From 1941 to 1979 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, commonly known as Mohammad Reza, or simply the Shah, led Iran as successor to his father, Reza Shah Pahlavi. Mohammad often went against his vows of constitutional monarchy by using the Iranian secret police, SAVAK, to suppress his political opponents. Mohammad Reza's domestic policy focused on a series of reform policies to modernize the country. His foreign policy focused on an effort to abolish sovietism, and become an ally of the western powers and the US. Shah's rule is characterized as dictatorial, a period of major domestic and constitutional reform, as well as a period in which Iran established itself as a major regional power. Mohammad Reza attempted to rid the region of foreign influence, mainly that of the Soviets and communism, in an effort to grow the countries individual power. As a means to reach this goal, Mohammad Reza instituted reforms to modernize the country. However, as stated on the official website of Farah Pahlavi, his rule did not follow the emerging ideas of democracy and brought opposition from many of the traditionalist, and nationalists with different priorities. Overall, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's domestic reforms were largely ineffective in reaching his goals, whereas his foreign goals were largely met.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi replaced his father as the ruler of Iran in 1941 when his father was forced into exile by the Soviet Union and Great Britain because of his friendly relations with Germany. His father, Reza Shah Pahlavi, established Iran as a "new state of considerable apparent strength...capable of asserting its power...throughout the country and over the entire population." Reza Shah implements and enforced the nationalists' agenda without the aid of tribe...
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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.
Gasiorowski, Mark J., and Malcolm Byrne, eds. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 coup in Iran. Syracuse University Press, 2004.
...ries and the 1979 revolution. The author presents Iran through the leadership of mullahs and shah tradition. The book has rich information covering the history of Iran. Mottahedeh managed to develop an impressive book that satisfies the curiosity of a reader wanting to understand the history, culture and political atmosphere of Iran through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century. Roy Parviz Mottahedeh and Ali Hashemi represent two views of Islamic learning and Iranian history and culture. While Ali Hashemi represents a religious view of Islamic learning and history of Iran, Parviz represents a secular view of Islamic learning and ambiguity of culture in Iran. The two views help to bring out the ways in which Islamic religion and culture influenced political atmosphere, in Iran especially at a time when politics in Iran was shaped by religion.
... 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.”
Iran was a country ruled by the Shah (King), who began his rule in the beginning of the 1950’s. He would help Iran greatly improve conditions. He began to improve relations with the United States securing oil deposits throughout Iran with American companies. However, the shah slowly became more and more dependent on the United States. He began asking the United States for advice on almost every decision he made. Although no such reports were printed in the United States (to my knowledge) there are sources, which lived in Iran and experienced a...
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
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
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....
Reza Shah Pahlavi’s rise to power ended the 131-year reign of the Kajar dynasty and established the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925. Much to the chagrin of not only Muslim clerics, but also the general population, Reza Shah Pahlavi leaned heavily towards secular ...
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a religious uprising that involved the collapse of the longstanding Monarchy in Iran. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the background and ideology of the Iranian Revolution with the Russian Revolution of 1917. I will then outline the major differences and similarities between the two.
Development. by Fred Halliday; The Rise and Fall of the Shah. by Amin Saikal; Iran:
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.
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...