Mohammad Reza Pahlavi- Rough Draft

1033 Words3 Pages

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...

... middle of paper ...

...4 June 2014.
Maxson, Pamela. "Reza Shah Pahlevi." Nova Online. C.T. Evans and P. Maxson, May 1999. Web. 20 May 2014.
"Mohammad Reza Pahlavi." Official Site of Empress Farah Pahlavi. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 June 2014.
"Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 16 May. 2014.
Sadri, Houman A. "Pahlavi Dynasty." Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Ed. Karen Christensen and David Levinson. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. 407-410. World History in Context. Web. 19 May 2014.
Samii, Abbas William. "The Shah's Lebanon policy: the role of SAVAK." Middle Eastern Studies 33.1 (1997): 66+. World History in Context. Web. 19 May 2014.
Wright, Edwin M. "Review: Riza Shah Pahlavi: The Resurrection and Reconstruction of Iran 1878-1944." Middle East Journal 30.2 (1976): JSTOR. Web. 19 May 2014.

Open Document