The Iranian Revolution (7 January 1978-11 February 1979), also known as the Islamic Revolution, was a series of events that led to the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, by various leftist and Islamist organizations and student movements. The Shah was an autocratic and fascist ruler who was infamous for his excesses, for his secularism and pro-West sentiment, and for using the SAVAK secret police to torture and execute opponents of his regime. In 1977, the deaths of opposition figures Ali Shariati and Mostafa Khomeini led to protests by both secular leftists and Islamists in Iran, as they accused the government of assassinating them. Mostafa's father, the exiled cleric Ruhollah Khomeini, became the spiritual leader of the revolution while he was in exile in Paris, France, and demonstrations broke out in major cities in January 1978 in opposition to the Shah's cruelty.
On 29 March 1978, demonstrations broke out in at least 55 cities, including the capital of Tehran, and the protests turned into deadly riots as the gendarmes and soldiers opened fire on protesters. From August to December 1978, strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country, and the Shah went into exile on 16 January 1979, seeking medical treatment in the United States after it was discovered that he had cancer. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited to return to Iran, and he was greeted by millions of people after returning to Tehran. On 11 February, armed guerrillas overwhelmed the last Shahist troops, bringing Khomeini to power. On 1 April 1979, Iran officially became an Islamic republic, approving a theocratic-republican constitution. Between 532 and 60,000 people were killed in demonstrations from 1978 to 1979, and Iran would become a stauncly anti-Western, Shia Muslim theocratic, and anti-American country, with anger at the USA's backing of the Shah culimating in the Iran hostage crisis in November.
History[]
Background[]
Reza Shah
In World War I, Persia was divided between the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom, but the Russians withdrew after the Russian Revolution of 1917, leaving Britain sole rights to exploit Persian oil. In the early 1920s, the British identified Reza Khan, a senior figure in the Persian military, as a leader who could maintain the Anglo-Persian status quo. With British backing, Khan led an armed campaign to crush political opposition, becoming the Shah of Persia in 1925 and the first ruler of the Pahlavi dynasty.
A fierce believer in Westernization, Reza Shah Pahlavi modernized the infrastructure of the country, which was renamed Iran in 1935. He abandoned Islamic education in favor of a secular curriculum, discarded much of sharia law, and discouraged Iranians from obeying the call to prayer or from making pilgrimages. The upper classes would become more secular and Western in their outlook, while the tax-burdened masses remained impoverished and deeply religious. Reza Shah offered support to Nazi Germany during World War II, hoping that Germany would help Iran to rid itself of British influence, but British and Russian troops responded by invading Iran after Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Reza Shah was deposed and replaced by his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and resentment of Western interference deepened.
In the postwar years, students spearheaded a backlash against secularism and corruption. In 1951, the Shah was forced to appoint Mohammad Mosaddegh as Prime Minister due to popular unrest. Mosaddegh nationalized the assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and the United States and Britain became concerned about Soviet influence in the Middle East. The two Allied nations blocked sales of Iranian oil, causing an economic downturn in Iran, and Western intelligence services restored absolute power to the Shah after a 1953 coup. The Shah's SAVAK secret police ran a terror campaign against dissenters, and the rural poor starved; at the same time, the Shah led a lavish life on oil revenues, which grew from an annual $285,000,000 in 1960 to $18,523,000,000 by the mid-1970s.
Revolution[]
Protesters carrying pictures of Ali Shariati, Ruhollah Khomeini, and the People's Mujahedin of Iran flag
In Iran's mosques, the teachings of the senior Shia cleric, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, were gaining ground. Khomeini had been exiled to France in 1964 for calling the Shah a "puppet" of the West, and the Shah crushed an uprising by his supporters, the 15 Khordad movement. Khomeini called for an end to the Shah's reign, insisting that only clerics should rule, and claiming that, "In Islam, the legislative power and competence to establish laws belong exclusively to God." By 1978, he had widespread support, and pro-Khomeini demonstrations would be brutally suppressed. Unrest spread from city to city as clerics, nationalists, and moderates united in a struggle for change. Many troops refused to shoot at protesters, disregarding the Shah's implementation of martial law, and the United States failed to persuade the Shah to liberalize his regime in December 1978. On 16 January 1979, the Shah and his family fled Iran, and Khomeini returned home on 1 February. After fighting between political factions, a popular referendum led to the creation of an Islamic republic, and Khomeini was named Supreme Leader, while the clergy were appointed to run state institutions and sharia law was introduced.
Aftermath[]
On 22 October 1979, US president Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah to enter the US for cancer treatment. Outraged Iranian students, who wanted the Shah returned to Iran to face trial (and certain execution), formed the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, and the student movement invaded the US embassy in Tehran. 63 Americans were taken hostage, starting the Iran hostage crisis, and Khomeini refused to release the hostages even after the Shah's death. 52 Americans were held captive for 444 days, and the crisis concluded in January 1981 with an agreement between the USA and Iran at Algiers. Khomeini's defiance of America led to the West supporting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran in 1980, and the West provided Saddam with weapons during the Iran-Iraq War. By the time of Khomeini's death in June 1989, Iran was a strong Islamic state.