Iran

**Iran**, formally the **Republic of Iran** is a secular democratic republic situated in the traditional Iranian homeland in West Asia. Iranian history changed forever with the outbreak of the 1920 Iranian Revolution, banishing the Qajar dynasty into exile while Iran became a democracy for the first time in its history. Since the 1933 election however, which saw the rise of the conservative Islamist Islamic Republican Party, Iran has fractured politically, and some fear the looming clouds of civil war are already set upon the country.

## History

### Pre-revolutionary Iran & anti-Qajar sentiment

The situation of Iran before the 1920 revolution was one defined by continual failures for the Persian elites to stay in power and stabilize the status quo. Starting with the beginning of the Turkic Qajar dynasty ruling over Persia, the dynasty continually humiliated their own country in various ways. Starting in the early 1800s, where the previously Persian-dominated lands of the South Caucasus region was completely lost to the Russian Empire. The Qajars were also famously incompetent as rulers, exploiting the tribalist structure and feuds present in many communities to stay in power. Their method of “divide and rule” was shaky at best, and by the end of the 19th century the Qajars were increasingly unstable in their rule.

Continually pushed back by British and Russian forces, Iran was in a similar predicament to that of China, where do to their losses Persia was forced to pay millions to Russia, Britain and as a consequence Iran was also forced to open their doors to European trade exploitation. For Iran, the amount of foreign trade stipulated by many treaties forced on them by Russia and Britain grew, while modernization efforts failed.

Somewhat inspired by the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms, Amir Kabir initiated a transformation of the army, founded the first Persian newspaper and created the first secular school in the entire country. All of this was met with worry, while Kabir was later disposed of and his modernizing efforts failed, in the long run it only turned more people against the ruling Qajar monarchy.

Known as the Inteligensia, the impact of the European influence within Iran not only created a modern Westernized middle class, but it also brought Western ideas into the country. Ideas like those created out of the French Revolution became popular. The intelligentsia thus considered constitutionalism, secularism, and nationalism to be the three vital means for attaining the establishment of a modern, strong, and developed Iran. The intelligentsia, anxious for rapid progress, expressed in­creasing dissatisfaction with the slow pace of modernization and the high degree of court corruption. The traditional middle class, left defenseless against foreign competitors, gradually realized that the Qajars were interested more in strengthening the state against society than in protecting the society against the imperial powers. Meanwhile, the general population, especially the urban artisans and the rural masses, suffered a slight decline in their standard of living. Throughout the entire century, while the Iranian economy boomed, the average standard of living decreased.

As company agents in April 1891 was met with a shutdown of the bazaar in Shiraz, the main tobacco-growing region. The shut­ down of the bazaar in Shiraz rapidly spread (thanks largely to the new telegraph system) into a general strike of the leading bazaars, particularly Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Mashad, Qazvin, Yazd, and Kermanshah. The general strike, encouraged by a religious fatwa against the use of any tobacco, further spread into a state-wide consumers’ boycott. The new monarch, Muzaffar al-Din Shah (1896-1906), inadvert­ently hastened the end of the regime by pursuing unpopular economic policies. He increased tariffs on native merchants, withdrew tax farms from their previous holders, and talked of increasing land taxes, decreasing court pensions, especially to the 'ulama, and tightening controls over vaqf holdings.

In Isfahan a group of merchants formed the country’s first statewide stock company by founding the Shirkat-i Islami (The Islamic Company). Their aim was to “preserve the country’s independence by fostering such modern industries as textiles, and by protecting the traditional handicrafts, particularly the miniature arts.

Thus Iran in 1905 was rapidly moving toward a political revolution. The traditional middle class, having coalesced into a statewide class, was now economically, ideologically, and politically alienated from the ruling dynasty. The modern intelligentsia, inspired by constitutionalism, nationalism, and secularism, was rejecting the past, questioning the present, and espousing a new vision of the future. Moreover, both the traditional middle class and the modern intelligentsia, despite their differences, were directing their attacks at the same target—the central government. Both were forming their own secret and semisecret organizations, societies, and political parties. Both were aware that the Qajar dynasty was not only financially bankrupt but also morally discredited, administratively ineffective, and, most important of all, militarily incompetent. The country awaited the final push to enter the revolution.

### The Constitutional Revolution

The final push came from the economic crisis of early 1905. A bad harvest throughout the country and a sudden disruption in the northern trade caused by a cholera epidemic, by the Russo-Japanese War, and by the subsequent revolution in Russia, led to a rapid inflation of food prices within Iran. During the first three months of 1905, the price of sugar rose by 33 percent and that of wheat by as much as 90 percent in Tehran, Tabriz, Rahst, and Mashad. The first protest took the form of a peaceful procession during the religious mourning of Muharram. Due to the government’s inadequate handling of anti-Shah outrage, and brutality by the military on civilians spurred further protests. In 1906, due to intense pressures by thousands in the British Embassy in the summer, the Shah reluctantly agreed to the creation of a parliament, and signed the Persian Constitution of 1906, making Persia a constitutional monarchy.

Iran suffered continually under European exploitation, internal strife and political divides, being neutral in the Great War, but the Cairo War would bring a new set of problems that ultimately violently disposed of the Shah forever.

### Political decay

Anti-Western sentiment began arguably in the 1890s, where a growing number of Iranian intellectuals, especially those who studied abroad in France or Britain brought with them modern Western ideas of Iranian nationalism back to Persia. The inability for the Qajars to rule effectively, and the common idea that the monarchy was a sell out to British and Russian imperialists rallied anti-Shah and anti-Western rhetoric throughout the 1910s.

When the Great War began, while Iran pledged its neutrality in the war, in 1916, Russian and British diplomats pressured Tehran about aiding in the war effort. While the Persian Cossack Brigade left Iran to fight in Eastern Europe and even Africa, London and Petrograd still expected Iran to participate in the war effort in some way. Economically, there was little Iran could do, as both countries already had considerable amounts of control over it, so instead the Shah enlisted a unit of volunteers to be sent across to France or Poland, but this decision was widely unpopular by many, who yet again rallied support against the Shah and protested that he was violating the neutrality of his country, given that he forcefully assembled units of volunteers from the Persian army. It wasn’t helped that many of these “volunteers” hated this decision as well, and small protests began in Tabriz against this move. In Tehran, capitalizing on this growing discontent, Baqir Khan, a veteran of the Persian Revolution of 1906, who was still popular for his effort, organized a rally in the city, which rapidly grew over the coming days. Over the course of 1 week, thousands of people were protesting against decades of Western encroachment on Iran. On the 8th day of protests, while the Shah began assembling a police and military force to disperse the crowds, a series of shots were fired into the crowd of protestors, attempting to kill Khan. Persian authorities were quick to arrest the assassin, who turned out to be an ardent supporter of the Shah, however this information is disputed, with some critics saying that the man’s actual motives were never known and instead fabricated to rally support for Khan.

Nevertheless, by early 1917, the failed assassination rallied even more towards Khan’s cause and towards the Moderate Socialist Party. While the Shah was careful to avoid inflaming the situation, the Persian Famine of 1917 broke out later that year due to heavy droughts and the rampant spread of disease. The Shah, for his part was unable to alleviate those affected by poverty and chronic hunger, and while this event helped push back protests for some time, the famine sewed the seeds of anti-monarchism in the peasant and agrarian communities of Iran, which were already upset with the Shah’s policies on agriculture.

While the protests had largely ended on their own by late 1917, most of those who participated, including Baqir himself, began to mobilize and form organizations aimed at overthrowing the Shah. Throughout 1918, while the famine was being countered, the revolutionary movements kept growing, spreading from Tehran to Tabriz, Qom, and dozens of other cities, establishing resistance networks.

### The 1919 economic crisis

When the Cairo War began after Cairo was seized and the Kingdom of Egypt was declared, Iran once again swore neutrality in the war, but quickly many rallied behind the Egyptian separatists, and anti-British sentiment grew continuosly as they were being pushed back in Egypt. After the Kingdom of Nejd declared war, and jointly with Egypt crushed the British in the Suez Canal, thousands took to the streets and celebrated in Iran. Revolutionary violence also started at this point, with the British embassy getting raided, Russian officials attacked on streets, and factories and plants belonging to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company were torched. London and Petrograd were outraged by this activity, something which the Shah was too powerless to control. At the same time, the loss of the Suez Canal catapulted Iran into an economic depression at the same time these protests were going on. Prices of bread rose, exports were dropping, imports were too costly to trade with, the Iranian currency continually dropped. Farmers were making next to nothing, which was the last straw for agrarian communities in their support for the Qajars. By 1920, guerrilla movements rose up in defiance against the status quo, and began isolated attacks against the military and pro-Shah politicians. Unable to contain the continually spiraling situation, the Shah announced a series of agricultural reforms to stop the economic depression, but almost no one bought into his promises.

Protests and strikes began once again, calling for the Shah to be disposed or even killed, and because of this mounting pressure, the Shah attempted to flee Tehran to Maku where he could reconsolidate his power and avoid the increasingly violent protests. However, on the 25th of January, the day he planned to leave, members of the Moderate Socialist Party and members of the Shah’s own security planted bombs on the Shah’s car, where they went off with the Shah inside, killing him instantly. Hearing this news the next day, Iran finally erupted into revolution.

### The Republican Revolution

Iran finally spiraled into war and chaos with the death of the Shah, and while the British and Russians tried in vain to occupy the country to restore order, nothing worked. 2 days after the Shah’s demise, Khan emerged back into the public’s eye with an attempted coup on Tehran. Without a proper pro-Shah resistance, anyone that opposed his ‘March on Tehran” were instantly crushed, and within a matter of hours Khan’s loyalists were in control of the city, proclaiming the Republic of Iran.

Khan was quick to consolidate his power. Unwilling to let the revolution die, Khan momentarily aligned himself with various liberal, social democratic, far-right and leftist groups, promising a “free and democratic” Iran should they participate on his side, and unsurprisingly, they did. Iran entered a state of civil war as Arabistan, Balochistan, Persian Azerbaijan and even Urmia declared independence, while Persian monarchists regrouped in Tabriz to fight and reclaim the capital. Without their support, and with a growing anti-monarchist movement, monarchists in Tabriz were crushed 3 weeks later, while over the next month those same uprisings would be put down, before Iran declared war against Britain, nationalized all British assets, disbanded the Anglo-Persian oil company and forcefully annexed Indian Balochistan. Over the course of 6 months Iran would politically consolidate itself, and Khan at the forefront of the violence was very effective in rooting out any anti-Persian or anti-Republican resistance.

### Republican Iran

With the revolution now materializing, Khan, the new president of the republic hoped to transform Iranian society in various ways, to ultimately westernize and modernize the country which saw decades of stagnation under the ineffective Qajars. In what would become the "Qajar Cleansing Campaign", many Qajar dissidents were arrested and deported alongside pro-monarchist loyalists. Qajar architecture was seized by the state while school curriculum was specifically targeted in order to teach the children of Iran the past wrongdoings of the monarchy.

While Khan clamped down hard on pro-Qajars, his hopes of modernizing the country went nowhere, in part because the republic was highly unstable. During the civil war multiple communities pushed out Iranian authority entirely, and many of these regions, including Arabistan and Iranian Azerbaijan were still not altogether pacified. Khan's inability to put down Arab and Azerbaijani separatists would be the major reason people lost faith in the Moderate Socialist Party.

During the signing of the new republican constitution, the first stepping stone to Iran's religious problem. One aspect of modernization Khan hoped to accomplish was secularizing Iran. While the constitution made the republic a secular society, further attempts to Westernize Iran through secular policies were hugely unpopular. Much of the country was quite involved in religion, and because Khan's policies only rallied his detractors, he eventually abandoned that idea altogether in 1925.

In the midst of these failed modernization efforts, the Islamic Republican Party was founded in 1923 by those who opposed ideas of Westernizing Iran, as many viewed Western powers as one of the reasons Iran suffered for so many years. Many, especially Islamist clerics were unwilling to even compromise on Khan's controversial policies, and it wasn't long until the party came to be the main rival against the Moderate Socialist Party, which moved more towards embracing secular liberalism.

In the next elections in 1924, the Moderate Socialist Party under Khan expectedly won, given that his opposition was still largely underdeveloped, and in a special session with parliament, Khan openly stated his new goals were to crush the still ongoing guerrilla rebellions within Arabistan, Balochistan and Azerbaijan. Through his efforts to centralize the army, brutal attacks to isolate and cut off rebel garrisons, the army began to finally push the rebel forces back over a period of 2 years.

### The Russian Civil War

In 1925, with the assassination of Ignacy Daszyński in June minority groups rose up in rebellion against Russian rule. With the communist rebellion that took place soon after, Moscow could do little but focus their full amount of industry and manpower to counteract communist influence, resulting in many successful minority uprisings. This fervor of anti-Russian nationalism soon spilled over to Central Asia, which became engulfed in war between various tribes and movements between Turkic groups. The successful unrest with Kazakh nationalists in Russian Kazakhstan was the catalyst for the end of Russian rule in the region.

As these groups began fighting each other, and various new countries emerged from 1925-1927, Iran remained neutral for the first few months until a mass evacuation of Russian troops began in early 1926 to assault the communists on the Caspian Sea. Without any threat of Moscow, one of the biggest Turkic cities, Ashgabat, remained vulnerable. Iran saw an opportunity to expand and fufil the ideas of Pan-Iranism, so shortly after Russian garrisons left Ashgabat, the Iranian army entered into region, and 2 days later seized Ashgabat, but it would take another month to pacify the city from Turkic nationalists fighting the Iranians. After this, Iran got fully, but indirectly involved in Central Asian affairs, sending aid to the newly established Merv and Khiva Khanates, first by sending men, and after the war ended aiding in the growth of the khanates' economies to gain a permanent foothold in Turkestan. By 1930, it was widely believed that both countries were unofficially dependencies of Tehran.

In the civil war, Iran also participated in conflicts in the Caucasus. Sensing weakness with the new republic of Azerbaijan, Iran took the initiative, and invaded the country, paralyzing Azerbaijan with fear, resulting in an immediate ceasefire of all wars between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, who demanded Iran stop their invasion, which they did after 1 week, stopping south of the Kura and Aras Rivers, annexing the former Azeri-held region of Lankaran. With the end of the civil war, Iran had greatly expanded their influence across West Asia, and with the full expulsion of Russia, they were completely free to fulfill what ever plans they had in expanding their borders.

### Growing popularity of the IRP

While Khan's reputation surely gained some with the successful takeover of several provinces from guerrilla control, his hopes of industrializing the country and systemically changing Iranian society was always controversial to say the least. The Islamic Republican Party, for its part was well liked by many older Sunni Iranians who felt disillusioned by Khan's aims and hopes. Through extensive backing by wealthy elites which helped the IRP spread nationwide, Khan's Moderate Socialist Party was seriously faltering, and fears the IRP would sweep the 1933 elections came true. During the 1929 elections, while Khan had won another re-election many sensed election fraud, further leaving him without allies. Importantly, during the election, the first IRP representatives were elected to the parliament.

### 1933 Elections

In late December, Khan, once the beloved leader of modern Iran, had announced he would not run for re-election, and as the MSP had shrunk over the years, he did not appoint a successor, realizing the futility in hoping to curb the IRP. Without any major opposition, the IRP under Hassan Modarres not only won by a popular majority, the IRP also swept the parliament, making the Islamic Republican Party the most influential political organization in Iran to date.

While the IRP was hailed as a new era for Iran, a major problem beset their agenda when local community militias organized themselves and began attacking military garrisons in non-Persian dominated provinces. While the IRP initially claimed these rebels were small and could be dealt with, as time went on it became clear they were getting more powerful, and similarly to Khan's past presidency, Modarres turned his attention to them. For the last 3 years, the IRP has not only been unable to effectively keep the public content, seen in the recent rise of the Progress and Union Party, but they've been unable to pacify rebel strongholds, leading many to believe the 1937 elections may reach a boiling point.

## Economy

The Iranian economy has still been falling behind that of other, more dominant nations. Past regimes have tried and failed to industrialize Iran, and while Modarres has made it clear he hopes to accomplish such goals, if he can't, it may just cost him the election. The economy is still centered around subsistence farming, providing little financial benefits for the state.

## Military

The Iranian military has improved significantly over the years thanks to heavy state funding in the 20s. While the military was originally seen as the heart of protecting the revolution, it has been humiliated by continual defeats at the hands of various rebels and militias.