can be very extreme, ranging from subtropical to sub polar, due to the tremendous variations in altitude and rainfall. The Iranian nation is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world. The Mesolithic and Upper Paleolithic populations occupied caves in the Elburz and Zagros mountains, while the earliest civilizations in the region descended from the Zagros hills.
Although the Iranian Revolution was both a political and religious movement in that it resulted in major shifts in government structure from an autocracy to a republic and that Islamic beliefs were fought to be preserved, it was more a religious movement in that the primary goal of the people was to preserve traditional ideology and in that the government became a theocracy intertwined with religious laws and desires of the people. Although the Iranian Revolution was caused by combination of political and religious motivations and ideas, the desires of the people supporting the movement were more dominantly religious ideas that were wished to be imposed in society and in a new government. The Shah, or king, of Iran at the time was Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who had developed relations with nations in the “western” world, specifically with the United States. The United States supported the White Revolution, which was a series of social reformations the Shah made to remove Islamic values, law and tradition from the government to boost the country’s economy (White Revolution, 2010).... ...