Joey Sansone
November 17
HHHP
Autocratic Monarchy a Thing of the Past!
With the Autocratic Monarchy in Iran 's rear view mirror, there is hope that the new form of government will benefit the Citizens of Iranian. Before the Iranian Revolution, which began in January 1978 and ended in February 1979, Iran 's government was an Autocratic Monarchy (Wikipedia; Iranian Revolution). Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had unlimited authority over the citizens of Iran. Shah’s dictatorship and inability to manage the country 's finances resulted in poverty and led to a revolutionary war which ultimately changed the form of Iran 's government. Once the Shah was overthrown, Iran adopted the Islamic Republic. Iran was now ruled by Islamic law. For
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(Wikipedia; Autocratic) The editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica define coup d 'état as a “sudden, violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group.”(Encyclopaedia Britannica; coup d’etat) This is what occurred during the Iranian revolution.
Monarchy
“A form of government in which law-making power is given to a single person, usually holding such authority by birthright” (Duhaime’s Law Dictionary; Monarchy)
Autocratic Monarchy Resulted in Coup D 'etat
Shah was the Supreme leader of Iran. The vast majority of people did not agree with his economic decisions and as a result he was overthrown by his people. His bad financial decisions led to high levels of inflation and a low standard of living. Wikipedia stated that, “Shah was perceived by many Iranians as beholden to if not a puppet of a non-Muslim Western power (the United States).”(Wikipedia; Background and causes of the Iranian revolution).
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.
financial failures, and perceived belief that the Shah was being controlled by Western powers for
... ranking officials of Mossadeq administration, such as Hossein Fatemi, the minister of Foreign Affairs and close friend of Mossadeq, were executed and imprisoned also. The shah was back in power and he had the security of two of the most powerful countries in the world as allies; the United States and Britain. The Shah’s cooperation was sessional for the final settlement of the terms of Iranian oil concession. Walter Bedell Smith, Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration, summarizes the Shah’s mindset at the time; “The Shah is a new man. For the first time he believes in himself because he feels that he is King by his people’s choice and not the arbitrary decision of a foreign powe.”
After the deposing of the shah by revolution, the people of Iran elected a democratic l...
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
1941, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was officially inaugurated the king of Iran. The shah maintained a pro-Western foreign policy and to develop a strong economic stability in Iran. Many Iranian citizens were displeased with the shah's changes to their traditions. For example, the Shah changed the Islamic calendar with the "Imperial" calendar and he put more limits on the king's power by putting Iran under the subjugation of the United State (Addis).
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
In 1952 during the Cold War, Iran was under the rule of their prime minister, Muhammad Mossadegh, who wanted to nationalize the country's oil industry. Iran had been a large producer of oil and its industry, controlled by Britain and America, was thriving. Britain and American corporations were not in favor of Mohammad Mossadegh’s newly developed oil policies, so they made a secret plan to overthrow him. They were successfully able to overthrow Muhammad Mossadegh, and in 1953 a new government was developed and controlled by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Iran's new leader. The US has supported the Shah For twenty-six years and he became a central alley between the US and Iran. The Shah received military and political support from the US, and
Not to state the obvious, but there is a lot that goes into creating a government. The central focus of this paper are the differences and similarities between two very different nations’ constitutions: The United States of America and The Islamic Republic of Iran. A constitution is a document that entails the fundamental rules that govern a land and establish its structure, values, and limitations. On the surface, the American constitution (1787) and the Iranian constitution (1979) are similar in that they both ensure a president who is elected from majority rule, a legislature, and a powerful judiciary. However, there are far more differences in the organization of their governments than similarities, and this can be accredited to their different
In the 1970’s Iran, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a very centralized military state that maintained a close relationship with the USA. The Shah was notoriously out of touch with working class Iranians as he implemented many controversial economic policies against small business owners that he suspected involved profiteering. Also unrestricted economic expansions in Iran lead to huge government expenditure that became a serious problem when oil prices dropped in the mid 1970’s. This caused many huge government construction projects to halt and the economy to stall after many years of massive profit. Following this was high rates of inflation that affected Iranians buying power and living standards. (Afary, 2012) Under the Shah, political participation was not widely available for all Iranians and it was common for political opposition to be met with harassment, illegal detention, and even torture. These measures were implemented by the Iranian secret police knows as ‘SAVAK’. This totalitarian regime combined with the increasing modernisation of the country paved the way for revolution.
Totalitarianism is the term that is used to describe the political system where the government holds total authority ove...
In All The Shah’s Men there seems to be a very strong hatred for all foreign powers, including the United States, taken by the citizens of Iran. I believe that this ultimately occurred because of the impatience of certain government officials in Washington D.C., and also in Great Britain. If only there could have been better communication between countries, I feel that there would have been a solution reached. The stubbornness of the British for the most part, led to many lives being lost, and a feeling of perpetual disgust being shown towards the United States for their involvement. Although the British were our allies and we did have an extreme fear of communism taking over the free world, this coup was disorganized, forced along too quickly, and put forth without any guidance or strong evidence, which in the end proved to completely defy what the United States was trying to impose on the world, and what Mossadegh was trying to give his people; freedom and democracy.
Iran had suffered and prospered through many different rises of power in the 20th century; these changes caused anger in the Iranian people. The time leading up to the revolution was characterized a fight for power between the Western influences and the Islamic people. In 1979 the people of the Iran led by Ruhollah Khomeini considered to be an enemy of the state. He was born in about 1900 in the town of Khomein. He was raised in the tradition of Shiite Islam; because of the death of his father he became more spiritual and faithful. On March 31, 1961, Ayatollah Boroujerdi died and Khomeini was in a position to take up the mantle left by the late religious leader. After publishing his writings on Islamic science and doctrines, many Shi'ite Iranians began to see Khomeini as Marja-e Taqlid (Biography channel website ). He wanted to start the first “government of God” (Berlatsky 26). He was thought to be a threat to the Shah decided that they had enough of his attempts to overthrow the government; he had been exiled for 14 years. With him as the leader of the Islamic uprising people flocked to his side to support. The placement of he Shah by America in the 1960’s was their final straw. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 has been described as one of the most notable events of the twentieth century; it began a period of time in which the Islamic culture was fighting against the modernization in many nations where Islam was the main religion. There is a huge difference between an unsuccessful revolution in which the beginners of the revolution are diminished and their demands not met. But when it is look at, the Iranian Revolution is seen as successful revolution in which all the needs of fight...
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
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 “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 v...