The Road to Today - Part Two

By the 20th century, the Qajar dynasty was severely weakened with domestic and

international disputes. A failure to modernise and political struggles within the dynasty led to a

military coup in 1921, and a formal transfer of power by the Majles (parliament) in 1925 to Reza

Khan. Reza Pahlavi was the first monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty, and he was an absolute

monarch who decided to modernize like the Western European countries. This would later be a

point of contention amongst the population, but during his reign, he changed the country’s name

to Iran from Persia (in 1935), abolished previous concessions that weakened the country (though

several jointly operated companies still remained), made the wearing of the hijab illegal, and

built Trans-Iranian Railway. (Britannica)

Iran’s foreign policy during this period was also still Westernized. The Anglo-Persian Oil

Company’s existence ended in 1935, however, it was replaced by the Anglo-Iranian Oil

Company, after the country’s name change the same year... Much did not change from the times

when concessions were first given out, and the major businesses of the country were still

British-dominated. In 1941, the country was briefly also occupied by British and Soviet forces to

secure crucial war supplies, which was when Reza Shah abdicated and was replaced by his son,

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.(Britannica)

Reza Pahlavi, however, was left with a crumbling nation. A lot of the policies instated by Reza Shah were unpopular with the Iranian citizens, and the population was also unhappy with the foreign-dominated oil industry, which was generating foreigners a lot of money, whilst

disadvantaging Iranians. The country was also rather unhappy with the Shah, who had failed to

prevent the country from growing as much as it could have without the AIOC. After all, when

you are an absolute monarch, there is really only one person to blame for economic failures -

you. Reza Shah’s aiding of Western countries, and his lack of cooperation with the parliament

and the democratically elected officials (such as P.M. Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was sacked

in 1953 after attempting to nationalise the AIOC) led to even more animosity within the nation.

With many years of social distress, the Shah’s reign was hanging on a very thin line, but,

as stated by the BBC, “in 1971, the Shah of Iran threw a huge three-day party to celebrate 2,500

years of the Persian Empire. More than 60 world leaders and heads of state were invited to a

lavish tent city in the middle of the desert.” Many saw this as too much from the monarch, and

started looking for some sort of immediate change.

The history behind the Islamic revolution is definitely a more humanities-oriented

subject, and I may not be the best person to write about this topic, but since the revolution, the

overall percentage of lower-class individuals has decreased, the GDP of the nation has increased,

and access to clean water, natural gas, and electricity have all increased.(Brookings) Still, now that we look back at the history of Iran and its economy, I cannot help but wonder, could Iran’s economy have grown even more if only Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had listened to his people? And without a revolution against the Shah, how different could the world be today?