McKinley Bell
Mr. Dowling
Empires And Encounters
10 November 2014
An In-Depth look at the History of Iran The Islamic Republic of Iran, known as Persia till 1935, has been a very unstable country over the past 74 years with problems like civil war, government corruption, and major disputes with neighboring countries. Most of these problems have been solved but some are still very relevant in the 21 century; also the nation has seen a whole new set of problems arise as well. These present days problems include terrorism, nuclear weapon sanctions, economy, and foreign policy. Iran also shows a history of tackling problems head on and trying to solve them as one whole nation and this approach is what has kept Iran on there feet. Before being officially independent in 1935 Iran had been under rule by many other foreign countries, and during World War 1 they were under the rule of Russia. Being one of the main battle grounds of World War 1 the people of Iran decided to stay neutral even though war was going on basically right outside there doorstep. This sense of being neutral ended when World War 1 ended in 1919. With tension getting high because of the soviets having control of Iran the Iranian people started to revolt against the soviets causing Russia to withdraw from the region (Etheredge 130). Now that Russia was no longer in control of Iran Britain claimed Iran as its territory. This didn’t sit well with the people of Iran because they wanted to be independent from any outside nation so for the second time the Iranian people united and revolted against the British. These small revolts and outbreaks lasted for around two years until a last Britain pulled its advisers out of Iran saying it was to violent of a place (Etheredge 130]. With the Iranian people being successful with pushing both Britain and Russia out of there country this not only united them as a nation but left the position of power over Iran open for the taking. With no one officially in charge of Iran and no other outside nation wanting to take control of them this put Iran in a perfect position for being ruled by one of there own and becoming an independent country. The leader that finally rose up to take control was military commander Reza Khan (“Timeline of Iran”)., and this gave hope to a nation that had known nothing but war and turmoil for the past couple years (Etheredge 131). Reza Khan first took control of all of Iran’s military but wanted more power and pushed for becoming president of Iran (Etheredge 131). He got what he wanted and was elected president in 1925, which increased the hope of all Iranian people (Etheredge 131). Reza Khan set the stage for the many presidents that would lead Iran in the future. He increased women’s rights laws, increased trade with foreign countries, improved the quality of education, boosted the economy, and looked to expand resources (Etheredge 132-133). Reza Kahn accomplished all this in one short year in office and the reason he was only president for one year is because the Soviet Union felt threated from how rapidly Iran was becoming unified and they felt that there power in the Middle East was threated (Etheredge 132). Therefore the Soviet Union forced khan to abdicate, placing Khan’s young son on the throne (Etheredge 132). With Reza Khan’s son know in power (1926) this increased the tension in the people of Iran because the lack of power of someone so young (Etheredge 133). Mohammad Reza Pahlavi expanded the expectations of the people of Iran and did a lot for the nation of Iran in his time as president. Mohammad followed in his father’s footsteps and did a lot of the same things he did. Mohammad helped increased the resources of Iran finding places to drill for oil and increasing the trade with foreign countries (Etheredge 133). He also helped loosen basic laws like freedom of speech and freedom of press, which gained him popularity from the people (Etheredge 134). To the come eye