The Iranian Revolution

Podcast Transcript

The story of modern Iran is a collision between a monarchy with a history dating back to the Persian Empire and a frustrated nation with massive oil reserves historically coveted by Western powers.

Governed by an authoritarian monarch in the mid-20th century who welcomed Western influence, the nation grew increasingly resentful of foreign control over its oil.

From this discontent, an influential Islamic cleric fomented dissent while in exile, which ultimately brought down the monarchy.

Learn more about the 1979 Iranian Revolution on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

To understand the events of 1979, we must go back to the beginning of the 20th century to examine the developments that led to the revolution.

1907 was a tragic year in Persian and Iranian history as Britain and Russia divided Iran into spheres of influence, ending Persian control over its natural resources.

This partition came only one year after the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 had established a parliament, known as the Majlis, to check the power of the monarch.

In 1908, a British oil expedition in Persia discovered massive oil reserves.

This began a period of oil extraction that lasted for most of the century, which also cultivated a deep and enduring hostility toward violations of Persia’s sovereignty and resources.

During WWI, Iran’s Qajar dynasty capitulated to the formal occupation of Iran by Great Britain and Russia. This occupation evolved into a horrific famine after the war that killed an estimated 2 million people. In Iran, the famine was blamed on the foreign pillaging of Iran’s food stores.

This tragedy precipitated a coup in 1925, as the Qajar dynasty collapsed and power transferred to the military leader Reza Khan Pahlavi. The Pahlavi dynasty changed Persia’s name to Iran in 1935.

Pahlavi hoped the name change would help establish an independent nation free of colonial subjugation. The new nation had an authoritarian government and abandoned the democratic processes established during the 1906 revolution.

Inspired by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, Pahlavi saw modernization as the government’s focus. Modernization would involve increasing the size of the national army, expanding Iran’s rail capacity, building an effective bureaucracy, and establishing complete control over rogue provinces.

These reforms were welcomed in both Iran’s rural villages and urban centers.

The Shah also welcomed foreign investment in Iran, particularly in the oil sector. The Shah and his inner circle amassed astonishing wealth as Iran became the world’s second-largest oil producer.

Iranian nationalism was simmering under the surface.

A clumsy transition from Reza Shah to his son, Mohammed Reza Shah, at the beginning of WWII was caused by a joint British-Soviet occupation of the nation to protect oil trade routes.

On the streets of Iran, the perception was that Iranian authoritarian rule enriched the elites at the expense of Iranian sovereignty and oil wealth.

The power of the Majlis had been weakened during the foreign occupation and authoritarian rule, yet it asserted its influence in 1951 when it elected Mohammad Mosaddegh as prime minister.

Mossadegh emerged in 1949, initiating a national debate over the nationalization of Iran’s oil resources.

He became a heroic figure in Iran and an enemy of the United States and Britain.

Mossadegh’s goal of nationalizing Iranian oil resources had powerful allies on the streets of Iran. His strongest allies were the Bazaaris, the powerful class of merchants and traders in Iran.

The Bazaaris could influence public opinion through their control over the bazaars. With the backing of the Bazaaris, Mossadegh’s power and influence surged.

The Shah had to act to keep control. A plan was hatched with the backing of the United States and Great Britain.

The CIA and MI6 launched Operation Ajax, which was a plot to remove Mossadegh and to re-establish the autocracy of the Shah. The mission was formally acknowledged by the CIA in 2023.

In the context of the times, Mossadegh’s effort to nationalize was viewed as a threat to the Cold War balance.

In July of 1953, the complex campaign against him began with an effort to flood the bazaars with reports intended to discredit Mossadegh.

The British and Americans realized that the easiest way to discredit the popular nationalist was to drive a wedge between him and Bazaari support. Mossadegh was cast as a communist poised to destroy Bazzari’s influence in the Iranian economy.

Government-run newspapers reported that Mossadegh intended to nationalize not only Iranian oil but also Iran’s entire economy, which would severely limit the Bazaaris economic influence in the country.

The accusations didn’t stop there.

Perhaps more devastating were the attacks on Mossadegh and his plans for the Islamic faith in Iran. The bazaars and mosques were flooded with propaganda accusing Mosadegh of plans to nationalize Islam by taking religious authority away from the Islamic clerics.

Project Ajax had spread unrest from the bazaars to the mosques throughout Iran and divided Mossadegh from the two most powerful forces in Iran: the Bazaaris and the Shi’ite clerics.

In August of 1953, the Shah formally signed a royal decree relieving Mossadegh of his office. After a clumsy coup in which the Shah fled to Iraq and was later returned to power with the help of American operatives, the campaign succeeded in officially ousting Mossadegh.

To avoid creating a martyr, the Shah relegated Mossadegh to a decade of house arrest. He died in isolation, but the nationalist movement he had lit still burned.

The Shah resumed his modernization campaign and introduced modest reforms to placate the powerful Bazaari-Shi’ite Cleric alliance. He also returned to a program of expanded foreign investment and engagement in Iran’s oil industry.

All the while, Iranian nationalism continued to simmer under the surface.

A surge in oil prices in the 1970s brought great wealth to Iran; however, the prosperity from this windfall didn’t impact everyone equally.

While the bazaaris experienced rising personal incomes, the wealth of Iranian elites expanded at a far greater rate.

In an age of rapid urbanization, nationalist sentiment spread as the Bazaaris’ anger focused on the expanding wealth gap, the Shah’s growing extravagance, and the continued embrace of American economic interests.

Western stores and banks began to open throughout the bazaars of Iran. Traditional economic norms were under siege, and financial pain radiated through Iran’s urban bazaars.

The Iranian nationalist powder keg needed a flame to ignite it; that spark came from an outspoken Shi’ite Cleric by the name of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Khomeini was a charismatic Islamic cleric who transformed discontent with the Shah’s government into a movement based on Islamic nationalism.

The Ayatollah publicly denounced the Shah in 1963, calling him a “miserable wretch” in a speech in the clerical center of Qom.

His denunciations led to his arrest by the Shah’s secret police and imprisonment. His imprisonment inspired protests against the Shah and his policies.

The protestors were a broad coalition of Bazaaris, devout Muslims, and students. After six days of protest, the Shah responded with brutal military force on June 5, 1963.

The ensuing violence shocked international observers. An estimated 500 protesters were killed, although there is no consensus on an exact number, with the state claiming 86 and the movement claiming thousands.

June 5th is a public holiday in Iran today, commemorating the 15th of Khordad Uprising.

The revolution was underway, and Khomeini became its focal point

For Khomeini and his followers, the response to the protesters validated their claims that the Shah was a bloodthirsty dictator and that he must step aside.

The momentum started by Mossadegh in 1953 had stalled and was unraveled by a coalition of Western powers; the 1963 revolution was different. This time, the momentum was one of faith.

The Shah dissolved the Majlis in 1961 and seized upon the events of 1963 to push through an aggressive series of far-reaching reforms. These reforms, known as the White Revolution, had far-reaching effects on the Iranian people.

Khomeini attacked the Shah from three sides: he denounced the reforms as a violation of the 1906 Constitution, claimed that the Shah had surrender to American interests, and that the Shah was leading a direct assault on Islam.

One of his most successful tactics was to merge a defense of Islam with the passion for Iranian independence.

Khomeini was exiled to Iraq after condemning the Shah’s reforms.

The Ayatollah’s influence was expanding, and his exile only added to his growing fame. His picture began to appear in Iran’s bazaars, a key sign of shifting popular opinion.

The Ayatollah had unified a fractured nationalist movement by aligning the poor, the Bazaaris, and the Shi’ite clerics.

1971 saw two significant events: First, the Shah celebrated the 2500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy and, as part of that celebration, hosted a party that cost nearly a billion inflation-adjusted dollars. It was one of the most extravagant state parties in modern history, and the criticism at home and abroad for its opulence amid widespread poverty only fanned the flames of discontent in Iran.

The second event was that the Ayatollah published a justification for abolishing the monarchy and establishing an Islamic republic.

The economic realities of the mid-1970s had significant implications for Iran. Between 1976 and 1978, Iran experienced food shortages and protests against wealth inequality.

The windfalls from Iranian oil exports had done little to expand opportunities and wealth for lower-class Iranians, and the anger was palpable in the bazaars.

Volatility in the oil markets and a dramatic decline in demand had devastating effects on the Iranian population. The economic unrest galvanized the Anti-Shah nationalism that had been simmering since 1963.

To control public opinion in the bazaars, the Shah targeted the opposition by sending his secret police into the markets. The Bazaaris were the focus, and many were arrested and even sent into exile.

The government launched a propaganda campaign to discredit Khomeini; however, what had worked with Mossadegh years ago no longer worked this time.

The Shah was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1974, and his health was failing.

While the Shah’s public presence was diminishing due to poor health, the Ayatollah launched a remarkable campaign against the Shah. The Ayatollah began recording political sermons on audio cassettes and smuggled them into Iran.

These cassettes were played in the bazaars and further accelerated the movement against the Shah. This was a brilliant strategy as the Ayatollah was able to do an end run around the Shah’s control of Iranian media.

The Ayatollah framed the revolution as a religious struggle to reclaim Iran’s soul, positioning the mosque as the final fortress against an out-of-touch monarchy that had traded Islamic tradition for American interests.

The Ayatollah put this in perspective after the revolution’s success when he said, “We did not make the revolution for cheap melons, we made it for Islam.”

The Shah’s cancer caused him to disappear from public life in 1978. During his absence, an increasingly desperate state continued to crack down on demonstrations, hoping to extinguish the fire Khomeini had ignited.

This proved to be a futile effort.

The Ashura protests of December 1978 marked the point of no return. While exact numbers are impossible to verify, the movement effectively brought the nation to a standstill, emptying the Bazaars and flooding the streets of Tehran with millions of protesters.

By early 1979, the Shah of Iran was dying. He left for medical treatment and never returned, and he died a year later from lymphoma.

The Ayatollah returned to Iran on February 1st, 1979, after sixteen years in exile. On February 10th and 11th, he had mobilized his opposition to take power by force, as they seized prisons, police stations, and military installations.

The Iranian military declared neutrality and stated its intention not to interfere in the growing movement. With that, the Iranian monarchy was effectively over.

A nationwide election was held in late March 1979; it asked a simple yes-or-no question: “Should the monarchy be replaced by an Islamic Republic?”

On April 1st, the Ayatollah declared the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Constitution of 1979 established a theocratic government based on the Ayatollah’s concept of “Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist,” a system in which power is centralized in the hands of the Ayatollah and his successor.

The thing to remember in every revolution is that they are almost always against something, not for something. What replaces an unpopular system is often merely different, not necessarily better. The new power that replaces the old one may simply be better organized or more brutal than its competitors.

Over the past 45 years, the impact of the Iranian Revolution has been felt worldwide. In terms of global impact, for better or worse, the 1979 revolution ranks as one of the most significant of the 20th century.