In 1939 the dictator of Iran was Shah Reza Pahlevi, an army officer who took control in a coup d'état in 1921 and called himself "shah." He was a modernizer who had little use for traditional religion, but collaborated with the Germans. Iran proclaimed neutrality when the war began in 1939. British and Soviet forces occupied Iran in August 1941, deposed the Shah, and installed his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Iran, with a largely rural population of 13 million, had oil wells and became a major route for shipping military supplies from the U.S. to the Soviet Union.