Pahlavism

Pahlavism is the Ideology of the Pahlavi Dynasty which ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979

Beliefs
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History
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1921 Persian coup d'état
The events began with a coup by the Persian Cossack Brigade headed by Reza Khan, and directed by the British, on 21 February 1921. With this coup Zia'eddin Tabatabaee took over power and became Prime Minister. The coup was largely bloodless and faced little resistance. With his expanded forces and the Cossack Brigade, Reza Khan launched successful military actions to eliminate separatist and dissident movements in Tabriz, Mashhad and the Jangalis in Gilan. The campaign against Simko and the Kurds was less successful and lasted well into 1922, though eventually concluding with Persian success.

Overthrow of the Qajar Dynasty
Reza Shah took over in 1925 after convincing the Majlis to depose and exile Ahmad Shah, making him the next Shah. Crowned in 1926, he had started the Pahlavi dynasty. Historian Ervand Abrahamian claimed that the Shah of Reza Shah would be "free from clerical influence, nomadic uprisings and ethnic differences".

Rule as Shah
In his Shah, he began the process of industrialization and modernization, increasing the amount of industries, roads and railways. He implemented modern education at Tehran University and made the number of industrial plants increase 17 times. There was an increase in both private and state industries. Other changes were the elimination of chador, a ban on photography of things considered "backward" (camels, clerical and Western clothing), changes from the Persian name to Iranian, support for Jews (even if this was questioned), detribalization, support for  Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,  Ethnic Nationalism and comfort for the clergy. He had to abdicate in 1941 because of the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

Early Reign
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took over in 1941, having been crown prince of Reza Shah, in which a time later he met with allies in WWII, such as Stalin and  Roosevelt. On 16 September 1941, Prime Minister Forughi and Foreign Minister Ali Soheili attended a special session of parliament to announce the resignation of Reza Shah and that Mohammad Reza was to replace him. The next day, at 4:30 pm, Mohammad Reza took the oath of office and was received warmly by parliamentarians. On his way back to the palace, the streets filled with people welcoming the new Shah jubilantly, seemingly more enthusiastic than the Allies would have liked. Following the 1950 Iranian legislative election, Mohammad Mosaddegh was appointed prime minister in 1951. He was committed to nationalising the Iranian petroleum industry controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) (as Anglo-Persian Oil Company, or APOC, had become). Under the leadership of Mosaddegh and his nationalist movement, the Iranian parliament unanimously voted to nationalise the oil industry—thus shutting out the immensely profitable AIOC, which was a pillar of Britain's economy and provided it political clout in the region.

1953 Iranian coup d'état
Judging Mosaddegh to be unreliable and fearing a Communist takeover in Iran, UK prime minister Winston Churchill and the Eisenhower administration decided in early 1953 to overthrow Iran's government. Following the coup in 1953, a government under General Fazlollah Zahedi was formed which allowed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to rule more firmly.

The White Revolution
The White Revolution consisted of 19 elements that were introduced over a period of 16 years, with the first 6 introduced on January 9, 1963, and put to a national referendum on January 26, 1963. 1. Land Reforms Program and Abolishing "Feudalism": The government bought the land during the Iranian Land Reform from the feudal landlords at what was considered to be a fair price and sold it to the peasants at 30% below the market value, with the loan being payable over 25 years at very low interest rates. This made it possible for 1.5 million peasant families, who had once been little more than slaves, to own the lands that they had been cultivating all their lives. Given that the average size of a peasant family was 5, the land reforms program brought freedom to approximately 9 million people, or 40% of Iran's population. 2. Nationalization of Forests and Pasturelands: Many measures were introduced, not only to protect the national resources and stop the destruction of forests and pasturelands, but also to further develop and cultivate them. More than 9 million trees were planted in 26 regions, creating 70,000 acres (280 km2) of "green belts" around cities and on the borders of the major highways. 3. Privatization of the Government Owned Enterprises, selling shares in manufacturing plants and factories to the public and the old feudal lords, thus creating a whole new class of factory owners who could now help to industrialize the country. 4. Profit Sharing for industrial workers in private sector enterprises, giving the factory workers and employees 20% share of the net profits of the places where they worked and securing bonuses based on higher productivity or reductions in costs. 5. Extending the Right to Vote to Women, who previously did not enjoy this right. This measure was criticized by some of the clergy. 6. Formation of the Literacy Corps, so that those who had a high school diploma and were required to serve their country as soldiers could do so by fighting illiteracy in the villages. In 1963 approximately 2/3 of the population was illiterate, with 1/3 found mainly in the capital city of Tehran. 7. Formation of the Health Corps to extend public health care throughout the villages and rural regions of Iran. In 3 years, almost 4,500 medical groups were trained; nearly 10 million cases were treated by the Corps. 8. Formation of the Reconstruction and Development Corps to teach the villagers the modern methods and techniques of farming and keeping livestock. Agricultural production between 1964 and 1970 increased by 80% in tonnage and 67% in value. 9. Formation of the Houses of Equity where 5 village elders would be elected by the villagers, for a period of 3 years, to act as arbitrators in order to help settle minor offences and disputes. By 1977 there were 10,358 Houses of Equity serving over 10 million people living in over 19,000 villages across the country. 10. Nationalization of all Water Resources, introduction of projects and policies in order to conserve and benefit from Iran's limited water resources. Many dams were constructed and five more were under construction in 1978. A result of these measures was the area of land under irrigation increased from 2 million acres (8,000 km2), in 1968, to 5.6 million in 1977. 11. Urban and Rural Modernization and Reconstruction with the help of the Reconstruction and Development Corps. Building of public baths, schools and libraries; installing water pumps and power generators for running water and electricity. 12. Didactic Reforms that improved the quality of education by diversifying the curriculum in order to adapt to the necessities of life in the modern world. 13. Workers' Right to Own Shares in the Industrial Complexes where they worked by turning industrial units, with 5 years history and over, into public companies, where up to 99% of the shares in the state-owned enterprises and 49% of the shares of the private companies would be offered for sale to the workers of the establishment at first and then to the general public. 14. Price Stabilization and campaign against unreasonable profiteering (1975). Owners of factories and large chain stores were heavily fined, with some being imprisoned and other's licenses being revoked. Sanctions were imposed on multi-national foreign companies and tons of merchandise stored for speculative purposes were confiscated and sold to consumers at fixed prices. 15. Free and Compulsory Education and a daily free meal for all children from kindergarten to 14 years of age. Primary schools were built in hundreds of villages that previously did not have one. In 1978, 25% of Iranians were enrolled in public schools alone. In that same year there were 185,000 students of both sexes studying in Iran's universities. In addition to the above there were over 100,000 students pursuing their studies abroad, of which 50,000 were enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States. 16. Free Food for Needy Mothers and for all newborn babies up to the age of two. 17. Introduction of Social Security and National Insurance for all Iranians. The National Insurance system provided for up to 100% of the wages during retirement. 18. Stable and Reasonable Cost of Renting or Buying of Residential Properties (1977). Controls were placed on land prices and various forms of land speculation. 19. Introduction of Measures to Fight against Corruption within the bureaucracy. The Imperial Inspection Commission was founded, consisting of representatives from administrative bodies and people of proven integrity.

The Islamic Revolution
After the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Pahlavi had aligned with the United States and the Western Bloc to rule more firmly as an authoritarian monarch. He relied heavily on support from the United States to hold on to power which he held for a further 26 years. This led to the 1963 White Revolution and the arrest and exile of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1964. Amidst massive tensions between Khomeini and the Shah, demonstrations began in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included both secular and religious elements. The protests rapidly intensified in 1978 as a result of the burning of Rex Cinema which was seen as the trigger of the revolution, and between August and December that year, strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country.

On 16 January 1979, the Shah left Iran and went into exile as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and Shapour Bakhtiar, who was an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and returned to Tehran to a greeting by several thousand Iranians. The royal reign collapsed shortly after, on 11 February, when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting, bringing Khomeini to official power. Iranian people voted in a national referendum to become an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979 and to formulate and approve a new theocratic-republican constitution whereby Khomeini became supreme leader of the country in December 1979.

The revolution was unusual for the surprise it created throughout the world. It lacked many of the customary causes of revolution (defeat in war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military); occurred in a nation that was experiencing relative prosperity; produced profound change at great speed; was massively popular; resulted in the exile of many Iranians;[ and replaced a pro-Western secular authoritarian monarchy with an anti-Western theocracy based on the concept of velayat-e faqih (or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists) straddling between authoritarianism and totalitarianism. In addition to these, the revolution sought a region-wide Shia revival, and an uprooting of the existent dominant Arab Sunni hegemony in the Middle East.

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