The Pahlavi Dynasty: The Bolshevik Revolution

The Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 until 1979, when the monarchy was overthrown as a result of the Iranian revolution. The Pahlavi dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925, a former Brigadier-General of the Persian Cossack Brigade. The elder Pahlavi reigned until 1941. He was succeeded by his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Following the Russian Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Russians no longer considered Iran as a prized territory. This left the British as the sole Great Power in Iran. In 1919 the Iranian Parliament refused a British offer of military and financial aid that effectively would have made Iran into a protectorate of Britain. The British initially did not want to withdraw from Iran but caved-in to international pressure and removed their advisers by 1921. In that same year British diplomats lent their support to Brigadier Reza Khan. In 1921 Reza Khan took control of all military forces in Iran and in 1925 Reza deposed King Ahmad …show more content…
This particular decision later provided the pretext for a Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, to ensure the safe passage of U.S war material to the Soviet Union through Iran. The Allies forced Reza Shah to abdicate, placing his young son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi on the throne. Though Iran at that time was under foreign occupation and was crippled by war-time inflation and politically fragmented, however, paradoxically the war and occupation had brought a greater degree of economic activity, freedom of press and political openness than had been possible ever before. Many political parties were formed in this period. The young Mohammad Pahlavi did not wield the absolute authority of his father and this strengthened the conservative clerical factions, which had wilted under his father’s programme of