What if~Iranian Revolutions (Part 1: What if~The 1953 Coup was successful?)

In the 21st century, we may worry about Iran having Nuclear Weapons since there is a lot of Anti-American sentiments going on in the country. But did you know that there was a possibility that Iran may not have been the way it is today?

In Iran's history there have been 2 separate events that have made up Iran as we know it today; the 1953 Coup and the Islamic Revolution in 1979. So what if these events went differently? This is a 2-part alternate scenario where it talks about the 2 events whether it went differently or didn't occur at all.

Part 1 will talk about the 1953 Coup and what if the coup was successful.

## Context

For the last decades by 1953, Iran was lead by a constitutional monarchy which was headed by a king (or Shah if you speak Sanskrit). The Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi shared power with a government, though the Shah was the lead of state but the government was effectively in control of the country.

The main leader of Iran at the time was Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, his aim was to make Iran a democratic and secular state, independent of foreign influences.

This is because Iran had ample oil supplies which was controlled by the British. Since 1909, the Iranian Oil was in control of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company which had almost complete control of Iran's oil. The profits went to the British oil tycoons while little of the oil money actually went to Iran.

Mosaddegh was unhappy about this as he believes that Iranian oil was rightfully Iranian, so this is when he tried to nationalize the country's oil. This is when he has foreign oil tycoons expelled which allowed Iran to profit off of the oil which made the British very mad at the situation.

This is when they asked the United States for assistance of the Shah, but since this is Britain worrying about their Imperial ambitions, the United States wasn't too enthusiastic. This is until President Eisenhower came into the scene. This is because the British convinced Eisenhower that Mosaddegh sympathized with the communists, but as it turns out that was the Communists that sympathized with him and not the other way around. Nevertheless, the USA decides to step in and help their British cousins.

On August 15, Mosaddegh staged a military coup against the Iranian Royal Military (aided by the US and Britain), the fight would last for 4 days until on August 19, the Royal Military defeated the rebels and the Iranian Parliament was dissolved along with Mosaddegh. This gave the Shah almost absolute control over Iran, but yet the Americans and the British were still allowed to get Iran's oil.

## What if?

Now, what if the 1953 coup was a success, what if Mosaddegh was able to overthrow the Shah?

Now, a few things would have to change in order for this alternate scenario to take place. For one thing, the Americans would have to stay out of aiding the British to protect the Iranian Shah, one other thing is that the British would have to not fully commit to the coup (which is unlikely).

In this alternate reality and without aid from the west, the Shah was overthrown and now the Iranian Government is in full charge with Mosaddegh at the helm. With Mosaddegh in charge, Iran would become a secular, democratic state which is now independent of all foreign influences which would put an end to Britain's monopoly on Iranian oil and even sour relations between the 2 nations.

So for the next few decades, Britain and this new Iran would have a bad relationship. Eventually however, the 2 nations would bury the hatchet.

Though this could lead to some consequences, the west (like the United States) can see an oil crisis earlier than it did in our reality since the Iranians would hold onto their oil for a while before exporting it.

Though, this doesn't mean that Iran would become an enemy of the west. Mosaddegh wanted Iran to be democratic which means that there would be free elections in the nation with everybody (women as well as men) being able to vote for a Prime Minister and maybe even some laws. But chances are that throughout the Cold War, Iran would be neutral to the big Cold War players. So, no hostage crisis, no war with Iraq, and no Gulf War. Though, they can become allies as the 21st century rolls around especially with Bush's War on Terror.

That'll do it for this page. In the next page we will talk about the Islamic Revolution and what if it didn't happen. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.