Causes Of The Iranian Revolution Of 1978-1979

In the late 1970's, the world was hit with the events of the Iranian Revolution, a movement in which the Shah was overthrown in replacement with Ayatollah Khomeini. Causes for this movement included the economic, political, and socio-economic conditions in Iran before the Revolution. Economically, the Shah's hopes for the country ended up being their downfalls while politically, the Shah's ruling as a dictator prohibited the freedom of the Iranians. Socio-economically, the Shah didn't place much emphasis on religion, angering the majority of the population. The overthrow of the Shah led to the uprise of a religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, a figure supported by many. Unlike advice

Various factors influenced the 1979 Iranian revolution, but at the core of this significant event was Islamic fundamentalism. The Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, led this movement to end the thirty-seven-year reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, also known as the Shah of Iran (Diller 1991, p.152). The revolution was a combination of mounting social, economic, political and religious strains. The nation of Iran was never colonized, unlike some of its bordering countries, making its people intolerant of external influences. The Shah had gradually westernized and secularized his country, creating a strong American presence that was being felt

In addition to the complications with the oil, The Shah’s reputation began to deteriorate. The Shah was scrutinized as a puppet of the Western nations, particularly the United States. Citizens of Iran began to have aversion towards the actions of the monarchy. The Shah altered the Iranian solar calendar inducing outrage amongst many Iranian Muslims. Another issue was the Shah’s distribution of money. The Shah spent over 300 million dollars in extravagant luxuries during a three-day celebration; rather than using the money for the needs of Iran. Citizens of Iran suffered greatly from The Shah’s regime. He was considered a dictator and used harsh punishments for rebellions. The Shah was a corrupt leader who oppressed the Iranian people. Citizens of Iran finally had enough with the Shah and decided to overthrow him.

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was the King of Iran (1941-1979) . When his father, Reza Shah’s reign was over, he replaced him and started his reign. He went against his original vow of acting as a constitutional ruler by his involvement in governmental matters. The Shah’s main focus was on Iran’s relations with foreign power as well as modernizing Iran as quickly as possible. Although he was a clever and influential leader, he was known for his monocratic rule, corrupt government, forced westernization, and betraying his own people by use of the Savak. Mohammed Reza was thrown from power because he relied more on manipulation than on leadership.

What are the historical factors that you can think of that may have contributed to the Iranian revolution in 1979? What do you think is in store for Iran’s future?

The perception of the Iranian Revolution In 1979 the Shah of Iran was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution, leaving the Ayatollah to take charge of the country. The Shah was very westernized and he focused on pleasing Western countries, he did things to benefit such countries in order to become friends with them and he wanted Iran to become like them. He even gave the U.S and the U.K the “keys” to the oil fields which was a key aspect of Iran’s economy at the time. On the other hand the Ayatollah was very restrictive and conservative, he wanted Iran to be a very religious place where everyone had to follow very precise and stricts rules.

Over the last 70 years Iran has experienced many periods of severe political turmoil. The two most notorious periods of turmoil are the revolutions of 1953 and 1977. Both of these revolutions were heavily influenced by corporate interests, albeit in different ways. The 1953 revolution was a coup d’état arranged by the CIA in order to prevent the president from nationalizing the oil fields. This was done to protect corporate oil interests. The 1977 revolution was a reaction to the oppressive policies of the government that was put in place by the prior revolution. The government favored liberal economic policies that deregulated corporate activities, and these polices led to widespread abuse of the civilian population at the hands of the Iranian Government and foreign corporations. The events and results of these revolutions had significant effects on Iranian outlook towards western states and ideas. After the second revolution a starkly religious government had taken power, and this new regime had a strong anti-western sentiment. This sentiment developed as a reaction to the rule of the Shah, because the Shah was seen as a symbol of oppressive western power by the new regime.

Reza Shah and his son, Mohammed Reza Shah, the leaders of the Pahlavi regime, were trying to enforce modernization on Iranian society. They wanted to be like Ataturk and Gandhi, but they lacked the education and the leadership Ataturk and Gandhi had. The Shah of Iran transformed the county into a dictatorship, as the Shah controlled practically all government operations, setting rules and regulations for the population to follow. All of the factors triggered the Islamists to rebel and fight to have power over the country. The Islamic Revolution took place and forced people to take extreme sides - it was either going to be one way or the other, with absolutely no middle ground.

By 1979, the shah of Iran, an ally of the United States, was in deep trouble. Many Iranians resented his regime’s widespread corruption and dictatorial tactics. In January 1979, revolution broke out. The Muslim religious leaderAyatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the rebels in overthrowing the shah and establishing a religious state based on strict obedience to the Qur’an, the sacred book of Islam. Carter had supported the shah until the very end. In October 1979, the president allowed the shah to enter the United States for cancer treatment, though he had already fled Iran in January 1979.

Iran has always, it seems, been the breeding ground for some kind of political upheaval or another. In recent times, back in 1979, there was a major revolution which was, in some ways, similar to the revolution we are seeing today. The people were angry and they were tired of being controlled by the government that was in power. They had concrete ideals and were incredibly passionate about their revolution. The revolution Iran is experiencing today does not appear to be quite as passionate and does not appear to maintain a belief in any real solid political system. They just know they want something different. In the following paper we present an illustration of the current revolution that is taking

Iran’s political and social landscape completely shifted in 1979 when the Islamic Revolution toppled the monarchy that was in power. It was decided that Iran would now be a republic built on Islamic principles and ideals, thus marginalizing the leftist nationalist party that had helped the religious right protest against the Shah’s rule in 1978 and 1979. “The new constitution created a religious government based on [Ayatollah] Khomeini’s vision of velāyat-e faqīh

The history of Iran is filled with revolutions but the last major revolution in 1979 is the scariest because it has changed Iran from a modern ally for much of the world to a heavily sanctioned enemy. Altering Iran 's future militarily, economically, and diplomatically. The 1979 revolution was a series of protest and unrest in the country aimed at getting rid of the Pahlavi dynasty. Mohammad Reza Shah was the second and last Shah from the Pahlavi Dynasty. Mohammad Reza tried to lead the country to a more modern era, and as a result, the Shah invested the profit from his country 's rich oil deposits into infrastructure and education. In turn, the economy began to grow and people had better health care, people began to live longer and the

Before the revolution, Shah Reza Pahlavi was the ruler of Iran. Under his leadership power was clustered and concentrated among his close allies and networks of friends and others with whom he had close relations. By 1970s, the gap between the poor and the rich was widening and huge distrust about his economic policies grew. Resentment towards his autocratic leadership grew fuelling people to dissent his regime further. Shah now was considered an authoritarian who took full control of the Iran government preventing the Iranians from expressing their opinion. The government has transformed from the traditional monarchial form of government to authoritarian with absolute authority replacing individual freedom of the Iranians. This transformation to Iranian was unacceptable because they needed to control their own affairs. They wanted self-government where they could take control as opposed to what Shah was doing. Shah was seen as a western puppet for embracing authoritarian form of government (Axworthy, 2016).

However, the ideas had already spread throughout the Iranian people and religious protesting escalated continuously. People’s ideas of recreating a religious based government persisted to an unstoppable level. Khomeini, whom many protesters felt to be a hero, said in a speech in 1979, “Do not try to westernize everything you have! Look at the West, and see who the people are in the West that present themselves as champions of human rights and what their aims are. Is it human rights they really care about, or the rights of the superpowers? What they really want to secure are the rights of the superpowers. Our jurists should not follow or imitate them” (Ayatollah Khomeini: speech on the uprising of Khurdad 15, 2010). Based on this quote, the “voice” of the protesting Iranians was that westernization was not a good thing because the west does not care for human rights and freedoms of the lesser powers in the world and that the way to change for the better is to impose the Islamic values that already existed into society. In January of 1979, the Shah fled the country under the pressure of the people and Khomeini returned to Iran to be greeted as a hero (Bentley & Ziegler, n.d., p. 1117). Fighting erupted between Khomeini’s supporters and remaining military officials and on the eleventh of February the government fell. On the first of April, Khomeini proclaimed the beginning of the new Islamic republic (Islamic

Throughout the revolution that began in 1978, most western countries, especially America did not fully understand the magnitude of the movement and how it would affect the outcome of the country. American media could not understand why the revolution had occurred and why the Shah had been deposed, even though they were reporting on the reasons, the police state, SAVAK, and the failing economy, just prior to the