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Mossadeq comes to power
Iran had been ruled by the Shah since the start of the 20th century. By the 50's, Mohhamed Mossadeq, an Iranian nationalist had become really popular so the Shah decided to place him as Prime Minister. When he came to power, one of the first things he did was to nationalise the oil industry, something that made the UK furious, so they removed all the help from them in the oil industry. Also, they persuaded western countries not to buy Iran's oil. -
Overthrowing Mossadeq
Even Though the decrease in income in Iran, Mossadeq remained popular. This started to worry Britain, who convinced the USA to join their efforts in overthrowing Mossadeq. They exploited USA’s fear of communism spreading to make them participate. This led to Mossadeq being overthrown on August the 19th 1953. -
Consequences
The Shah decided to replace him with a more Pro-Western prime minister. Moreover, Mossadeq was imprisoned and the Parliament was closed.
After this, western oil companies agreed on a 40% share of oil income if the production was restarted. -
The treaty
A treaty was signed with the USA and was later joined by Britain, Turkey, and Iraq. This was useful for the west, as Iran was anti-soviet and had a long border with the USSR, this meant it would protect the oil supplies for the west. During this time, Iran grew richer and richer, and at the same time, the Sha made some reforms such as giving women the right to vote and gave poor farmers more land. -
Oposition to the Shah
Opposition to the Shah increased through the years. Religious people, such as the Mullahs started seeing the way of life of the Shah as too extravagant for the way people lived in Iran as well as being corrupt. This all came down in October 1971, when the Shah celebrated what he called the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, which cost around 330 million USD. -
Demonstrations started
Furthermore, the Shah was seen as too werstern, that he was too influenced by the USA as it supported the State of Israel and mullahs encouraged street demonstrations and attacks on places which were too westernized. In response, the secret police arrested and tortured thousands of people. Ayatollah Khomeini was seen as the most important representant of the muslim world. -
Strikes from September to October
Demonstrations of more than a million people started being common in Teheran. The secret police killed more and more people and in October, when military rule was imposed, more than 500 people were killed which led to strikes which paralysed most industries. At the end of the year, even soldiers began sympathising with the crowds, but the Shah's advisors told him he was still popular. -
Ayatollah Khomeini returns
The Shah left for the USA seeking treatment for cancer, but never returned. In his place, Ayatollah Khomeini came back in the midst of celebrations and declared an Islamic revolution. The last Prime Minister fled the country and the army declared their support of the revolution. A referendum was held, which led to the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of an Islamic State. -
Establishment of the Islamic state
Ayatollah Khomeini founded the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 revolution, as the Islamic Republican party was the most predominant between all of them.
Evendough Khomeini was not the Prime Minister, he held most of the power as supreme leader and had a say in everything that had to do with politics. He also wanted Islam to spread to other parts of the world. -
Iran hostage crisis
Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran when the US government allowed the Shah into America to receive medical treatment. They took 50 of the American staff as hostage. The US government declared Iran to be an international threat. -
The ending of the hostage crisis
The iranians released all the African-American hostages first, the others hostages were released after 444 days of captivity. The consequences this had were the death of 8 USA soldiers and 1 Iranian, all of them during Operation Eagle Claw, which had the objective of rescuing the people.