IRAN IN MODERN AND CURRENT TIME
SET OF TOPICS - Qajar Dynasty - Agha Mohammad Khan - Fath Ali Shah, 1797 – 1834 - Naser o-Din Shah, 1848 - 1896 - Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir - The Constitutional Revolution - Pahlavi Dynasty - Iranian Revolution - Iran-Iraq Conflict -Post Iranian Revolution to the Present Day
MAP OF IRAN
The establishing the Qajar dynasty The Qajars were a Turkmen tribe that held ancestral lands in present-day Azerbaijan, which then was part of Iran. In 1779, following the death of Mohammad Karim Khan Zand, the Zand dynasty ruler of southern Iran, Agha Mohammad Khan, a leader of the Qajar tribe, set out to reunify Iran. Agha Mohammad Khan brought all of Iran under his rule, establishing the Qajar dynasty. By 1794 he had eliminated all his rivals, including Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last of the Zand dynasty, and had reasserted Iranian sovereignty over the former Iranian territories in Georgia and the Caucasus. Agha Mohammad established his capital at Tehran, a village near the ruins of the ancient city of Ray (now Shahr-e Rey). In 1796 he was formally crowned as shah. Agha Mohammad was assassinated in 1797 and was succeeded by his nephew, Fath Ali Shah.
Fath Ali Shah, 1797 – 1834 Under Fath Ali Shah, Iran went to war against Russia, which was expanding from the north into the Caucasus Mountains. Iran suffered major military defeats during the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Golestan in 1813, Iran recognized Russia's annexation of Georgia and ceded to Russia most of the north Caucasus region. A second war with Russia in the 1820 s ended even more disastrously for Iran, which in 1828 was forced to sign the Treaty of Turkmanchai acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the entire area north of the Aras River (territory comprising present-day Armenia and Republic of Azerbaijan). His grandson Mohammad Shah, who fell under the influence of Russia and made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Herat, succeeded him in 1834. When Mohammad Shah died in 1848 the succession passed to his son Naser-e-Din, who proved to be the ablest and most successful of the Qajar sovereigns.
Naser o-Din Shah, 1848 - 1896 During Naser o-Din Shah's reign Western science, technology, and educational methods were introduced into Iran and the country's modernization was begun. Naser o-Din Shah tried to exploit the mutual distrust between Great Britain and Russia to preserve Iran's independence, but foreign interference and territorial encroachment increased under his rule. He was not able to prevent Britain and Russia from encroaching into regions of traditional Iranian influence. In 1856 Britain prevented Iran from reasserting control over Herat. Britain supported the city's incorporation into Afghanistan; a country Britain helped create in order to extend eastward the buffer between its Indian territories and Russia's expanding empire. By 1881 Russia had completed its conquest of present-day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, bringing Russia's frontier to Iran's northeastern borders and severing historic Iranian ties to the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand. By the late 19 th century, many Iranians believed that their rulers were beholden to foreign interests.
Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir (1), was the young prince Nasser o-Din's advisor and constable. With the death of Mohammad Shah in 1848, Mirza Taqi was largely responsible for ensuring the crown prince's succession to the throne. When Nasser o-Din succeeded to the throne, Amir Nezam was awarded the position of prime minister and the title of Amir Kabir, the Great Ruler. Iran was virtually bankrupt, its central government was weak, and its provinces were almost autonomous. During the next two and a half years Amir Kabir initiated important reforms in virtually all sectors of society. The instruments of central administration were overhauled, and the Amir Kabir assumed responsibility for all areas of the bureaucracy. Foreign interference in Iran's domestic affairs was curtailed, and foreign trade was encouraged. Public works such as the bazaar in Tehran were undertaken. Amir Kabir issued an edict banning ornate and excessively formal writing in government documents; the beginning of a modern Persian prose style dates from this time.
Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir (2) One of the greatest achievements of Amir Kabir was the building of Dar-ol. Fonoon, the first modern university in Iran. Dar-ol-Fonoon was established for training a new cadre of administrators and acquainting them with Western techniques. Amir Kabir ordered the school to be built on the edge of the city so it can be expanded as needed. He hired French and Russian instructors as well as Iranians to teach subjects as different as Language, Medicine, Law, Geography, History, Economics, and Engineering. These reforms antagonized various notables who had been excluded from the government. They regarded the Amir Kabir as a social upstart and a threat to their interests, and they formed a coalition against him, in which the queen mother was active. She convinced the young shah that Amir Kabir wanted to usurp the throne. In October 1851 the shah dismissed him and exiled him to Kashan, where he was murdered on the shah's orders.
The Constitutional Revolution When Naser o-Din Shah was assassinated by Mirza Reza Kermani in 1896, the crown passed to his son Mozaffar o-Din Shah was a weak and ineffectual ruler. People began to demand a curb on royal authority and the establishment of the rule of law. The shah's failure to respond to protests by the religious establishment, the merchants and clerical leaders in January 1906 to take sanctuary from probable arrest in mosques in Tehran and outside the capital. When the shah reneged on a promise to permit the establishment of a "house of justice", or consultative assembly, 10, 000 people, led by the merchants, took sanctuary in June in the compound of the British legation in Tehran. In August the shah was forced to issue a decree promising a constitution. In October an elected assembly convened and drew up a constitution that provided for strict limitations on royal power, an elected parliament, or Majles, with wide powers to represent the people, and a government with a cabinet subject to confirmation by the Majles. The shah signed the constitution on December 30, 1906. He died five days later. The Supplementary Fundamental Laws approved in 1907 provided, within limits, for freedom of press, speech, and association, and for security of life and property. The Constitutional Revolution marked the end of the medieval period in Iran. The hopes for constitutional rule were not realized, however.
Mozaffar o-Din's son Mohammad Ali Shah (reigned 1907 -09), with the aid of Russia, attempted to rescind the constitution and abolish parliamentary government. After several disputes with the members of the Majlis, in June 1908 he used his Russian-officered Persian Cossacks Brigade to bomb the Majlis building, arrest many of the deputies, and close down the assembly. In July 1909, constitutional forces marched from Rasht and Esfahan to Tehran, deposed the shah, and reestablished the constitution. The ex-shah went into exile in Russia.
Although the constitutional forces had triumphed, they faced serious difficulties. The upheavals of the Constitutional Revolution and civil war had undermined stability and trade. In addition, the ex-shah, with Russian support, attempted to regain his throne, landing troops in July 1910. Most serious of all, the hope that the Constitutional Revolution would inaugurate a new era of independence from the great powers ended when, under the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1907, Britain and Russia agreed to divide Iran into spheres of influence. The Russians were to enjoy exclusive right to pursue their interests in the northern sphere, the British in the south and east; both powers would be free to compete for economic and political advantage in a neutral sphere in the center. Ahmad Shah, was born 21 January 1898 in Tabriz, who succeeded to the throne at age 11, proved to be pleasure loving, effete, and incompetent and was unable to preserve the integrity of Iran or the fate of his dynasty. The occupation of Iran during World War I (1914 -18) by Russian, British, and Ottoman troops was a blow from which Ahmad Shah never effectively recovered. In February 1921, Reza Khan (ruled as Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1925 -41) became the preeminent political personality in Iran; Ahmad Shah in October 1925 was formally deposed by the Majles (national consultative assembly while he was absent in Europe, and that assembly declared the rule of the Qajar dynasty to be terminated. Ahmad Shah died later on 21 February 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
Reza Shah Pahlavi In 1921 Reza Khan (later Reza Shah Pahlavi), an officer in Iran's only military force (Cossack Brigade) used his troops to support a coup against the government of Qajar Dynasty. Within four years he had established himself as the most powerful person in the country by suppressing rebellions and establishing order. In 1925 a specially convened assembly deposed Ahmad Shah, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty, and named Reza Khan, who earlier had adopted the surname Pahlavi, as the new shah. Reza Shah had ambitious plans for modernizing of Iran. These plans included developing large-scale industries, implementing major infrastructure projects, building a cross-country railroad system, establishing a national public education system, reforming the judiciary, and improving health care. He believed a strong, centralized government managed by educated personnel could carry out his plans. He sent hundreds of Iranians including his son to Europe for training. During 16 years from 1925 and 1941, Reza Shah's numerous development projects transformed Iran into an industrial, urbanized country. Public education progressed rapidly, and new social classes - a professional middle class and an industrial working class - emerged.
By the mid-1930 s Reza Shah's dictatorial style of rule caused dissatisfaction in Iran, particularly among religious and intellectual elites. In 1935 by the direct order of Reza Shah the office of foreign affairs requested the foreign embassies and missions in Tehran that the country should be called Iran and not Persia any more. As Persia chauvinistically bore the name of one Iranian ethnical group and not all of them and the name of Iran was always called by all inhabitants of the country for thousands of years. Reza Shah tried to minimize involvement with Britain and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, although Britain, through its ownership of the Angelo. Iranian Oil Company, controlled all of Iran's oil resources. But many of his development projects required foreign technical expertise. To avoid awarding contracts to British and Soviet Companies, Reza Shah preferred to obtain technical assistance from Germany, France, Italy and other European countries. This made problems for Iran after 1939, when Germany and Britain became enemies in World War II. Reza Shah declared Iran a neutral country, but Britain insisted that German engineers and technicians in Iran were spies with missions to sabotage British oil facilities in southwestern Iran and demanded that Iran expel all German citizens. Reza Shah refused, claiming this would adversely impact his development projects.
Iran during WW II. Following Germany's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union became allies. Both turned their attention to Iran. Britain and the USSR saw the newly opened Trans-Iranian Railroad as an attractive transport route from the Persian Gulf to the Soviet region. In August 1941, because of refusing to expel the German nationals, Britain and the USSR invaded Iran, arrested Reza Shah and sent him into exile, and took control of Iran's communications and coveted railroad. In 1942 the United States, an ally of Britain and the USSR during the war, sent a military force to Iran to help maintain and operate sections of the railroad. The British and Soviet authorities allowed Reza Shah's political system to collapse and limited the constitutional government’s functions. They permitted Reza Shah's son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to succeed to the throne. In January 1942 Britain and the USSR signed an agreement with Iran to respect Iran's independence and to withdraw their troops within six months of the war's end. In 1943, at the Tehran Conference, the U. S. reaffirmed this commitment. In 1945, the USSR refused to announce a timetable to leave Iran's northwestern provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, where Soviet-supported autonomy movements had developed.
Mohammad Reza Shah. Iran after WW II. The USSR withdrew its troops in May 1946, but tensions continued for several months. This episode was one of the precipitating events of the emerging Cold War, the postwar rivalry between the United States and its allies, and the USSR and its allies. Iran's political system became increasingly open. Political parties were developed, and in 1944 Majlis elections were the first genuinely competitive elections in more than 20 years. Foreign policies remained very sensitive issues for all parties. The Angelo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was owned by the British government, continued to produce and market Iranian oil. In the beginning of 1930 s some Iranians had begun to support the nationalization of the country's oil fields. After 1946 this became a major popular movement.
In the context of regional turmoil and the Cold War, the Shah established himself as an indispensable ally of the West. Domestically, he advocated reform policies, culminating in the 1963 program known as the White Revolution, which included land reform, the extension of voting rights to women, and the elimination of illiteracy. These measures provoked religious leaders, who feared losing their traditional authority, to raise their voices against him, which consequently led to some civil unrest. And the increasing arbitrariness of the Shah’s rule caused more provocation among the intellectuals, who seeking democratic reforms. These opponents criticized the Shah for subservience to the United States and for violation of the constitution, which placed limits on royal power and provided for a representative government. The Shah saw himself as heir to the kings of ancient Iran, and in 1971 he held an extravagant celebration of 2, 500 years of Persian monarchy. In 1976 he replaced the Islamic calendar with an "imperial" calendar, which began with the foundation of the Persian Empire more than 25 centuries earlier. These actions were viewed as anti-Islamic and resulted in religious opposition.
Relying on oil revenues, which sharply increased in late 1973, the Shah pursued his goal of developing Iran as a mighty regional power dedicated to social reform and economic development. Yet he continually sidestepped democratic arrangements, remaining unresponsive to public opinion and refused to allow meaningful political liberties. By the mid-1970 s the Shah reigned amidst widespread discontent caused by the continuing repressiveness of his regime, socioeconomic changes that benefited some classes at the expense of others, and the increasing gap between the ruling elite and the disaffected populace. Islamic leaders, particularly the exiled cleric Ayatollah Khomeini, were able to focus this discontent with a populist ideology tied to Islamic principles and calls for the overthrow of the shah. The Shah's government collapsed following widespread uprisings in 1978 and 1979. The Pahlavi Dynasty was succeeded by an Islamic government under Ayatollah Khomeini.
Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution began in January 1978 with the first major demonstrations against the Shah. After strikes and demonstrations paralysed the country and its economy, the Shah fled the country in January 1979 and Ayatollah Khomeini soon returned from exile to Tehran, enthusiastically greeted by millions of Iranians. The Pahlavi Dynasty collapsed ten days later on 11 February when Iran's military declared itself neutral after guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979 when Iranians overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to make it so. In December 1979 the country approved a theocratic constitution, whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country. The speed and success of the revolution surprised many throughout the world, as it had not been precipitated by a military defeat, a financial crisis, or a peasant rebellion. Although both nationalists and Marxists joined with Islamic traditionalists to overthrow the Shah, tens of thousands were killed and executed by the Islamic regime afterward, the revolution ultimately resulted in an Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iran's relationship with the United States deteriorated rapidly during the revolution. On 4 November 1979, a group of Iranian students seized US embassy personnel, labeling the embassy a 'den of spies'. They accused its personnel of being CIA agents plotting to overthrow the revolutionary government, as the CIA had done to Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. While the student ringleaders had not asked for permission from Khomeini to seize the embassy, Khomeini nonetheless supported the embassy takeover after hearing of its success. While most of the female and African American hostages were released within the first months, the remaining fiftytwo hostages were held for 444 days. The students demanded the handover of the Shah in exchange for the hostages, and following the Shah's death in the summer of 1980, that the hostages be put on trial for espionage. Subsequently attempts by the Jimmy Carter administration to negotiate or rescue were unsuccessful. But in January 19 1981 the hostages were set free according to the Algiers declaration.
Iran-Iraq Conflict (1) Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein decided to take advantage of what he perceived to be disorder in the wake of the Iranian Revolution and its unpopularity with Western governments. The once-strong Iranian military had been disbanded during the revolution. Saddam sought to expand Iraq's access to the Persian Gulf by acquiring territories that Iraq had claimed earlier from Iran during the Shah's rule. Of chief importance to Iraq was Khuzestan which not only has a substantial Arab population, but boasted rich oil fields as well. On the unilateral behalf of the United Arab Emirates, the islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs became objectives as well. With these ambitions in mind, Hussein planned a full-scale assault on Iran, boasting that his forces could reach the capital within three days. On 22 September 1980 the Iraqi army invaded Iran at Khuzestan, precipitating the Iran-Iraq War. The attack took revolutionary Iran completely by surprise. Although Saddam Hussein's forces made several early advances, by 1982, Iranian forces managed to push the Iraqi army back into Iraq.
Iran-Iraq Conflict (2) Khomeini sought to export his Islamic revolution westward into Iraq, especially on the majority Shi'a Arabs living in the country. The war then continued for six more years until 1988, when Khomeini accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations. Tens of thousands of Iranian civilians and military personnel were killed when Iraq used chemical weapons in its warfare. Iraq was financially backed by Egypt, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact states, the United States (beginning in 1983), France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, and the People's Republic of China (which also sold weapons to Iran). There were more than 100, 000 Iranian victims of Iraq's chemical weapons during the eight-year war. The total Iranian casualties of the war were estimated to be anywhere between 500, 000 and 1, 000. Almost all relevant international agencies have confirmed that Saddam engaged in chemical warfare to blunt Iranian human wave attacks; these agencies unanimously confirmed that Iran never used chemical weapons during the war.
Post Iran-Iraq Conflict to the Present Day In 1989 the death of Khomeini removed the one figure with authority to arbitrate between the two mutually antagonistic political factions of the post revolutionary elite. Neither of the two factions constituted a homogeneous political group; rather, each comprised multiple ideological tendencies. In general, those whom the Western press labeled 'reformists' advocated a liberal interpretation of the constitution and Islamic law but disagreed among themselves with respect to economic, political and social policies. By contrast, those who came to be known as 'conservatives' advocated the strict and literal interpretation of the constitution and Islamic law.
During the presidency of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989 -97), reformists controlled a majority of seats in parliament until 1992 and supported Rafsanjani's policies for economic reform and the normalization of relations with neighboring countries. The conservatives won a majority of seats in both the 1992 and 1996 parliamentary elections and subsequently used their position in the legislature to weaken or stop outright many reforms proposed by the Rafsanjani government. The administrations of Rafsanjani's successor, Mohammad Khatami (in office 1997 -2005), encountered the same resistance. Reformists won a majority of seats in the 2000 parliamentary elections and then enacted several notable pieces of reform legislation in the ensuing term. Having lost control of the parliament, conservatives tried to use their influence in the judiciary and bureaucracy to impede reforms they perceived as threatening their positions. Conservatives regained control of the parliament in the 2004 elections.
Although Iran's foreign relations had improved under Khatami, in the early 2000 s earlier progress was eroded by Iran's ostensible support of terrorist groups in the Middle East and conflict with the European Union and the United States over Iran's nuclear program. Iran's international position was jeopardized by the construction of nuclear processing plants to provide fuel for its nuclear energy generating facility at Bushehr, which was being built with significant technical input from Russia. In mid-2005, the surprise election of conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president led Iran to adopt more confrontational international positions, especially vis-à-vis limitations on its nuclear fuel processing program and its attitude toward Israel. Within Iran, moderate and conservative factions concurred in defending the nuclear program against international interference.
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