The Fall of Reza Pahlavi and the Rise of Ayatollah Khomeini Essay

The Fall of Reza Pahlavi and the Rise of Ayatollah Khomeini - Essay Example Iran has been manipulated by the forces of the west but the people there despise the west and have an ideology which supports the radical Islam. Khomeini won the hearts of people by being a man who said what they wanted to hear. He did not like the west and wanted strict Islamic rules to be applied. His people believed in him and he led them through the Islamic revolution and left the torch in their hand later to carry it forward. Â  The Islamic Republic of Iran was known as Persia before 1935.1 Iran has seen political turbulence in its history. It has seen many empires and dynasties and many rulers have ruled it. Even in the 1900's Iran has seen many revolutions. It has seen the constitutional revolution in 1906, the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1925 and the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1978. Iran was declared the Islamic Republic on 1st April 1989.2 Today Iran is growing in all aspects and has proved itself as a very strong and determined country. Â  Reza Shah laid the foundation of modern Iran by overthrowing the Qajar Dynasty. Ahmed Shah the last Qajar King left Iran for Europe and as his absence was for an indefinite period of time the parliament overthrew him and made Ahmed Shah the Shahanshah of Iran. At this time Iran was a very poor country. Reza Shah had western views and he tried his best to develop Iran according to these views. He built roads, organized all systems of his country and built a very good trans-Iranian Railway.3 He made great changes to the country but he was seen as the people as a Westernized man. In World War II, Iran was a neutral state, But Russia wanted to use its mature railways to help it in war. Reza Shah failed to go forward with this plan, the Russian and British army attacked Iran and Reza Shah left the throne in favor of his son Muhammad Reza Shah and spent rest of his life in exile in South Africa. As Muhammad Reza Shah succeeded the throne, he faced many problems with pro-Soviet and pro- British parties. In 1946 after the war over the Soviets overstayed in Iran and this created more confusion. Iran had a lot of oil and it was not giving concessions to the Soviet but was giving it to the British.4 The National Front Party wanted a neutral stance on this issue and wanted to take away concession from the British. In 1953 clash between the Shah and Prime Minister Mossadeq became very evident. The pro-Soviet party was very strong and forced the Shah to leave the country.